How good it is to see the European Tour visiting a proper, old fashioned links course this week! Perhaps it’s true that the only reason the Irish Open is being held at County Louth is the economic crisis, but if so, that just goes to show that every cloud really does have a silver lining.

Not that Fota Island, Mount Juliet, K Club, Druids Glen or any of the other big ticket inland courses built in Ireland in recent years are bad venues, but they all have one key flaw as the host of Ireland’s national championship. Golf in Ireland is, and always will be about links golf. You could build the next Pine Valley outside Limerick, and that wouldn’t change things.

Scotland has a similar problem. Loch Lomond is a fine golf course, and a wonderful tournament venue. But the Scottish Open should be beside the sea, with whins and wind. At least at that tournament, we all know the main event, the real treat, is only a few days away.