The Dubai Duty Free Irish Open is underway at Mount Juliet this morning, twelve months later than it might have been but perhaps all the sweeter for it.
A top-class field of home talent has returned from the United States to compete with Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington and Graham McDowell all teeing off.
Proximity once more to the Open Championship is a winner though with Mount Juliet as a parkland rather than a links course it will not be quite as relevant as a warm-up for Sandwich in Kent in two weeks time.
Open Champion Shane Lowry will not mind that a bit and he seems to be relishing being home, as well as seeing Offaly progress to the Quarterfinals of the Leinster Football Championship.
This is the fourth time the Jack Nicklaus designed course has hosted the Championship with Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Sam Torrance winning there in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
2,500 fans were quick to snap up the tickets for each day when they went on sale as part of the Government pilot series of test events.
The action will be beamed around the world though, with the Golf Channel delivering to the lucrative US Market and Sky Sports covering the action live with highlights on RTÉ and the BBC here.
Dubai Duty Free has remained in place as title sponsor for this year, with Government backing provided by Sport Ireland and Tourism Ireland through Ireland’s Ancient East branding.
BMW, Emirates, Heineken, Rolex and Nature Valley are official partners with Ballygowan, Callaway, Enterprise Rent-a-car and Waterford all official suppliers to the tournament.
It will not be as it normally would but it is still a positive move to have the tournament back on, with the largest globally televised sports event to take place here since the start of the pandemic.
We will be watching out for activations over the course of the weekend and sharing the best of them on our own social media channels as well as here on Sport for Business.
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