The Northern Ireland Open is a

professional golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tournament currently played on the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

. It was played for the first time in June 2010 on the PGA EuroPro Tour at Galgorm Castle Golf Club in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...

, Northern Ireland. It also featured on the Clutch Pro Tour schedule from 2021 to 2023.

History

The tournament was founded in 2010 and featured on the PGA EuroPro Tour schedule.

James Hepworth James Hepworth (born 10 June 1975) is an English professional golfer. Hepworth was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire. He turned professional in 1997 and played on the Challenge Tour in 1999–2003, 2005–2006, 2008 and 2011. He earned two wins at t ...

won the inaugural event. In 2013, the event became part of the

schedule. In 2017, the event was changed from 72 holes of stroke play to a "Super 6" style format. The format was similar to that used for the World Super 6 Perth. The main difference was that the 6-hole matches were determined by stroke play rather than match play. It retained the 156-player field, with the cut being made at the top-60 and ties after 36 holes. After 54 holes, the field was cut to a fixed 24. Ties for 24th place were determined by a sudden-death playoff. There were then five six-hole knock-out rounds on the final day. The leading eight after 54 holes received a bye in the first round. The remaining 16 were randomly paired. The six holes used on the final day were 17, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 18. There were a number of other matches for the minor places. In 2018, the event reverted back to a 72-hole stroke-play tournament. In 2019,

Galgorm Castle Galgorm is a townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, about 1 km west of Ballymena. It is part of the civil parish of Ahoghill. Administratively, it is in the Borough of Ballymena. The townland encompasses the village of Galgorm and mu ...

hosted the

ISPS Handa World Invitational The ISPS Handa World Invitational was a professional golf tournament that featured on the European Tour, the Challenge Tour, the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. History The event was created in 2019 and involved separate events for both ...

, a mixed event with separate tournaments for men and women, in place of the Northern Ireland Open. In 2020, the event returned to the Challenge Tour as the Northern Ireland Open with backing from

The R&A The R&A (or more formally, the R&A Trust Company (No. 1) Limited) is the collective name of a group of companies that together play a significant role within the game of golf. Historically, "the R&A" was a colloquial name for the Royal and A ...

. The tournament was played on the Clutch Pro Tour between 2021 and 2023, with the event returning to the Challenge Tour schedule in 2024. It was later confirmed in June 2024 that the Black Desert Resort in Utah (host of the Black Desert Championship on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

) would become the title sponsor of the event.

Winners

Notes

References

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External links

NI Open official websiteCoverage on the Challenge Tour's official site
Former Challenge Tour events Golf tournaments in Northern Ireland Sport in Ballymena Recurring sporting events established in 2010 2010 establishments in Northern Ireland

History

Winners

See also

Notes

References

External links