Dubai: Dubai Duty Free (DDF) executive vice-chairman Colm McLoughlin will gauge the response to this year’s DDF Irish Open before committing to a two-year option to extend an initial one-year sponsorship of the tournament.
The DDF’s inaugural sponsorship of May 28-31 event at Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland was announced in March after world number one Rory McIlroy approached McLoughlin at January’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
McIlroy’s ‘Rory Foundation’ is hosting the Irish Open for the first time this year and McLoughlin admitted the four-time major winner’s association with the tournament had swayed the DDF’s decision to sponsor the event.
“Knowing Rory’s intention to get a lot of good players [on board] was for real, was an influencing factor,” McLoughlin told press at a pre-event conference in Dubai on Wednesday, where it was announced that 17 of the world’s top 50 golfers would compete for a prize purse that has gone from €2 million (Dh8.3 million) to €2.5 million thanks to DDF’s involvement.
“We were approached by the European Tour a couple of years ago to support the Irish Open and it didn’t suit us at the time,” he added. “But more recently it was announced the Rory Foundation was hosting the event. They approached us again and we agreed to a one-year deal with the option to extend by a further two years.
“We will do this for one year and then examine it. One factor will be media coverage. We also sponsor the DDF Tennis Championships and studies have shown that if we had to pay for the worldwide exposure we get from sponsoring that tournament it would cost us US$716 million (Dh2.6 billion). We will do the same test of coverage on the DDF Irish Open.”
Asked how long McIlroy’s charity would be involved in the event and whether that would influence McLoughlin’s decision to renew, he replied: “We don’t know, is the honest answer, maybe it’s a little bit like ourselves, he’s probably looking to see how it goes. But it certainly ticks boxes at the moment,” he said in reference to a projected 80,000 spectators due to attend. “I would guess the hosting is going to be for more than one year.
“For us, it would depend on our assessment of this year, we wouldn’t sign anything up forever anyway. Our option is there for a further two years and I’m very positive about it, it’s a great field.”
McLoughlin added that there was a sense of obligation to support McIlroy after what the golfer had done to showcase Dubai, through his success in the region winning the 2009 and 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the 2012 DP World Tour Championship and the 2012 and 2014 Race to Dubai — as well as his previous endorsement of the Jumeirah Group.
“It seemed to make sense, I liked what they were doing, I also like Rory’s human effort with people,” he added of McIlroy’s proposal. “His contribution and attitude to Dubai was an influence.”
