How the times change eh? Eighty years ago, in 1937, the fledgling Scottish Open, scheduled to take place the week before The Open of that season at Carnoustie, was cancelled. It had been played in 1935 and 1936 but wouldn’t reappear on the scene again until 1972.

“I was told that the Royal & Ancient club would not allow the tournament to be played just before The Open in the same neighbourhood,” said the Scottish Open organiser A E Penfold, the heid honcho of that ye olde ball manufacturing company, in a report penned in the Glasgow Herald at the time.

These days, of course, the slot in the schedule the week before The Open is one of the most sought after on the European Tour. And it remains very much the Scottish Open’s domain. That 1937 tournament was set to carry a purse of £750. Next week, when the domestic showpiece gets underway at Dundonald Links, it will be $7 million.

As part of the tour’s new all-singing, all-dancing Rolex Series, the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open has enjoyed the kind of cash injection usually reserved for deals between the Conservatives and the DUP. With Rory McIlroy at the vanguard, some of the biggest names in the global business will be descending on Ayrshire before the bandwagon rumbles south to the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

For those also competing in this weekend’s Irish Open, another money-soaked bonanza in the Rolex Series, it is a rigorous run of links golf. It is also a chance to make some serious money.

Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the European Tour, has certainly tried to shoogle the tree with his energy, excitement, experiments and, er, blue-rimmed spectacles during his two years at the helm.

For Paul Lawrie, a sturdy stalwart of the circuit over a quarter-of-a-century, it has been an eye-opening period.

“Would I have envisaged playing for this much money at a Scottish Open? No I wouldn’t,” said the 1999 Open champion. “I remember the very first meeting we had with Mr Pelley when I was on the tournament committee. He told us that within 18 months he would have seven or eight events of $7 million or more. We were all sitting looking at each other and thinking ‘well we don’t have any of them at all at the minute’. To be fair he has done what he said he would do. At the time you were maybe thinking ‘this boy is nae going to do this’ but he has. And long may it continue.”

Things have moved on since Lawrie made his first tentative strides out on the European Tour in 1992. These days, the top brass get the kind of pampering that would make a Babylonian Prince look like a pauper under a bridge.

“When I started, there were maybe a few range balls but there were no courtesy cars and you had to get taxis to and from the course,” reflected Lawrie. “It’s all change now. Now you’re not happy if your courtesy car is a minute late let alone not getting a car at all.

“This is my 26th year on tour. I play my 600th event this year which is scary. I’m not sure when that is, mind you. It can’t be far away. There was talk it might have been the Scottish Open but I had to pull out of a couple. It's pretty soon.”

Amid the major champions and star attractions teeing-up on Thursday, it’s McIlroy who continues to stir the senses for Lawrie. The Northern Irishman has been so lightly raced this season due to injury that he added the Scottish Open to his schedule just recently.

“It’s huge for any field having Rory there,” said Lawrie. “He’s the best player when he’s on song. There are plenty of great players but for me Rory is the boy. If I was spectator I’d be paying my money to go to see him.”

With last year’s Scottish Open at Castle Stuart in Inverness seeing a notable plunge in attendance figures, there is optimism that the field and the location of Dundonald will spark a spike in those numbers.

“We are expecting very healthy crowds back,” said Bill Donald, the general manager of the Loch Lomond club of which Dundonald is the sister course. “If you can get the 50 to 60,000 plus mark then you’re back in the game. We would be expecting that for sure.”

Dundonald Links has already played host to some of the best players in the women’s game having held the Ladies' Scottish Open over the past couple of years. That event will return again in a two weeks’ time more lucrative than ever but, for the time being, Kyle Phillips, the designer behind the links, is intrigued to see how the main movers and shakers on the men's scene fare on a course that will play just over the 7000-yard mark.

“Anyone who wins any event these days has to be great around the greens,” said Phillips. “These greens at Dundonald roll away so you need to have that imagination and craftiness and those powers of recovery. It will suit those who are good tacticians and who are not daunted by the tight lies.”

So will Dundonald produce a birdie feast or a bogey fest? As ever with the links game, the answer will be blowing in the wind.

“The most concerned I ever was about someone going low on a course I designed was The Grove when he had the WGC there a few years ago,” said Phillips. “It was designed as a hotel course for good amateurs, never to have the world’s top 50. I was very concerned that someone would shoot a 59. If the wind is down and it’s damp at Dundonald, you may see low scores but if it’s dry and windy it goes the other way. We'll know after this event how much of a challenge it is.”

That challenge awaits.