Harrington and Dunne included in early Irish Open field
Padraig Harrington. Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America)
Ryder Cup skipper Pádraig Harrington appears set to play his first event in more than six months and join Shane Lowry and Greystones’ Paul Dunne in Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Galgorm Castle from September 24-27.
Harrington, who opted not to travel to San Francisco for the US PGA last month, joins his Ryder Cup predecessor Thomas Bjorn in the early entry list published by the European Tour today while Dunne will receive one of four invitations to tee it up at the Ballymena venue.
Challenge Tour graduate Cormac Sharvin from Ardglass and Clandeboye’s Jonny Caldwell will also make the field and while not listed, the two national spots will go to Damien McGrane and Colm Moriarty.
With no Irish Open qualifier this year, McGrane earned his place by winning the 2019 Irish PGA Championship while Moriarty gets his start as a result of finishing runner-up in the 2019 PGA Play-Offs.
Former Ryder Cup players Thorbjørn Olesen, Nicolas Colsaert, Stephen Gallacher and Chris Wood are also entered while other leading names include tour winners Eddie Pepperell, Jorge Campillo, Lucas Herbert, Steven Brown, Victor Perez, Andrea Pavan, Marcus Kinhult, Justin Harding, Lucas Bjerregaard, Alex Levy and Joost Luiten.
American John Catlin, who pipped Martin Kaymer for the Andalucía Masters at Valderrama, also makes the trip as do Italy’s Renato Paratore and Guido Migliozzi, the Australian Min Woo Lee, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, and Scotland’s Marc Warren.
