Today one of the most important events – not just one of the most important sporting events, but events of every type – in the history of Northern Ireland gets under way. ​The Open golf tournament returns to Royal Portrush for only the second time since 1951, one of the four great golfing competitions. It is one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world. Northern Ireland ought to be one of its most obvious locations, because it has not only two of the best courses on these islands, but the world. Royal Co Down, which hosted the Irish Open last year, is almost always ranked in the top five courses on earth, and Royal Portrush usually in the top 20. Not only that, but NI is now almost a superpower in terms of golf – it has three of the best players in the world. That trio – Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy – have won between them seven major title triumphs over the last 15 years while England, a country with 25 times the population of Northern Ireland, has had three such major wins. But the Open – which gets going properly today, after three days of practice rounds – was not able to be hosted in the province during the long years of the Troubles, from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. Then, in the years afterwards, as normality slowly returned, it took a while for the wider world to realise how different NI had become. Now we have a bustling itinerary of cruise ships sailing into Belfast Lough, and increasingly visible major cultural or sporting events, of which the Open is the most impressive. Golf fans overseas will see on TV the beauty of the north Antrim coast. So the Open is back again after its successful return here in 2019, after 68 years. Now we get to show the world the best of Northern Ireland.