Shane Lowry arrives at his tenth Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation at Ballyliffin Golf Club hoping to replicate his debut success from 2009.
The then-amateur catapulted himself into the limelight at County Louth Golf Club by beating Robert Rock in a play-off, but has only had one top-ten finish in his national Open since.
The 31 year old has been hinting at a return to form in recent weeks, making seven of his last eight cuts and finishing in a tie for 16th at the HNA Open de France last week.
And he is hoping to build on that performance as he returns to home soil this week.
"It's fantastic out there, isn't it," Lowry said. "We're obviously blessed with the weather and whatever you've done to get the weather so good, it's just been great.
"I'm obviously looking forward to the week and the golf course is going to be good and I'm looking forward to seeing what the scores are going to be like.
"I had a decent week last week and hopefully I can build on that and bring it into this week.
"Last week is a perfect example of how my season's gone - three great rounds and then one pretty average or poor round on Friday. Some week, I'll string four rounds together and hopefully I can win the tournament or come close.
"It's a weird one because one of the reasons I feel like I won the Irish Open is because I knew what it was about and how hard it was to play in it as a home player.
"The Irish people are great and we're very lucky how much they love their golf and how much they support us. I just haven't been good enough in dealing with what goes on with playing the Irish Open."
Lowry hopes that a links test on the north coast of Ireland can give him an advantage over players less familiar with the conditions.
"Obviously I'm excited to be on a links course and a good links course at that," he added.
"I feel when you come and play the Irish Open on a links course, there's a lot of guys that are not used to playing this golf.
"They are going to struggle out there when they have got 230 yards and they have to hit an eight iron. It's just hard to get your head around that."
Fellow Irishman Padraig Harrington won this event in 2007 before going on to claim his first Open Championship title later in the year.
The 46 year old also hopes his love for links golf will be an advantage this week.
He said: "I always love playing a links golf course.
"It's strange, I enjoy the aesthetics of a parkland course more. I enjoy the beauty of lakes and trees, but clearly I have a competitive advantage when it comes to links golf.
"I've played it all my life, I can see the shots. I see other people playing the shots and I can call what's likely to happen in different situations, different lies, because that's what I was brought up playing.
"So yeah, this is worth a lot of shots to me rather than playing a standard parkland course. It wouldn't take much for me to move into the form that would have me in contention this week."
Another of the Irish contingent, Paul Dunne, is also looking to find some links form with the Open Championship on the horizon.
"It comes at a great time of the year - a couple of weeks before The Open, having those three links events in a row," he said.
"I feel like my game got better each day last week and even the first couple of days of practice, the swing feels quite good. I'm looking forward to giving it a good go this week."
