The point-and gawp, celebrity infused smile-athon that is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has a cosy familiarity about it. Look, over there; it’s Ronan Keating skittering a 5-iron into a prickly bush. Peer across there; it’s Huey Lewis blawin’ out a tune on the moothie while waiting on the fifth tee. Keek round there; it’s an ageing Hugh Grant STILL trying to gatecrash a St Andrews University freshers’ party.

“I look forward to this every year,” said the 2010 champion Martin Kaymer ahead of this week’s £3.3 million links test at the Old Course, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie . “I get to play with my dad and my brother will caddie for him. It will be entertaining … and they will argue once in a while.”

With its sizeable prize fund, the Dunhill Links remains one of the most lucrative on the European Tour and Kaymer, a loyal supporter of the circuit that made him, is more than happy to pitch up. While many of his peers in the giddy echelons have upped sticks and re-located to the USA as they juggle competition on both sides of the Atlantic, Kaymer’s home will always be in his native Germany.

It’s not easy trying to balance European and PGA Tour commitments, as Kaymer has discovered. Due to the fact that he did not play the required minimum of 15 events on the US circuit this season, the 30-year-old has, essentially, forfeited his membership for next season although, as the 2014 US Open champion, he’ll still get a maximum of 12 PGA Tour starts through his exemption as a major champion.

“I think the PGA Tour make it a bit difficult for the guys who live in Europe,” he said. “When you’re playing on both tours and living in America, it’s a little bit easier because some of the events that count on both tours – the WGCs, three majors - are in America anyway. That’s the tricky part for myself. The positive thing for me is that I can be at home more and I don’t need to worry about going back and forth. I think in the media, my situation was more negatively written about but I see it as a positive.”

With one year to go until the 2016 Ryder Cup – yes, the hoopla and the countdown to the match at Hazeltine began yesterday – Kaymer is not setting all of his sights on the biennial battle just yet but the contest remains one of the driving forces behind his decision to stay true to his European school. On the other side of the coin, meanwhile, Englishman Paul Casey has stated that he may not take out his European Tour membership next year after a successful stint playing exclusively on the PGA circuit in the US. That would mean he would be ineligible for the Ryder Cup. “I would always pick the European Tour,” added Kaymer, who has played on the last three winning European Ryder Cup teams and knocked in the putt that completed the Miracle of Medinah in 2012. “This is where I’m from and this is where I live. If I was not a member of the tour, then I could never play the Ryder Cup again. That is a big reason for me to stay.”

All this transatlantic to-ing and fro-ing is something the Irish rookie, Paul Dunne, doesn’t need to worry about for the time being.

Just over two months ago, Dunne nervously stuck his tee into the Old Course turf and clattered away as the final round leader in the Open. By the end of the closing 18 holes on that manic Monday, the 22-year-old amateur had dropped back into 30th place. It had been a memorable, topsy-turvy week and one that he won’t forget in a hurry. “I think about it a lot more than you can imagine,” said the Dubliner.

Dunne, who gained the half point that secured Walker Cup victory for Great Britain and Ireland at Lytham recently, is back in a sun-soaked Auld Grey Toon as a professional and looking to make a swift impact in the paid ranks. In 2007, a certain Rory McIlroy pitched up in the Dunhill Links as a rookie just a few weeks after a Walker Cup, finished third and fast-tracked himself to the European Tour. “You can offer me anything that Rory has done and I’ll take it,” said a smiling Dunne, who negotiated his first test as a pro by progressing past stage one of the European Tour’s qualifying school last week. “It’s obviously achievable and I feel I can play well enough to contend this week. What Rory has done has been quite inspiring and there are many people with aspirations to do what he did.”

There will be no McIlroy here this week but there are one or two Irish big-hitters like Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington as well as former major champions such as Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel. On the home front, there was disappointment for Richie Ramsay, who finished joint second a year ago, as he was forced to withdraw with an eye complaint.