Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington aim to make a splash when they arrive for their showdown at Lough Erne today.

The pair are being flown to the plush new resort from Enniskillen airfield over Lower Lough Erne by seaplane.

Waiting to greet them at the resort’s small pier will be owner Jim Treacy and Enterprise minister Arlene Foster.

The pair go head-to-head over 18 holes strokeplay for a winner takes all $300,000.

Neither player particularly needs the cash but will quite happily pocket it along with the bragging rights going along with the cheque.

And the smart money is on the Holywood 20-year-old to prevail, given Harrington’s much publicised troubles with his game this season. The outcome might not be that important in the overall scheme of things — really the event is being staged to showcase the new Sir Nick Faldo design which only opened to the public last month.

Jutting out into the Lough, it really couldn’t be a more spectacular setting for a Championship course and Treacy hopes today will be the first of many big events to be staged there.

It’s certainly a potential future venue for the Irish Open, although its relatively remote location might count against it in that regard.

Because there is only one match on the course tickets were limited to 4,000 and, according to the organisers, only a handful remain for sale this morning.

They can be purchased at Lilleys Centra store on the Belleek Road in Enniskillen or at a ticket booth in the official off-site car park, also on the Belleek Road.

McIlroy represents Lough Erne on Tour but this will be his first full 18 holes over the layout.

For Harrington, today represents a welcome break from the efforts he has been putting in both to rebuild his swing and to try and recapture the form of a year ago when he won two Majors in succession.

His defence of the US PGA is coming up at Hazeltine next month and he desperately wants to have his game back in some kind of shape by then. Despite assertions by his coach Bob Torrance last week that he had finally cracked it, palpably he hadn’t as he only just survived the cut at last week’s Open.

McIlroy won’t be back in serious action again until the WGC Bridgestone event in Akron, Ohio — an event won by Darren Clarke in 2003 — in a fortnight’s time.

Meanwhile, Portsewart’s Paul Cutler opened with a four-over 76 at the South of England Open Amateur Championship at Walton Heath in Surrey yesterday.

Niall Kearney spearheaded the strong Irish challenge and was one of only five players who broke the par of 72 on the challenging Old Course — and he is now in an excellent position today to pile the pressure on his rivals as he moves to the New Course.

Kearney, a plus four-handicapper, did not put a foot wrong as he fired a 70, just a stroke behind young Stiggy Hodgson who recorded the day's lowest score on the Old Course.

A member of the Irish team which won the European Team championships for the second year on the bounce last summer and now a Walker Cup hopeful, Kearney took advantage of the par fives on the homeward stretch birdying two of the three.

The other four Irishmen in the field all played the Old Course yesterday, with Portmarnock's James Fox doing the best of them with a 74. Simon Ward from County Louth posted a 75 while Rathmore's St Andrews Links Trophy winner Alan Dunbar went round in 76.

Leading the way on the much easier New course was Jason Palmer from Kirby Muxloe who set a course record with a nine-under-par 63, which included four birdies and an eagle on the first nine, while he also birdied five of the last six holes.

Defending champion Luke Goddard is on 65 and still very much in contention while Wallace Booth, the Scottish Open strokeplay champion, handed in a 69.