Huge Crowds Descending On Doonbeg For Pro Am Day At Amgen Irish Open

0:00Huge crowds are gathering around and beg here this morning for the 2026 M. Gen Irish Open. It's Pro M day and some of the big names are on show. Our own local heroes are out there around this afternoon. Poddkahn is on course at the moment. David Tomerri is due to go out within the next hour or thereabouts. For the soccer fans, particularly those of a Liverpool persuasion, Robbie Fowler is among the names listed to play in the Pro M. He's due to T off this lunchtime rugby star Connor Murray Bundyakis around as well. And there's plenty local interest in terms of the cadding teams, clear count you for Poddkahn. Mark McAderny is one of those. He's on the bag for Pory Carrington's group around this famed course this morning. The maker wish foundation are one of the charity partners, indeed the main charity partner of the M. Gen Irish Open. I've been speaking to their representative Maly O'Neill, but what it means to them to be here across such a big event. We're just so delighted to be here again this year. We're so grateful to the DP World Tour and M. Gen and all the incredible partners. It's one of the biggest weeks of the year for us as a fundraiser. As a way to raise awareness for our charity, we're a children's charity.

1:01And we grant wishes to children between the ages of three and seventeen who are living with critical medical conditions. And our aim is to bring back hope, joy and happiness to children who are going through something no child should have to go through. And we just want to grant wishes to bring back those amazing moments and great memories that will stay with them and their families for a lifetime to come. The event is drawing indeed locals from far and wide and further afield as well. But one man that didn't have to come too far from just up the road in Clana Drum is the famous country singer P. Jamari who recalled some stories of his memories of this particular area where the golf course is long before the Greens went down. It's great because I used to come here many years ago with my father for send. And we used to give I think just a pound for a trailer to send. And it's such a difference for me to come here now, you know. And all the excitement and the bosses from the from Lynch's Cross and everything are unbelievable. Yeah. And of course young and old have gathered here in Tonbeg for the M. Gen Irish Open.

2:02And in terms of the young well today is primary school day. All the local students have made their way down here out of the classroom with the teachers for the morning to enjoy what is to come right across the afternoon as well. We spoke to some of the students from Clahans National School which as you'll hear has a rather unique location to the Trump International Golf Lings Golf Course. I'm Ada. Maisie. Eva. Ella. Maisie. Maisie. Fantasy. Have you two Maisies? Brilliant. Fantastic. I got this Maisie here. How exciting is it for your own Tonbeg on this very very special few days? Yeah, it's very exciting. When the first when the news first came through girls that the Irish Open was coming to Tonbeg tell me how to your first reaction was. I was very happy and it was so nice to have a local like golf course be like right next to me. Yeah, be right next to me and have legends play here. And for people that don't know just tell us how close your school is to looking out on the golf course. Less than a club.

3:03Yeah, it's so close. We can see the golf course from and looking out the window or standing out the front. It was really fun like watching everything get set up. I turned out the weeks and like being able to see like people going in and out from the golf course and people passing the school. So as the excitement continues to build across pro mj here in Tonbeg, the countdown is on to tomorrow morning's tease for the opening round. The home favorites, Rory McElroy and Shane Larry will be on the way tomorrow. Lunchtime, they go out and back to back feature groups. So everybody looking forward to that. Huge crowds following both of them around the course this morning indeed as well as the sun continues to shine here in Westclair. For Claire FM at the MGN Irish Open in Tonbeg, this is Derek Lynch.