The lure of a place in The Open Championship at Carnoustie is Wade Ormsby’s major motivation as the South Australian leads a contingent of nine Australians at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Donegal’s Ballyliffin Golf Club.

The unofficial start to ‘links season’ breaks new ground on the north-west coast of Ireland as the European Tour visits the links of Ballyliffin for the very first time, the field headlined by defending champion Jon Rahm, major champions Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Trevor Immelman and tournament host Rory McIlroy.

Ormsby will tee off alongside Ricardo Gouveia and Sam Horsfield at 9.10am local time (6.10pm AEST) on the back of top-20 finishes in each of his past two starts yet stinging from a lost opportunity at the French Open last week.

With three positions into The Open Championship on offer for players who finish in the top-10 and not otherwise exempt, Ormsby was left to rue his inability to make a late birdie and secure a start at Carnoustie in a fortnight’s time.

Now ranked 134th in the world, Ormsby has two more chances at the Irish and Scottish Opens to play his way into the year’s third major and push for a place in the top-100 of the world rankings that would earn him an invitation to Bellerive Country Club for next month’s US PGA Championship.

“I just missed out on The Open last week,” Ormsby told the PGA from Ballyliffin.

“If I birdie one of the last three holes I would have got that but I did not so that kind of grinds on me even though I had a good week.

“(Qualifying for The Open) is obviously a big carrot for me right at the moment and trying to get into the US PGA too.

“With the world rankings I’ve got to be in the top-100 and I’m knocking on the door of that too so I need a good week for a number of reasons.

“That’s top priority at the moment.”

With firm conditions at recent tournaments in Austria and France the 38-year-old feels ready for the unpredictable nature of the bouncing ball around the windswept Ballyliffin layout.

The weather forecast is kind until Sunday and Ormsby intends to use his new Titleist TS3 driver to successfully navigate his way around the dastardly pot bunkers that dot the course.

“I had a practice round on Tuesday and thought it would play a little bit tougher than what it did but it’s all wind dependent,” said Ormsby, winner of the UBS Hong Kong Open last November and ranked 35 in the Race to Dubai.

“The rough looks quite penal but once you get in it is somewhat playable.

“The biggest issue is going to be the pot bunkers. There are probably three tee shots out there where you have to take on more than one.

“At a lot of holes there is one in play but there are two or three where it feels like there are a couple in play and you’ve just got to suck it up and hit the shot.

“The greens are probably the best we’ve seen for a while. They’re quite firm, not overly undulating. The par-3 14th plays about 180 metres and has quite an undulating green pretty undulating but apart from that they are all quite fair.

“It’s quite a good test.”

Brett Rumford will be the first of the Australasians to tee off at 4.40pm AEST with Kiwi Ryan Fox, Jason Scrivener, Marcus Fraser, Scott Hend, Jason Norris, Andrew Dodt, Adam Bland and Sam Brazel all in the field.

Elsewhere in Europe this week there will be just the four Aussies lining up at the Prague Golf Challenge on the Challenge Tour, Dimitrios Papadatos eager to push for his second win of the year.

The Swiss Seniors Open hosts the Staysure Tour with the Aussie assault to be led by Peter Fowler, Peter O’Malley and Mike Harwood along with New Zealander Greg Turner.