Ep 209 | Cian Branagan on building the KPMG Women's Irish Open

With Charley Hull, the latest star name to be added to the 2026 KPMG Women's Irish Open at The K Club, Peter sat down with Tournament Director Cian Branagan to discuss how the event has grown and its big plans for the future.

On this week's edition of the podcast, Peter and Ronan reflect on a Players Championship that simmered for a long time before boiling over in dramatic fashion as Cameron Young held off Matt Fitzpatrick after both players found themselves in a heavyweight battle down the stretch as Ludvig Åberg fell away on the back nine.Rory McIlroy played all four rounds at TPC Sawgrass as did Séamus Power while Shane Lowry went home on Friday. McIlroy was quick to ease fears over a back twinge which prevented him from playing a practice round and he is open to the idea of adding one more event to his pre-Masters diary.

On this week's edition of the podcast, Peter and Ronan react to the PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp's state of the nation address ahead of the Players Championship. Rolapp announced six key pillars as part of the changes he would like to implement on the PGA Tour going forward, which include a promotion and relegation element.At the time of recording, Rory McIlroy is expected to tee it up for round one of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass but he is taking it hour by hour as he recovers from a niggling back injury which forced him out of last weekend at Bay Hill and the first two practice days this week. Shane Lowry is in the field as is Seamus Power who was a late entry from the reserve list.

On this week's edition of the podcast, Peter and Rónán try to make sense of Sunday night as Shane Lowry snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in an unthinkable fashion at the Cognizant Classic.Lowry led by three strokes with three to play but back to back double bogeys compounded a disastrous finish as Nico Echavarria stole in for the victory and to pay off the mortgage. There are still plenty of reasons to be positive for Lowry going forward on what was a generally positive week for the Irish with two runner-up finishes on mini tours while Áine Donegan shone in Australia on her professional debut on the Ladies European Tour.

On this week's edition of the podcast, Peter and Ronan are bullish about Rory McIlroy's form despite going trophyless in the first two months of the season as the Florida swing begins and we enter the countdown to the Masters in April.It's only February but we have already had an Irish winner on tour in the shape of Portumna's Sam Murphy who won the opening Alps Tour event of the season on his debut appearance as a professional as he and Robert Moran completed an Irish 1-2 in Egypt. Ronan caught up with Sam to talk about his win, overcoming some major injury struggles including six surgeries and looking towards the future.

On this week's edition of the podcast, Peter and Ronan start off down under and reflect on what will surely be the golf story of the year as Anthony Kim rolled back the years and won for the first time in 16 years at LIV Adelaide capping off a sensational comeback journey.There was also huge drama at Pebble Beach as Collin Morikawa... eventually... won the AT&T Pro-Am for his first win in over two years while there were signs of encouragement for Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy heading into the Genesis and beyond as Max Kennedy gave his DP World Tour hopes a shot in the arm during an overall fruitful period for the Irish in South Africa over the last month.

On this week's edition of the podcast, Peter and Ronan wax lyrical over the WM Phoenix Open as Chris Gotterup stole the title from Hideki Matsuyama for his second win in three weeks to move up to 5th in the world. However, the fireworks might be outweighed by more crowd disturbances at this tournament.Pádraig Harrington made his 500th DP World Tour start last week but Gary Hurley was also another good news story as he showed a return to form in South Africa after a hellish year out of the game. Plus Patrick Reed leads the Race to Dubai by a considerable distance, might that prompt Rory McIlroy to add more events to his DP World Tour schedule in order to win his 8th Race to Dubai crown?

On this week's edition of the podcast Peter and Ronan chew the fat off the bombshell that LIV Golf have received Official World Golf Ranking points but are unhappy at being restricted to the top-10 players per event.Pádraig Harrington makes his 500th DP World Tour appearance at the Qatar Masters this week in a career that just keeps on giving on the course and in front of the camera. Meanwhile, Seamus Power is showing encouraging signs of getting back to form, but the Farmers Insurance Open was dominated by Justin Rose, who, at 45, is enjoying much more of an Indian summer and is surely too good not to play in the 2027 Ryder Cup in Adare Manor.

On this week’s edition of the podcast Peter and Ronan discuss the fallout from the respective victories of Patrick Reed and Scottie Scheffler. As Scheffler hits the record books with Tiger and Jack after his 20th win, is Reed an example to follow for what a potential world tour could look like?It was take two at TGL for Peter in the SOFI centre and after an underwhelming first season he was intrigued to see has the product improved. There was also underwhelming weeks on tour for Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Seamus Power while Tom McKibbin and Alex Maguire have started the year brightly.

On this week's podcast, Ronan sits down with Mallow's finest James Sugrue as he looks forward to an exciting 2026 campaign. Sugrue burst onto the scene in 2019 winning the Amateur Championship at Portmarnock before playing in all four majors including the 2020 Masters where he met Tiger Woods!Instead of trending upwards towards similar heights again, golf and life has had other ideas. Bad luck and some injury hell had Sugrue contemplating giving up the game but he salvaged his 2025 season and won his HotelPlanner Tour card. Now after emerging from the wilderness, he will embark on the "biggest year" of his career as he looks to reach the DP World Tour.