In 2012 The Irish Open heads to Royal Portrush GC for the first time and it is sure to be a celebration of all the success achieved by Northern Irish golf in the last couple of seasons.

In 2011 it was an Englishman who took the plaudits at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club, as Simon Dyson triumphed by a single shot over Australian Richard Green. The last Irishman to win this event was Shane Lowry as an amateur at County Louth GC in 2009.