Rory McIlroy defends his Irish Open title at Doonbeg against Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Brooks Koepka and one of the event’s strongest recent fields.
The 2026 Amgen Irish Open arrives at Doonbeg this week with Rory McIlroy leading one of the strongest fields the tournament has assembled in years.
McIlroy, the defending champion and current world No. 2, headlines a 138-player field at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in County Clare, which is hosting Ireland’s national open for the first time.
The tournament runs Sept. 10-13 and carries a $6 million purse, with the winner set to collect $1.02 million.
The field is loaded.
McIlroy is joined by former Irish Open champions Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington, plus five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed, Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Sepp Straka and twins Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard.
Rasmus Højgaard has already shown he can thrive in this event, beating McIlroy at Royal County Down in 2024.
The bigger unknown this week is the golf course.
Doonbeg opened in 2002 and underwent a significant redesign in 2016. Now the DP World Tour gets its first competitive look at the venue, a 6,838-yard, par-70 links that could play much tougher than the yardage suggests.
Weather will be a major factor.
Early-week conditions brought wind and rain, exactly the type of environment that can transform a links course from manageable to brutal in a matter of hours.
Players will have to control trajectory, judge the wind and lean heavily on short-game creativity.
The finishing stretch could become especially important.
The redesigned 18th is now a 462-yard uphill par four playing toward an elevated, undulating green. With bunkers demanding accuracy off the tee and on the approach, it has the potential to produce late drama on Sunday.
Doonbeg also features five distinctive par threes, including the 225-yard seventh and the shorter 137-yard 14th, where changing wind direction could mean anything from a wedge to a mid-iron.
That variety should reward players who are comfortable improvising.
For McIlroy, Rahm and Lowry, that’s good news. All three have extensive experience in links conditions, while Koepka and Reed bring major-championship pedigree to an already deep field.
With weekend tickets sold out and a global television audience watching, Doonbeg gets a major stage this week.
And with this many proven winners in the field, the Irish Open could produce one of the DP World Tour season’s most compelling finishes.
