The European Tour has tapped into Darren Clarke’s extensive knowledge of Royal Portursh to help in the set up of the course ahead of the 2012 Irish Open.

Royal Portrush will host Ireland’s premier golf tournament for a first time since 1947 with the staging of the event to take place June 28th to July 1st.

And in readiness for the event, a European Tour delegation travelled to Northern Ireland earlier this week.

Clarke, who moved his young family to Portrush last year, joined the delegation in inspecting the course.

Open Champion, Darren Clarke meets with European Tour CEO, George O'Grady at Royal Portrush when it was announced the 2012 Irish Open was headed to the Co. Antrim course. (Photo - European Tour).

“The Tour came over and they wanted somebody’s opinion for the golf course and I’m at home at the moment,” said Clarke in an interview with BBC Northern Ireland.

“They wanted somebody that plays the course all the time to show them where all the shortcuts are; out on Tour we try and cut corners whenever we can and so they’re making sure they grow the rough in areas that they need to.

“I want it to be set up to play fair, where you get rewarded for hitting fairways. That’s what links golf is all about. The golf course itself doesn’t need much tweaking – it just needs thick rough in a few areas where the guys take things on.

“If they succeed, well and good, but if they get it wrong they’re going to struggle to hit the greens from those places.”

Irish Open Tournament Director, Miguel Vidaor, who walked the course with Clarke, has praised Royal Portrush Golf Club as “one of the best courses in the world”.

“This is one of the best courses in the world,” he said.

“It’s fabulous, it’s an amazing piece of land. They’ve built new tees and it brings a lot of the fairway bunkers back into play.

“We’re over the moon to be hosting the Irish Open at Portrush, and we’re coming to one of the ‘hidden gems’.

“It’s one of the greatest golf courses in the world and it is links golf, which is great leading up to the Open Championship – it is fantastic practice for the players. For those who know the golf course, they’re going to love it and for those who haven’t, they’re going to be amazed.”

Speaking of Clarke’s input in the setting up of the course for the Irish Open, he said: “Darren knows the course better than anybody and to get his views on how to set it up, it’s extremely valuable and we really appreciate that he’s given his time to go around the golf course.”

The return of Royal Portrush to the international stage will hopefully be a step closer to the County Antrim gem rehosting golf’s oldest Major.

Royal Portrush lays claim to the only course outside of Scotland and England to host The Open and that was in 1951 when Englishman Max Faulkner’s lifted the Claret Jug thanks to a two shot victory over Argentina’s Antonio Cerdá.

The last major event to be held at Portush was in 2004 when American Pete Oakley won the Senior Open Championship.