Irish Open sandwich

Next year's Irish Open will be sandwiched between two of the biggest events in golf.

The 2007 European Tour Schedule was released yesterday with Adare Manor set to play host from 17-20 May – the week after the Players Championship at Sawgrass and just before the Flagship BMW Championship at Wentworth.

And Padraig Harrington believes it will be a massive event and that it will not suffer by falling between two massive tournaments.

Harrington said: "It's certainly not a problem for me and hopefully it won't be a problem for attracting players. I think it's going to be an unbelievable event. I think the venue is second to none."

There will be a minimum of 50 events played in 2007 after the MasterCard Masters in Australia and the Portugal Masters were introduced for the first time, while the Blue Chip New Zealand Open and the Mercedes Benz Championship are brought back.

Significant date changes see the BMW International Open in Munich moved to June 21-24, the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles switch to August 30-September 2 and the Quinn Direct British Masters at The Belfry put back to September 20-23.

The Smurfit Kappa European Open will be played on the Palmer Course at the K Club from July 5-8.