Fourteen Irish, lead by Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, will take part along with the elite of 28 other countries. They will strive to produce Ireland's eighth win in this fabled event which dates from 1885 and which has played a major part in the lore of Irish golf as it dominated pages of newsprint in the 1950s and 1960s as Joe Carr strode the international stage and won three times.

The Irish connection with the championship has been very strong since Charles Hezlet reached the final at Sandwich in 1914. It very definitely became the main event of the year for all amateurs from 1930 when Bobby Jones won at St Andrews, his only win in this event (Jones won five US Amateurs, four US Opens and three British Opens but won the British Amateur just once) as part of his original grand slam of the Opens and Amateur Opens of both Britain and America.

The Irish presence peaked in the 17 championships played from 1937 through 1960, the event was suspended for war in 1940-1945, as there were five Irish wins and two losses in the final in that period.

Lionel Munn fell to Robert Sweeney of America in the 1937 final at Sandwich; and Cecil Ewing lost the 1938 final to the magnificent Charles Yates of Atlanta, a boyhood friend of Bobby Jones and comember at Augusta National, at Troon. The friendship which sprung-up between Ewing and Yates as a result of that championship and the Walker Cup match at St Andrews the following week lasted a lifetime and extended dramatically as Yates adopted Scotland and Ireland as his spiritual homes outside America.

There are many stories told of the personable Yates but none better than that of his management of an annual general meeting, or what served as such, at Augusta National one year. He was asked by a new member to read the minutes. His response: "Do you mean this year's minutes, last year's minutes or next year's minutes?" The new member learned his lesson. He had extended the annual meeting to a record 90 seconds and was grateful that he was allowed to remain in the fold!

When World War II ended the Irish finally made the breakthrough in the Amateur as Cork's boy prodigy Jimmy Bruen dominated all the way at Birkdale and beat Robert Sweeney in the final.

In 1949 the event was brought to Portmarnock and it produced a home winner with Sam McCready beating another American, Willie Turnesa, in the final.

Joe Carr was a contestant that week and no doubt disappointed at his failure to lift the title on his home soil. But he made amends for that when entertaining an entire generation of Irish golfers by gaining the crown in 1953 at Hoylake, 1958 at St Andrews and 1960 at Portrush.

He was the main man and his exploits made regular front-page news in Ireland at a time when amateur golf was much more newsworthy than the professional game which was struggling to establish itself.

His reign came to an end in 1968 when Michael Bonallack beat him in the final at Troon, thus matching the Dubliner's collection of three wins, before going on to win five times in all.

There have been two Irish wins since the Carr era. Garth McGimpsey won in 1985 at Dornoch and Michael Hoey won in 2001 at Prestwick.

It could be Ireland's turn again this week as we never had a stronger looking group of players take part.

Rory McIlroy, Jonathan Caldwell, Niall Turner, Stephen Grant, Shane Lowry, Simon Ward and Richard Kilpatrick all have the game and the experience to do the business; and good showings are to be reasonably expected from Jim Carvill, Niall Kearney, Joe Lyons, Aaron O'Callaghan, Peter O'Keeffe, Seamus Power and Gareth Shaw.

Of course, it will take famous golf to win this famous event as everyone who is anyone in world amateur golf will be there. Jamie Moul, who led the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) for 16 weeks, reached the semi-final stage of the Amateur last year at Royal St George's, only to lose to fellow English international Adam Gee. Also entered are WAGR No 5, Rhys Davies of Wales, and reigning Irish Amateur Open champion Lloyd Saltman of Scotland.

Both were in the 2005 Walker Cup team.

Gary Wolstenholme will hope to become a member of the exclusive club of players who have won the Amateur on three occasions, his previous successes coming at Ganton in 1991 and Royal Troon in 2003.

It is over 30 years since the last American victory in the Amateur and their 12 contenders are headed by Luke List, a college player who earlier in the year won the Jones Cup at Sea Island against a top international entry. A large entry from South Africa includes national champion Louis de Jager and one of the top Australians is Rohan Blizard, their Amateur title holder, in company with the entire Australian national squad.

It will be a famous win if it happens.