Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, and Bernhard Langer are among previous winners at the Kilkenny course.

Their confirmation comes as an additional 100 tickets will be tendered this month for the sold-out event on July 6-7th 2020.

If failing to prepare means preparing to fail, the question about how to prepare effectively must be broached by any self-respecting high performing athlete and coach. Mind you, there is no answer that will serve everyone equally.

It was business as usual down on Portrush’s beautiful East Strand as the lifeguard looked out from her perch to the handful of dog walkers and paddlers on the beach.

Paul McGinley is confident the scheduling issues around next year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open can be resolved by European and PGA Tour bosses in the coming weeks but admitted it will be a difficult and challenging task and the outcome may be less than perfect.

A world-class champion on a world-class course.

The consensus is Pádraig Harrington would need to be out of his mind to take on the role of host at the Irish Open Championship next July, given that he is set to captain the European Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits less than three months later.

Saturday evening would have been a restless night sleep-wise, for both Robin Dawson and Cormac Sharvin.

Dubai Duty Free chief executive Colm McLoughlin has underlined his company’s commitment as title sponsor to both the Irish Open and Derby by expressing his wish to see the prize money for both events increase during its involvement.

Seamus Power would have had plenty of understanding from the Irish golfing community if he had decided to skip his national open to stay in the United States and continue the fight for his PGA Tour card.

Maybe it was the bright sunshine at Lahinch yesterday morning that brought on the folly but at one point of the afternoon we began tallying the different adjectives used to describe this course’s most famous holes.

I managed to catch up with Paul McGinley early yesterday morning just as the early players were setting out for their first round.

How do you take the pulse of a golf tournament?

It will not be in the nature of the tournament host to have slept easily last night on the eve of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open but his efforts to make this €6.2m European Tour event a success have already earned Paul McGinley the right to relax just a little.

One of the most satisfying aspects of writing the 125th history of Lahinch Golf Club in 2016 was the opportunity to meet up once again with three of the most illustrious winners of the South of Ireland Championship and another who captured the Irish Close over the great links.

A whole host of singers, actors and former sportspeople took to Clare on Wednesday for the Irish Open Pro-Am.

The three-time major champion could be forgiven for protesting that he already has plenty on his plate, what with his captaincy of the European Ryder Cup team which will play at Whistling Straits next September.

With only a limited number of tickets remaining for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open this weekend, tournament host Paul McGinley has all the validation he needs that bringing the European Tour to Lahinch was the right call, regardless of which stars tee it up on the prestigious links tomorrow.

As the chairman of the Lahinch Golf Club Tournament Committee, John Gleeson has already visualised the packed grandstand behind his club’s 18th green as the champion-elect strides along the par-five final hole with a throng of spectators in his wake and hundreds more teeming up the Liscannor Road on the other side of the wall.

Tournament host Paul McGinley has insisted this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open can flourish in spite of the absence of leading Irishman Rory McIlroy.

Such is the bond between the two Ryder Cup veterans, Ian Poulter needed little persuasion from tournament host Paul McGinley to commit to this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

There is no escaping the sense of excitement and expectation not just amongst the members of Lahinch Golf Club but also the whole of the village and West Clare in general as the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Championship looms this week.

Seamus Power’s track record with Lahinch and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open is mixed, but the PGA Tour professional was still thrilled to receive his invitation to return home and play this week.

James Sugrue’s magnificent achievement in winning the 124th British Amateur Championship at Portmarnock has not gone unnoticed by a quartet of famous Irish professionals.

Shane Lowry’s rollercoaster form rather than steady-Eddie consistency is the secret to real success on tour, believes Paul McGinley, who regrets not having the same golfing DNA as his fellow Irishman.

First-time tournament host Paul McGinley has admitted he feared the worst for this summer’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open when Rory McIlroy decided to skip the €6.25m event but now believes the field for Lahinch is coming together very nicely indeed.

Will you be tuning in?

Shane Lowry’s rollercoaster form rather than steady-Eddie consistency is the secret to real success on tour, believes Paul McGinley, who regrets not having the same golfing DNA as his fellow Irishman.

Poulter joins major winners Padraig Harrington, Danny Willett, and Graeme McDowell, former world number one Lee Westwood, and defending champion Russell Knox in the field.

When The Golf Course at Adare Manor opened last year it quickly acquired the mantle of ‘Ireland’s Augusta’. Indeed, many went further and described it as ‘Europe’s Augusta’.

It was all too perfect, too simple, too much of a storybook finish for Rory McIlroy to win this week. The Golf Gods had a different plot in mind. On the threshold of history, McIlroy arrived at Augusta National for his pursuit of a green jacket in fine fettle. This was supposed to be the year he achieved immortality and became just the sixth player to complete the career grand slam.

Paul McGinley believes Rory McIlroy has the mental strength and the maturity to avoid becoming an Augusta nearly-man like Greg Norman and Ernie Els.

Paul McGinley has revealed the European Tour are open to moving the date of future Irish Opens in order to attract the big beasts of the PGA Tour to these shores.

Pádraig Harrington has confirmed he will return to Lahinch Golf Club for the first time since his amateur days at this July’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

Organisers of this summer’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Lahinch have insisted the prestige $7m European Tour event will not be defined by the absence of Rory McIlroy from the field.

Few will argue with the hugely positive impact Rory McIlroy has had on the game of golf, both as an amateur and professional.

Pádraig Harrington kicked off his 2020 Ryder Cup captaincy by stating his total confidence that Rory McIlroy would be fully committed to the European cause at Whistling Straits.

Anyone who has followed the illustrious playing career of Pádraig Harrington and listened to his intense desire to get things right these past 15 years, or so, will have no doubt he is the right man to lead Europe into the next Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin 20 months from now.

Pádraig Harrington is today expected to be named as Europe’s captain for the 2020 Ryder Cup.

If Pádraig Harrington does get the nod to lead Europe into the 2020 Ryder Cup, as many expect he will, then he could not be happier with the course that the PGA of America has chosen to host the biennial team event.

Oh captain, my captain!

I was fortunate to play a number of French Open tournaments around Le Golf National. It is an outstanding test of golf with a set-up more akin to what you would experience in a major championship than that at a regular tour venue.

It is an audacious switcharoo that John Kiely has attempted. In an experiment rarely attempted in these fraught circumstances, the Limerick boss has turned all known precedent on its head, writes Larry Ryan.

"This perception that if Rory plays his best, then he wins... That is not applicable any more."