For the well-traveled golfer, Lahinch Golf Club hardly needs a formal introduction.

The quirky, charming links along Ireland’s west coast welcomes thousands of visitors each year from around the globe, many of whom return annually for the golf and the ambience of the adjoining village. Various course rankings perennially place Lahinch among Ireland’s top four.

Oddly, though, for all its renown, Lahinch never hosted its nation’s premier tournament. That void gets rectified this week, as the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open introduces the casual golf fan to a locale long cherished by connoisseurs.

“When they see what we have to offer,” said Paddy Keane, Lahinch’s general manager, “it’ll be on their bucket list to visit for the next few years.”

Keane expects about 80,000 people at the course and village during the tournament. Lahinch has opened its fairways to only two professional events before, the last in 1975.