The leading lights of the European Tour arrive in Clare this week as the Irish Open comes to Lahinch for the first time ever.
Having been held at Portmarnock for about a million years, the tournament forgot its links roots in the 90s, flitting between the lush parkland venues of Killarney, Mount Julliet and Druids Glen for the guts of a decade.
But now it's back in the links groove, touring the Irish coastline - mainly the north - for the past half-decade. Royal Portrush, Royal County Down, Portstewart and Ballyliffin have all held the event in recent years.
But this time around it dives south to the famous Lahinch course, the first Munster links to host since Ballybunion back in 2000.
McIlroy may be absenting himself but there's still plenty of star quality to be going on with. Here are five to keep an eye out for this week.
Louis Oosthuizen
The most unheralded high-end golfer around, Oosthuizen will play the Irish Open for the first time since 2009.
He was in the field when Shane Lowry famously won as an amateur in Baltray, and his best performance in the event came two years earlier with a tied-5th finish in Adare Manor, the same year that Padraig Harrington bridged a 25-year gap to the last home winner.
The South African has scaled dizzy heights since he last rocked up at an Irish Open. The next year, he announced himself on the world stage by cantering to victory at the Open Championship in St Andrews.
A relatively callow McIlroy opened that week with a 63 but he'd had fallen away even before the cut-mark and come Sunday the South African was lord of all he surveyed. He had seven shots to spare by the end.
His impressive consistency notwithstanding, he has surprisingly failed to add to his major tally. Oosthuizen holds the rare, Norman-esque distinction of finishing runner-up in all four majors (though it would entirely wrong to doubt his mental strength).
He contested a sudden death playoff for the 2012 Masters but lost to a weepy Bubba Watson. He was tied-2nd in two successive majors in 2015, finishing behind Jordan Spieth in the US Open at the infamous but visually distinctive Chambers Bay course, and then he narrowly missed out on another St Andrews success in the Open Championship, losing out in the end to Zach Johnson.
He completed the career grand slam of runner-up finishes at Quail Hollow at the 2017 PGA Championship, finishing tied-2nd alongside a few other big names, two shots behind winner Justin Thomas.
That Lahinch frequently bears the moniker 'St Andrews of Ireland' should be a source of encouragement for Oosthuizen this week.
Jon Rahm
The perennial knowledgeable punter's tip for whatever major championship is coming up next. Knowledgeable - but still not paid.
Rahm is a big hitter who impresses around links courses, none more so than when he dominated the field - and the course - at Portstewart to win the Irish Open two years ago. A stunning four day score of 264 (-24) left him a cool six shots clear of Richie Ramsay and Matthew Southgate, both of whom also line out this week.
His form in 2019 is strong with two top-10 finishes at the majors. He wound up ninth at Augusta in April, not quite matching his fourth place finish from 12 months earlier, and then, more significantly from a links standpoint, finished tied-3rd at Pebble Beach last month.
The Spaniard, who is now primarily based out of the US, constantly hovers in or around the leaderboard these days and is highly fancied this week.
Erik Van Rooyen
Another South African, Van Rooyen has yet to win on the European Tour since turning his attention north last year but the form-line suggests he can't be too far away.
The 2018 Irish Open should have provided his first win in Europe but for a costly final day wobble.
Van Rooyen led by four shots after 54 holes at Ballyliffin last year. He remained composed through a remarkably uneventful Saturday afternoon's play. England played Sweden in the World Cup the same day, while Roscommon and Armagh met in a knockout championship match, and interest in this writer's Day 3 live blog may have waned a tad. To those people who stuck with it, I salute you.
But he frittered away that lead on Sunday, ultimately failing to reach the playoff involving the rhyming couplet of Ryan Fox and eventual winner Russell Knox.
His form has remained decent in 2019, with two runner-up finishes at the Qatar Masters and the Trophee Hassan II. And then an eye-catching 8th place finish at the PGA Championship around the punishing Bethpage Black course.
Matt Wallace
There are more high-profile English players in the field.
Tommy Fleetwood is deemed second-favourite behind Rahm, Ian Poulter draws the crowds and the TV cameras, Danny Willett is a former champion and has recovered some of his form after a his 2017/early 2018 slump.
The popular Eddie Pepperell has a good record in Ireland, narrowly losing out to Soren Kjeldsen in a play-off in Royal County Down in 2015.
But none are in better form than Wallace who currently leads the Race to Dubai standings and has put in strong showings at the two most recent major championships in the States.
Also worth watching in case he explodes at his caddie, as he does on a regular basis.
With a high number of awkward blind shots around Lahinch, should his caddie get the hump with his scowling partner and say 'sod this', then Wallace may have trouble navigating his way around.
If Colin Montgomerie's puss was sometimes reminiscent of a bulldog who'd just licked "piss off a nettle", then Wallace wears the face of a man who's just been charged a fiver for the same privilege.
Seamus Power
What of the Irish contenders? Shane Lowry is in excellent form in 2019, with a win in Abu Dhabi, a top-10 finish in the PGA Championship, and currently running third in the Race to Dubai standings. However, he hardly needs the publicity here.
Graeme McDowell sunk a dramatic 30-footer on the 72nd at the Canadian Open to seal his place at the Open Championship at his hometown course at Portrush.
He previously said that "no amount of alcohol" could have enticed back home for the Open had he failed to qualify (no beer no matter how cold, I tell you!). The 2010 US Open Champion is running into some nice form as he showed when returning to the scene of his greatest triumph at Pebble Beach last month.
Paul Dunne, whose form has dipped this season, and the 2020 Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington are both in the field, but we recommend keeping an eye out for Seamus Power, the Waterford man whose made a career in the States, up until recently out of sight of his countrymen.
Power, who saved his PGA Tour card in dramatic circumstances last year and now has an Irish-American hybrid accent, plays the Irish Open for the first time as a professional this week.
He has two top-10 finishes in 2019, at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside David Hearn, and at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina, where Shane Lowry finished tied-3rd.
Follow the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open with our live blog on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News Now App and watch live on RTÉ2 from 10.30am Thursday
