The Dubai Duty Free Irish Open marks the opening event of a two-week European Tour salvo for the 2015 PGA in Ireland Order of Merit winner, Eamonn Brady.

The 42-year-old will play at the K Club before moving on to make his debut appearance at next week's BMW PGA Championship.

“I've always liked playing the K Club and I think that it suits my game pretty well,” he said.
“I played the PGA in Ireland Pro-Am event there last year and finished tied for third.  

“I've also played a couple of practice rounds and found myself with a lot of approach shots from around the 130-170 yard mark so I've been trying to sharpen up from that range.”

The Clontarf GC professional has competed in the Irish Open on a number of previous occasions, most recently at Fota Island in 2014, a tournament won by Finland's Mikko Ilonen.

“I had my first taste of the Irish Open as an amateur back in 2000 at Ballybunion,” said Eamonn.

“That was a great experience, my first venture into professional golf. I played a practice round that year with Padraig Harrington.”

Eamonn won six times on the Irish Region last year and finished second on a further six occasions.

He eventually edged out David Higgins (Waterville) by just 479.5 points at the top of the OoM standings.

“In terms of consistency, it was the first year I ever managed to play so well for so long,” he added.

“I have played well before and won some big events but last year was something a bit different. It opened my eyes to what I can do and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.”

The key to Eamonn's success was a renewed commitment to the game over the winter of 2014/2015 that saw him working harder than ever before on his fitness, swing and mental approach but, rather than taking his foot off the pedal, he actually stepped things up during the recent off-season.

“I've only got a small window left,” he said.

“I put a lot of hard work in last year and that got me the success so I thought, 'if I work even harder I should play well again next year'.

“I have worked my ass off to be honest.”

Eamonn will be joined at the K Club by Higgins, Colm Moriarty (Drive Golf Performance), Neil O'Briain (Old Conna GC), Damien Mooney (Nevada Bob's Belfast) and Brendan McGovern (Headfort GC) who all qualified for the event via the 2015 Order of Merit.

Both Higgins and Moriarty have won already this season on the PGA in Ireland circuit while McGovern finished tied for fourth at the recent Silversea Senior PGA Professional Championship.

Higgins and Moriarty will also join Brady at the BMW PGA Championship courtesy of a top 10 finish in the PGA play-offs which were held at the Antalya Golf Club, Turkey in November.