However, as soon the great gallery of fans step onto the Dunluce Links, they’ll realise the real star of the show is the course itself.

Harry Colt sculpted these dunes in the 1930s, and Mackenzie and Ebert have since fine-tuned them – adding two dramatic new holes and repositioning bunkers, further confirming Portrush truly belongs on golf’s grandest stage.

This year’s Open Championship will be a clash of star power versus stage presence, and for my money, those towering dunes and wild fairways always steal the limelight.

Royal Portrush is one of the best links tests on Earth. Every hole feels epic – from the cliffside vistas off the 5th (White Rocks), to the devilish twist of the uphill 16th, or “Calamity Corner”. The course demands absolutely everything from a player.

Those Colt-style greens are at once artful and brutal, with false fronts and hidden tiers set amid fairways which twist and fade through towering sandhills. You can’t muscle your way around Portrush; even the very best get humbled by swirling sea breezes and savage bunkers. Its strategy wrapped in sand.

"The green jacket is just the prologue. Northern Ireland’s wild west coast is primed for another unforgettable week, and if Portrush has anything to say about it, we’re all in for a show."

I’ll never forget 2019, when Shane Lowry walked into that Irish sea of fans carrying him to victory. His final day at Portrush was sporting triumph with a splash of block party. From the 16th green to the 18th tee, that wild crowd surged around him, roaring “Ole, Ole, Ole” in the mist.

Portrush felt electric that week; every fan-lined fairway seemed to cheer on the home hero.

It was a reminder that this course doesn’t just host champions; it inspires them. To win at Portrush among your own people? That was pure poetry. Since that night, the club hasn’t tinkered much with the magic – they’ve simply sharpened it. You’ll see a new back tee on the 4th hole, stretching the famed “Cow’s Nose” into a 500-yard monster, while Calamity Corner has been nudged so that it truly lives up to its name.

The par-5 7th green was rebuilt into more Colt-like contours, and here or there, a bunker lip has been raised. All told, Portrush’s historic skeleton remains intact, just buffed and polished into a meaner, leaner version of the same beautiful beast – and ready to bite.

Let the buzz begin. Rory McIlroy might dominate the headlines, but Portrush will steal the show. The Dunluce Links is a theatre of turf and sky, its dunes and fairways writing the script for July.

I can’t wait to see how the next chapter unfolds. The green jacket is just the prologue. Northern Ireland’s wild west coast is primed for another unforgettable week, and if Portrush has anything to say about it, we’re all in for a show.