Now it's a tough sell on the game's new world stage, a low-key championship for which only two of golf's top-50 ranked players, Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood, came to Adare Manor last season. And had Harrington not been the winner, the event would have collapsed like a pricked balloon.

Never in the splintered history of a tournament born 80 years before had there been so many unrecognisable names on its leaderboard.

In the end, Harrington beat Welshman Bradley Dredge in a play-off to be Ireland's first holder of the title since John O'Leary in 1982.

They said that former US marine Tom Kane, a Vietnam fighter pilot and Adare's owner, needed 50,000 through the turnstiles to break even financially. Thanks mainly to Harrington, he got over 60,000, and happily raised the prize-pot to a rewarding £2.5 million. The championship will again be hosted by this Brooklyn-born Wall Street millionaire next season.

Clearly, Adare deserves a stronger field than it will get next weekend.

Don't pay too much attention to those who cry 'foul' at the toughness of this Trent Jones lay-out. Only the rough 12 months ago posed a problem, and not for long. Despite seven scores in the 60s on day one, they trimmed the course by a staggering 420 yards shy of its total length, mainly to suit the conditions, it was said.

"That's the sign of a great golf course," declared champion Harrington. "It's as much a mental as physical challenge when you can make it play to 10-under-par or 10-over, depending on the mood of the day. Every hole there is spectacular and must be managed wisely."

Not only is Adare a picture-postcard village of thatched cottages and medieval ruins, the course is part of an elegant estate through which meanders a river that comes into play on 12 holes.

The 18th hole is a classic par-5 of 560 yards and surrenders birdies in short-ration.

Nobody goes for the green in two shots without fear in his shoes.

Only three players — Harrington, Dredge and the little-known Simon Wakefield from Newcastle-on-Tyne — bettered the par of 288 last year after the halfway cut fell at seven-over (151), a figure more to be expected in the US Open than the Irish Open.

After Padraig, the next-best Irish were Damien McGrane, winner of last month's China Open, and Gary Murphy, both on 293 and equal-12th, proof of what a stiff test the course may again be if the rough has been allowed to grow.

Before the drama of a great Open triumph at Carnoustie, this was the championship Harrington most wanted to win.

"I was the highest-ranked player and bookmakers' favourite. I knew my game was in good shape, and, with luck, I could end that 25-year drought," recalls Padraig.

"All this makes for intense pressure, which I enjoy. I'll be trying hard to win again!"

It was after 50 mph winds had blown Faldo and Greg Norman off course on a horrendous first day at Portmarnock that O'Leary banked a cheque for £13,500 26 years ago.

Today, a player finishing 33rd earns that much in a year when so many of Europe's top golfers will be conspicuous by their absence from Ireland's richest, and biggest, tournament.

The action at Adare begins on Thursday and spans four days until Sunday.