Big Break Ireland was the 16th edition of the Golf Channel reality show, The Big Break. It was contested in the K Club in Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland. It premiered on September 20, 2011. The eventual winner of the show was Mark Murphy, who won $50,000 and two exemptions to European Tour events, the Trophée Hassan II and the Irish Open.
Contestants
Team Liffey Contestant Age Hometown Mallory Blackwelder 24 Versailles, Kentucky Annie Brophy 24 Spokane, Washington Kelly Jacques 25 Thornton, Colorado Matt Melrose 27 Mulanje, Malawi Mark Murphy 34 Waterville, Ireland Andy Walker 36 Phoenix, Arizona
Team Straffan Contestant Age Hometown Joe Campbell 23 Cheltenham, England Bennett Maki 26 Atlanta, Georgia Nina Rodriguez 27 San Jose, California Nicole Smith 24 Riverside, CaliforniaJulien Trudeau30 Montréal, Canada Whitney Wright 26 Greenville, South Carolina
Elimination Chart ContestantEp. 1Ep. 2Ep. 3Ep. 4Ep. 5Ep. 6Ep. 7Ep. 8Ep. 9Ep. 10 Mark Julien Mallory Andy Nina Nicole Joe Kelly Bennett Matt Annie Whitney
Contestant is in Team Straffan Contestant is in Team Liffey Contestant WON the Big Break Contestant won $5000 and is safe from elimination Contestant is safe from elimination Contestant is eligible for elimination but was not chosen Contestant saved themself from advancing in the Elimination Challenge Contestant participated and won the Elimination Challenge Contestant was Eliminated Contestant withdrew (Bennett withdrew due to appendicitis)
Outline WeekFilmedAiredCourseHolesStraffanCaptainLiffeyCaptainCourse ChallengesElimination Challenge1May 16September 20Ryder Cup Course11, 18BennettMarkGlass Break, Alternate ShotSudden Death2May 17September 27Smurfit Course13JulienMallorySkills Challenge (5 Locations)Skills Challenge (3 Locations)3May 18October 4Smurfit Course7, 17, 18NinaMattTeam Alternate Shot, Green Hitting, Chipping Relay2-Hole Stroke Play4May 19October 11Smurfit Course4, 15, 16NicoleKellyWall Flop, Up-and-Down, Chip-in Contest2-Hole Stroke Play5May 20October 18Ryder Cup Course14, 16, 17, 18JoeAndyTeam Stroke Play Skills Challenge (4 Locations)6May 22October 25Portmarnock Golf Club8, 18NicoleMallorySkills Challenge (9 Locations)2-Hole Stroke Play7May 23November 1Ryder Cup Course7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 18N/AMarkScramble, Best Ball, Aggregate Score, Alternate Shot2-Hole Stroke Play8May 24November 8Smurfit Course4, 7, 17, 18N/AN/AClosest-to-Hole (4 Locations), Sudden Death2-Hole Stroke Play9May 25November 15Smurfit Course12, 13, 15, 16N/AN/ASkills Challenge (2 x 3 Locations)4-Hole Stroke Play10May 27November 22Ryder Cup CourseAllN/AN/A18-Hole Match PlaySudden Death Bolded name indicates winning captain When there are less than 3 players left on a team, there is no captain.
Details The show was hosted by Golf Channel's Tom Abbott and Stephanie Sparks. The 12 contestants were divided into two teams, Straffan and Liffey, with 3 men and 3 women on each team. The contestants live in two houses adjacent to each other. Every day, each team must select one captain, and the teams would compete in a series of skills challenges, and by the end of the day, the team with the most points earns immunity and the team members are safe from elimination. The captain of the winning team earns $5,000, while the captain of the losing team goes to elimination and has to pick one teammate to compete with them. The winning teammate gets to stay on the show for at least another week, while the loser of the elimination challenge is eliminated from the show.
Show 1: Cead Mile Falite: A Hundred Thousand Welcomes The captain for Team Straffan is Bennett and the captain for Team Liffey is Mark. The first immunity challenge was the Glass Break Challenge. Players go one-on-one and the player who hits the ball into the glass frame first wins. 5 players from each team compete first, and after the 5 players have gone, the outcome of the 6th match determines which team wins and gets one point. The 6th person of the leading team gets a 5-second head start for each match that the team won more times than the other team. MatchStraffanLiffey# of attemptsTime1WhitneyMallory122JoeMark4113NinaKelly7234NicoleMatt395JulienAnnie136BennettAndy3(15 + 8)
Since Team Liffey won the last match, they win this challenge Team Straffan had a 15-second head start due to a 3 shot lead
With Team Liffey leading 1–0, the next stage of the immunity challenge was an alternate-shot format in which each team forms 3 pairs and they play one hole, the 11th hole of the Ryder Cup Course. The team with the lower score wins 1 point and if they are halved, both teams get a half-point. First team to 4 points win immunity.
MatchStraffanLiffeyStraffanScoreLiffeyScore1Bennett/NicoleMark/Annie452Joe/WhitneyMatt/Mallory553Julien/NinaAndy/Kelly444Joe/WhitneyMark/Annie545Bennett/NicoleAndy/Kelly456Julien/NinaMatt/Mallory44
With both teams tied at 3.5 points, they head to a playoff where the captains from each team chooses a player to play with and using alternate shot, the team with the lowest score wins. Mark and Annie make a par while Bennett and Nicole make a bogey so Team Liffey wins the immunity challenge.
Bennett picks Whitney to go to the Elimination Challenge, a sudden death challenge where they both play the 18th hole over and over until one player shoots a higher score and that player gets eliminated.
They halved the first sudden death hole with birdies when they both reached greenside in two and got up-and-down. They both hit poor drives on the second hole so they both laid up and made par. They both reached greenside in two again on the third hole but Whitney missed a 12-foot birdie and Bennett made his, so Whitney was eliminated.
Player123TotalBennett45413 (IN)Whitney45514 (OUT)
Show 2: Go Green or Go Home The captain for Team Straffan is Julien while the captain for Team Liffey is Mallory. This challenge is a skills challenge where there are 5 head-to-head matches and each team member has to pick one of the 5 designated locations to play the hole from. The team with the lowest score from that location wins a point, a tie gets a half-point each. First team to 3 points wins immunity. Due to the uneven teams, Annie from Team Liffey is sat out.
MatchYardageLocationStraffanLiffeyStraffanScoreLiffeyScore1331Tee boxNicoleKelly442188FairwayBennettMatt323152BunkerJoeAndy33495RoughJulienMark23533RoughNinaMallory23
Team Straffan wins the Immunity Challenge with the score of 3–2. Team Liffey is headed into elimination challenge and the captain had to pick two contestants. Mallory chose Annie and Kelly.
First off, the three players had a closest-to-the-hole contest in which they hit two shots from a location and the player who has the closest total distance to the hole wins and is safe from elimination. Players who miss the green were disqualified and headed into elimination. Both Annie and Kelly missed the green on their first shot, so all Mallory needed to do was to hit the green on both shots to save herself from being eliminated, which she did.
So Annie and Kelly head into elimination, where they play their ball from 3 different locations, and the player with the lowest score for those 3 locations wins the elimination challenge, and the losing player is eliminated.
They both made 3 for the first 2 locations to stay even, but Annie hit it into the water on the third location to lose to Kelly.
Match123LocationFairwayRoughDeep roughYardage13511493Kelly332Annie334 Kelly: 3-3-2=8 (IN) Annie: 3-3-4=10 (OUT)
Show 3: The Fighting Irish Nina is the team captain for Team Straffan while Matt is the captain for Team Liffey. The first challenge is a team alternate shot event, in which each team plays the Par-5 7th at the Smurfit Course, and each player plays one shot each. The winning team gets one point. For Team Liffey, their decided order was Matt-Andy-Mark-Kelly-Mallory, while for Team Straffan their decided order was Joe-Julien-Nina-Nicole-Bennett, with Bennett out last because he was feeling sick.
For Team Liffey, Matt hit a perfect drive and Andy hit a stellar long iron shot to 7 feet, and Mark made the eagle putt. Then it was Team Straffan's turn. Joe also hit a perfect drive, and Julien hit a decent approach to 30 feet. Nina's eagle putt missed short right, so Team Straffan makes a birdie but they lose the challenge, and Team Liffey has a 1–0 lead.
In the second stage of the immunity challenge, players must try to land on the green from 10 different locations, from 70 yards to 160 yards, the yardage increasing by 10 every attempt. Players from each team take turns to do it, and one team goes first. When that team misses the green from a yardage, the other team must try to beat the team by hitting the green every time up to the yardage in which they missed at. If they succeed, they win a point. The team which gets to 2 points first is safe from elimination.
Bennett is sick and had to withdraw from the challenge, so they play with only 4 players. Team Straffan went with the order Joe-Julien-Nina-Nicole and so on, and Team Liffey went with Matt-Andy-Kelly-Mark, and Mallory had to be sat out due to the uneven teams.
Team Straffan was able to hit the green 7 times with Nicole missing the green on the 8th location. Then it was Liffey's turn to answer. They also found the green the first 7 locations, then Mark's shot on the 8th location hit the green but it spun off and was off the green by inches, so they tie this challenge and have to move on to the next challenge, with scores of 1.5-0.5.
The next challenge is a chipping relay, in which players from each team must take turns chipping the ball onto the green. The ball must land on the green after each chip and they also must be progressively closer to the hole than the previous shot each chip. When one team fails to do so, the other team must use more chip shots than the previous team to win the challenge. Kelly had to sit out in this challenge due to the uneven teams.
Team Liffey: TurnPlayerDistance1Mark1052Mallory1003Andy884Matt815Mark87 (LOSE)
Team Straffan: TurnPlayerDistance1Nicole1122Joe1073Nina914Julien855Nicole37 (WIN)
Team Straffan won the third challenge so the score is tied at 1.5 each. So now the two team captains would go into a closest-to-the-hole playoff, with Nina against Matt, and the captain who hits the closest to the hole wins the immunity challenge and the other team would go into elimination. Nina won the playoff so Team Straffan is same and Team Liffey is into elimination.
Matt chose Mallory to compete in the elimination challenge. They play a 2-hole playoff on the 17th and 18th holes of the Smurfit course and the player with the lower score is safe and the higher score player is eliminated.
They both missed the green on the 17th but Mallory took a one-shot lead when Matt was unable to get up-and-down for par. On the 18th, Matt had a good opportunity to either pull even or win the elimination challenge with a 15-foot birdie putt, but he three-putted from there to lose to Mallory.
Hole1718TotalPar358Mallory369 (IN)Matt4610 (OUT)
Show 4: Nothing Is Done Without Effort Bennett was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to go through surgery, so he was out of the show, and both teams are now left with 4 players apiece. Nicole was the captain for Team Straffan and Kelly was the captain for Team Liffey.
The first immunity challenge was the wall flop, in which players were paired into 2 teams of 2 for each side, and one of the players had to hit a flop shot over a wall and the next player tries to putt the ball. The team with the lowest number of strokes wins.
MatchStraffanLiffeyStraffanScoreLiffeyScore1Nina/NicoleMark/Kelly332Julien/JoeAndy/Mallory22
Since both matches were halved, the teams now have 1 point each. The next challenge is the up-and-down challenge in which in pairs, one team has to hit a chip shot and the other player putts, and their only objective is to get the ball up-and-down, and the score is immaterial.