"It was really important to be here for a second year’- Mount Juliet Captain Anselm Molloy

After missing out on the proper buzz of hosting a major golf tournament in 2021, Mount Juliet is set to welcome thousands of spectators to Kilkenny this week.

With only 5,000 spectators permitted on course each day throughout last year’s Horizon Irish Open it feels bigger and better than ever.

Mens’s Club Captain Anselm Molloy is certainly looking forward to it.

“There’s been a huge buzz among the members for the last few weeks as we’ had the Captains Prize on the 11th of June so obviously the course was in fantastic shape for us because of the Horizon Irish Open but in fairness it’s in fantastic shape for the Captains Prize every year.

“A huge buzz here and you can see with the amount of traffic coming in and out of the place every day that there is a real excitement building.

“Every time I went in through the gates there was something new in what appeared to been built overnight and there’s a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes”.

Looking back on the 2021 edition Molloy feels hosting the tournament in the middle of a covid pandemic showed them how they needed to prepare ahead of a much bigger event this time around.

“There’s more of a tournament feel to everything this year and the other thing is that we have a lot more infrastructure being built this year because everything was kind of last minute in 2021 as we didn’t really know until a few days before how many people we were going to have or whether we would have fans at all.

“This year everything has been flagged in advance though and the DP World Tour have really got into gear by putting the infrastructure in place and you can see much more stuff dotted around the place behind the 14th hole which was a real spectacle last year.

“You can also see much bigger corporate hospitality, much bigger stands, more TV towers and more Leaderboards so yeah it’s super.

“There is a bit of continuity on the tour by hosting the tournament in Mount Juliet for a second time and maybe it’s made things a little easier.

“From Mount Juliet’s perspective it was really important that we got it back for a second year as we didn’t really get the chance to capitalise commercially on the exposure we got last year and that was just all down to covid, it was as simple as that”.

On the tournament itself Anselm feels that the increase in Prize Money has helped attracting a decent field although he does point out that the timing of the event may be something of a negative.

This follows on from a couple of high profile players raising the same point after last year’s tournament.

Molloy added- “The Prize Money has been bumped up this year aswell and we are probably a little unfortunate by the timing as it probably doesn’t suit a lot of the bigger players schedules.

“We still have a lot of great names here and obviously Seamus Power is a big draw and not a lot of Irish golf fans will have seen him in the flesh so there will be a couple of huge galleries following him.

“Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington are also two big attractions while from a local point of view Mark Power is here too.

“I think the schedule is difficult for the DP Tour as all the bigger players would view the British Open as the biggest tournament with regards a links perspective then they all want to play in the Scottish Open to get used to the conditions.

“So a parkland course like Mount Juliet before that added to some of the Americans being away for a couple of weeks makes it complicated”.

Talking about his role as captain, Molloy delights with pride in what he regards as his biggest achievement in golf.

“Circumstances resulting in Covid meant it was only by chance really that I got the captain’s role this year and I know last year’s captains got the Irish Open but it was obviously a smaller event.

“They still laid groundwork for the organisation from a members perspective and I never thought I’d be captain of any golf club but to be one at Mount Juliet is the best thing I’ve ever achieved in golf I’d say”, he said.