Course to provide toughest of challenges

One of the attractions of the K Club as a venue, as Lee Westwood would tell you, is that players can "roll out of bed and onto the first tee". One of the attractions of the Smurfit European Open, as a flagship tournament on this side of the Atlantic, is the sort of money that's on offer. All £2.6 million of it, which helps to explain why so many players who hang their hat on the US Tour for much of the year have picked it up to return for this event.

Indeed, it is testimony to the strength and quality of the field that no fewer than 20 winners on the PGA European Tour this season - the three honourable exceptions being Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Vijay Singh - and 27 of the top 30 players on the moneylist are here.

If that seems to make Westwood's task of attempting to win the title for a third successive year all the more difficult, then the player isn't letting on.

"My game is just around the corner," he insisted, adding: "It may come back gradually, it may come back with a bang. Who knows?"

Certainly, the course, as it is developing, is one that someone not completely on song with his game will find difficult to conquer, even with happy memories. The greens, always so troublesome, have improved no end, but it is in other areas where the degrees of difficulty have risen.

The rough, for one, has been allowed to grow, and additional trees - allied to maturing ones - have enabled a good course to become a great course with an even greater emphasis on accuracy off the tee.

"I think the course gets better every time we play it," concurred Colin Montgomerie, while Retief Goosen - with a gleaming US Open trophy sitting pretty on the table not 12 inches from the TaylorMade cap perched on his head - agreed with those sentiments.

"The course is the best I've ever seen it . . . the rough is the thickest it has ever been, the greens the best they've ever been, and it is playing so long that you need to hit driver on just about every hole. Dr Smurfit says he's going to toughen it up even more. I'd like to see what he is going to do!"

All of which suggests that the players, good and all as they are, will be put to the pin of their collar to bring the course to its knees.

"I think the scoring won't be so low this time," added Goosen, who is making a first appearance since his triumph in Southern Hills. His mere presence in the field, in fact, may provide even greater incentive for other players who now know that anything is possible if you have sufficient self-belief.

Montgomerie may look with some envy at the silver trophy that Goosen has brought with him this week, but his performance in winning the Irish Open last weekend provides confirmation that he is back in the traditional role of pre-tournament favourite.

And now that he has rediscovered the winning scent, he wants to keep the momentum going.

"I have found technically what was wrong, and I want to build on what I have - not just win and then finish 30th here, that's no use. I have to build on that performance at Fota Island, and that means trying to win here as well. It would be lovely to win twice in Ireland."

Also seeking to move into new territory, but in a different way, is Westwood, seeking to win a "three-peat" - his words - of European Opens.

While Montgomerie rediscovered winning ways after a 13-month barren spell on the European Tour last week, Westwood was away on a family holiday in St Tropez.

"I only found out when I got home that Monty had won," said Westwood, who reckons that the few days break will do him the power of good.

"You can think about golf too much, it is not really the number one priority in my life now Sam has arrived."

Then, there are also those who are using the European Open as a springboard for an assault on the other serious money tournaments of the next few weeks with the Scottish and the British Opens following in quick succession.

As for the Irish? No Irish player has won this tournament in the 23 years Harrington and Darren Clarke come in on the back of strong weekend finishes in the Irish Open which saw them finished tied-second, while Paul McGinley believes he has sorted out the glitch in his switch that saw him fall backwards while his compatriots were moving in the other direction. They are part of a 12-strong home contingent in a field of 156 that will be chasing a top prize of £436,096.

That alone should make for an interesting four days; the demands of the course, however, will make it even more interesting.