This year's back-to-back staging of Ireland's premier golf tournaments has clearly worked to the advantage of the Smurfit European Open where top names are concerned. While Ryder Cup players Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Andrew Contart will be absent from the Murphy's Irish Open, all three are set for The K Club on July 6th to 8th.

But happily, Jose Maria Olazabal is playing in both. And he will be joined in the European Open by Padraig Harrington and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who gave such outstanding performances in the US Open at Pebble Beach last weekend, along with Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Jarmo Sandelin and Thomas Bjorn.

Westwood, of course, is holder of the title which he won in such dramatic fashion, when he came from seven strokes back off third-round leader Darren Clarke to take top prize of £226,185 after a final round of 65.

Clarke, who was joint runner-up with Costantino Rocca, electrified the attendance with a second round of 60, which could easily have been that magical, one stroke better.

The prize fund remains at Stg £1.5 million, which converts to about £1,857,000 punts, so retaining it at the forefront of European Tour events.

Meanwhile, for the first time at an Irish sporting event, the tournament will have a new, two-tiered hospitality unit, offering spectacular views of the 18th fairway and green. Another fascinating change will see the testing of a new course routing with a view to employing it in the Ryder Cup in 2005.

Competitors will start on the 10th and will progress from the short 17th to the ninth. They then head for the first tee to begin a homeward journey which will take them from the eighth directly to the spectacular par-five 18th.

Tickets for the tournament are priced at £60 (season) and £25 (daily). A saving of up to £5, however, can be made on daily tickets by phoning the Advance Booking Hotline on (01) 6621155.