The latest John Ross Crangle landmark Pitch and Putt achievement arrived at the iconic Portmarnock links. Here's his view of the 2026 Irish Open.

 

 

I was fairly late entering more so due to being forgetful rather than anything else. I had originally planned on the early session but, as it was, the only places left were in the final session.

 

 

No, it was always the plan to play, I'd planed out a few International competitions to play this year such as the Catalan Open and French Pairs again but unfortunately, I couldn't make them.

 

 

I really am, it's always been something I was missing off the CV, winning an International Open, especially in singles. World Cups, European Team Championships and winning the French Pairs last year were obviously big achievements but they all have a 'team' element to them all. So to do it individually, was pretty satisfying after going close in plenty of competitions over the years.

 

 

It was a 44 that could have been a whole lot different! I started on the 13th, which was notoriously tough and was a par hole all day long. I pitched nicely but it ran down the back but I didn't chip it too well and holed a nice 8ft par putt to start off the round with momentum rather than struggling straight away. 

 

Solid pars on the next two left me feeling good and with the breeze, I felt I could attack a few holes coming up, luckily, it paid dividends as I birdied the next 6 to get a great base for the round. After that, it was just be patient and take any chance that came. Leaving myself on the right side of holes and having uphill putts was essential, as the more aggressive you putt in Portmarnock, the better.

 

 

In my head, I was thinking, if I could break 50, someone would have to have a pretty much flawless round to get by me, so it was similar to Saturday, just try keep the ball below the hole, keep mistakes to a minimum and most importantly, be patient. I took a bogey on the 2nd so that plan didn't go too well but luckily bounced straight back with a great pitch to the 3rd and settled down.

 

 

Absolutely. I've recently had a couple of competitions in my grasp and failed to convert due to being too conservative and there was times I felt I was doing the same thing again. The 15th was a huge turning point though, as I had seen Daithi Sexton drop a stroke on the 15th in the group in front and Mark Millar also dropped one on the 14th. I hit a pitch exactly where I wanted on the right hand side and holed a beautiful putt.

 

 

It can be a bit of both I think. I think we have a game though that we use a lot of second hand information regarding players scores or in just general chat with players on the course, knowing some scores and having scoreboards would make a huge difference, it's hard to know whether to attack or not when you only know you're playing partners scores, that's the only difference I find.

 

 

Amazing. Couldn't agree any more, the amount of information we received, the sponsorships, goodie bags, towels, polo all added up together to bring a wonderful competition for everyone.

 

The addition of the U-16's on Friday was brilliant and some great scoring especially from Enda Hayden and Sarah Ryan winning the respective competitions.

 

 

I've two trips planned for the rest of the season with La Rochelle and European Strokeplay top of the list. I finished 2nd in Norway in the first running and 3rd in the Netherlands on the second running so it's one I definitely have on my radar. La Rochelle is a fantastic facility, the course is superb and really look forward to going there again.

 

I will finish the season off by going to the Catalan Pairs in Sant Cebria, Jordi and his team do a fantastic job of hosting and as expected the Irish will be going in their droves in what is a great season-ender.