This September's Ryder Cup in the K Club in tandem with the World Hall of Fame exhibition, which opened yesterday at the National Museum in Collins Barracks, Dublin, will demonstrably put Ireland at the centre of the "dodgy sweater" universe this autumn.
The opening of the Ryder Cup exhibit by Tony Jacklin, a four-times Ryder Cup captain and a winner of the British and US Opens, features significant moments in the history of the competition through photographs of players and teams, as well as numerous donated pieces of memorabilia.
With the 1999 "Battle of Brookline" still fresh in people's minds and the constantly resurrected bitterness between the two teams replayed to give the event an edgy gladiatorial veneer, the exhibit pulls back somewhat from the confrontational side to dwell on interesting points along the way.
Far from the squall at Brookline, one of the more arresting photos in the exhibition is of Jack Nicklaus conceding a putt to Jacklin in the 1969 event at Royal Birkdale.
In the last match of the last day, Nicklaus hit to 15 feet from the 18th flag, Jacklin to 30 feet.
Nicklaus put his long-range effort four feet past the cup, Jacklin to within two feet.
When Nicklaus holed his return and bent down to retrieve his ball he also gathered the marker of Jacklin to halve the hole and the match for the first tie in history. "I don't think you'd have missed that putt," said Nicklaus, "but under the circumstances I would never give you the opportunity."
Whether the competition can ever return to such instinctive sportsmanship is open to question but as much as the history of the event, there's also lots of golf bits and pieces to look at. With bags, clubs, shirts and trophies from Pádraig Harrington, Harry Bradshaw, Philip Walton, Christy O'Connor jnr, Paul McGinley, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Ray Floyd, the late Payne Stewart, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo and others, it's something of a treasure trove for golf nuts.
"The Ryder Cup holds a very special place in my heart having experienced it as a player and as a captain," said Jacklin, who played in seven teams including the first European team in 1972 (before that it had been Britain and Ireland).
Run in collaboration with Waterford Crystal, the exhibition will remain in Dublin through September, then will move back to the Waterford Crystal Visitor Centre in Waterford.
