Eamonn Darcy is to avail of a place in this week's Cannes Open, rather than compete in the £110,000 Smurfit Irish Professional Championship at Castlerock. By his own admission, it was a very difficult decision, guided ultimately by the need to improve his prospective status in Europe next year.

"I was the one who encouraged Michael Smurfit in 1991 to take over sponsorship of the championship, so I didn't do this lightly," said Darcy last night. "It's the first time I have missed it since then."

At 49, Darcy is biding his time before moving into senior ranks, but he won't be 50 until next August. In the meantime, he considers it vital to remain competitive by getting into as many regular tour events as possible. And having lost his card last year, he is still some way short of the necessary money to regain it.

Winner of the title at Castle in 1988 and at The K Club in 1993, he carded a course-record 64 in the second round at Baltray last year, when he finished runner-up. "I'm really sorry about this, but I've written to the sponsors explaining my position," he added.

Meanwhile, there are compensations. Away from the game's leading venues, it's not often the 41st-ranked player in world golf can be observed plying his craft. But Castlerock will have that distinction when Paul McGinley defends the championship, starting on Thursday. The event is going there as part of the club's centenary celebrations. And it is long overdue, given that they staged this particular championship in 1912, when the great Michael Moran gained the fourth of five successive victories.

By then, the course had been extended to 18 holes, which were designed by the illustrious Scot, Ben Sayers, in 1908.

Later, Castlerock recovered rapidly from a clubhouse fire in 1913 to stage the Irish Women's Close title the following year, when Janet Jackson retained the title. It also played host to the British Universities' Championship in 1999 when Graeme McDowell from nearby Rathmore, won the title. And the eighth World Student Games were staged there last year.

When this championship was last played in Northern Ireland in 1995, Philip Walton emerged victorious at Belvoir Park, after a marvellous tussle with McGinley. That was the year Walton became a Ryder Cup hero at Oak Hill, but he is now back in the championship, grappling with rather lean times.

This week's venue stretches to 6,713 yards off the back tees for a par of 73 and is the last in a series of outstanding courses on the Causeway Coast. Apart from the championship lay-out, which has a finishing hole known as " Bad Boys' Corner", it has a separate, nine-hole stretch of delightful variety.

If there were a signature hole on the main course, it would be the devilishly tricky, 201-yard short fourth. Known as the "Leg o' Mutton" because of its shape, it has a railway line and out of bounds beckoning the sliced shot to the right and the same penalty for a pulled shot over a drain to the left.

But motor dealers, Todds of Campsie, have chosen the less forbidding, 193-yard 14th to reward a hole in one. The first player to have an ace there during the championship will earn himself a Chrysler PT Cruiser, worth in excess of £18,000 sterling.

When McGinley won at Baltray last year, he had the distinction of breaking 70 in every round for a 22-under-par aggregate of 270 - four strokes outside Walton's championship record. It gave him a four-stroke victory over Darcy and the remarkable dominance of this pair can be gauged from the fact that Francis Howley and Gary Murphy, in a share of third place, were 10 strokes further back.

In his moment of victory, McGinley's hope was that it would culminate in a place in the top-50 of the world rankings by the end of last year, so securing him a debut appearance in the US Masters. "I can build on this," he said. As it happened, he had to wait until the beginning of last August and a play-off triumph in the Wales Open at Celtic Manor, to realise that ambition.

This week, he will be competing not only as the 41st ranked player in the world, but as a member of the European team which is to challenge to regain a deferred Ryder Cup at The Belfry next September. Other former winners in action will be Des Smyth (1979, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1996), Martin Sludds (1984, 1993) and Neil Manchip (1999).