The focus all year has been on the stars of our game, and rightly so, but this week sees the next generation of Irish professionals try to showcase their talents.
The South course at the K Club will play host to the DP World Challenge Tour this week. It is part of a six-year commitment to European professional golf that will see three tournaments from both tours take place at the Straffan venue through to 2027.
The star Irish players trying to get to the top 20 at years end and thus avoid the qualifying school are Tom McKibbin, Ruaidhri McGee and John Murphy.
The supporting cast is quite vast but of yet has not shown enough to be dreaming of the big Tour next season.
On the Challenge Tour, the hardest part is to get off it the right way. It can be many things - including a graveyard for former top tier players and a reality check for younger players that they are not good enough to cut it at the elite level.
If you cannot cope at this level then hopes of making a career in the sport are slight.
Team Ireland is truly remarkable in terms of their financial commitment to these players that gives them the chance to live out their golfing dreams.
On paper, McGee and McKibbin are our best chance of a home victory. A win for either will almost guarantee a place on the main Tour next season.
It is also a chance for those on the next ring removed to achieve many things, even if it is just trying to keep status on the Challenge Tour or reaching the automatic spots to gain access to the qualifying school.
But to miss out at the pre-qualifying stage leaves one in a precarious position for next year.
For others, it is a great chance to play for a lot more money with a €250,000 purse - which is massive compared to the Euro Pro and Alps Tours.
Gary Hurley and David Carey - the latter recently made the cut at The 150th Open Championship - are both performing well and this is a big chance for them to catapult straight onto the Challenge Tour with a big week.
The K Club setting will make the players feel like that it is a big-time tournament and that very fact can help to inspire. The home players will need to enjoy the spotlight of the home crowd.
It is a great opportunity also to come out and watch the next generation and realise how high the standard is on this Tour. Spectators will be treated to some quality golf and hopefully we can get a strong showing for the home challengers.
Clarke the man at Senior Open
The British Seniors Open reminded me of how great and colourful the European Tour was back in the day. It was wonderful to see so many past champions in Gleneagles still playing some wonderful golf.
With ridiculous sums of money swashing around the game in recent times, the Seniors Open was a reminder what true sport is about.
Darren Clarke showed his golfing class to complete the Open double after his historic victory at Royal St Georges in 2011 and Gleneagles proved a wonderful setting for this fabulous tournament.
It is a great sport where players in their 50s and 60s can still compete and at such a high level.
And it has been a wonderful season for Seniors Irish golf that Harrington won the the US Open and now Clarke has claimed the British Open just a few weeks later.
Clarke has had a wonderful career as a senior, matching the brilliance he exhibited on the main Tours. He has always been known as one of the hardest workers out there and it is great to see that the game is still kind to him.
Harrington, meanwhile, will be disappointed to be just one shot shy and not compete his Senior major double.
DP World Tour still has the charm
The Cazoo Open also produced a heart-warming win at Hillside Golf Club in Southport.
The DP World Tour does not have the cash or glamour of the PGA Tour, but it makes up for it with its colour.
Viewing it always gives you the feel that there is more at stake than just golf. These guys are not multi-millionaires flying around in private jets. There is a realness to the product.
Granted they have weeks where the opportunity is financially huge, but that just adds to the narrative.
Something wholesome and organic exists on the DP World Tour. I know the world of golf is upside down at the moment and where it goes who knows.
But the real tension that was on offer in Hillside can never be reciprocated on the LIV tour. I understand all the arguments but sport cannot be only about cash.
Richie Ramsey and his caddy Guy Tilson dealt with real tension down the stretch. They were there for the glory, to be winners. They both had that look on their faces that this truly means something.
That is real sport and hopefully we will always have that on our screens. It was a most enjoyable watch.
Congratulations to Guy, he has given his life to the Tour and it was great to see him get his reward. Richie will bring the trophy home to his daughter - a priceless moment that money cannot buy.
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