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Tue 11 Nov 2002Open renews its links with tradition and returns home to PortmarnockThe Irish Open is going back to its roots, with confirmation due this afternoon that the golf tournament - one of the oldest on the PGA European Tour - will next year be played at Portmarnock Golf Club in north Co Dublin.Apart from securing a return to a traditional links course, the event is also to be given a new date - one week after the British Open, which next year takes place at Royal St George's on England's south coast. The timing of the tournament should help to entice a number of the top American players to remain on this side of the Atlantic to play Portmarnock, a course considered among the best in world golf.