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Wed 11 Nov 2002Links to glorious past are rejoinedGOLF/2003 Irish Open: If, at one point during the summer, it was feared the Irish Open was an endangered species, no one at the top table at yesterday's announcement in one of Dublin's plushest hotels - where it was confirmed one of the oldest tournaments on the European Tour would be returning to its spiritual home at Portmarnock under a new sponsor in Nissan Ireland - was betraying any evidence to suggest that its survival was ever anything other than certain.There wasn't a worried brow in sight, and the grins from each of the heavyweights clustered together around the tiny table said it all: the championship was not only saved, but it was moving to a new date - immediately after the British Open, from July 24th-27th - and to a world famous course where it would have a bigger prize purse of €2 million. Could it get any better than that?