Course Information - Irish Open

GREENS 
Type of grass - Creeping Bent (Penn Cross) with Poa Annua
Height of cut - 3mm
Speed/stimpmeter reading - 11.2 Tuesday morning aiming for high 11’s by Thursday
Any specific comments -

FAIRWAYS 
Type of grass -  Creeping Bent (Penn Cross) with Poa Annua
Height of cut - 11.5mm
General width and contouring - Mostly wide with contouring complimenting the bunkering

TEES / COLLARS 
Type of grass - Creeping Bent (Penn Cross) with Poa Annua
Height of cut - 8 mm
Any specific comments - none

ROUGH
Type of grass - Mixture of Fescue, Brown Tip Bent, Smooth Stalked Meadow grass,  poa and ryegrass
Height of cut
- semi: 27 mm (cut daily)
- intermediate: 63mm (cut daily)
- rough: 90mm
Any specific comments - Maintained rough topped last weekend. Intermediate band of rough only around fairways.

WEATHER
Weather in advance - Quite dry
Forecast for tournament - Chance of isolated showers and t-storms Wednesday afternoon/evening. Cloudy start on Thursday and Friday with areas of drizzle then sunny afternoons. Mostly sunny Saturday, partly cloudy Sunday.

COURSE 
Opened - 1993
Course designer - Peter McEvoy. Re designed in 1998 by Jeff Howes.
Special features  - Two island type greens (10^th/ 18^th)
General playability - Undulating parkland course set in Fota inland waterways. Lower holes set in Deer Park.
Tree lined / exposed - Tree lined around the Deer Park
Undulating / flat -   undulating
Many / few water hazards - Several on Holes 3, 6, 8, 10,11,12,13 and 18
Changes to the course - New back tees on holes 4 (+33 yards), 5 (+33 yards), 10 (+37 yards) and 18 (+25 yards). There is a new back tee on the 6^thhole further to the left with the tee shot now played over water. The fairway has been extended to the left to due to the new angle of the tee shot.

OTHER FEATURES
The Deerpark Course at Fota Island hosted the Irish Opens in 2001 (Colin Montgomerie won) and 2002 (Soren Hansen won) and the Irish Seniors Open in 2006 (Sam Torrance won)