Shane Lowry will embrace the mantle of leading home hope at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open despite his determination to dismiss all talk of a potential victory.

Shane Lowry will get his Dubai Duty Free Irish Open campaign underway early on Thursday as part of an illustrious group also featuring Ryder Cup hero Tommy Fleetwood and defending champion Russell Knox.

World number one Jordan Spieth will look to make amends for one of the few mistakes he made in 2015 by winning the Northern Trust Open this week.

Golfers on the European Tour have a new item of clothing to pack in their suitcase. The tour confirmed it will allow players to wear shorts during practice rounds and pro-ams, after the policy was passed unanimously by a tournament committee in Abu Dhabi.

At 66 and with his sights firmly trained on a top 10 finish in this week’s British Seniors Open at Royal Porthcawl, Cork’s Denis O’Sullivan is focused.

It was only pro-am day at Fota yesterday but already the support for Pádraig Harrington was palpable.

When the US Open returns to Pinehurst next week, a few crucial elements will be missing from the last time it was staged there, back in 2005.

South Africa’s George Coetzee held on to his overnight lead with a second round of 69 in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on Thursday.

Rory McIlroy will head into the Open Championship at Muirfield on the back of a missed cut at the Irish Open – and was joined in making an early exit by fellow major winners Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke.

Rory McIlroy has admitted withdrawing from the Honda Classic last week was “not the right thing to do”.

Tiger Woods made a blistering start to his second round at the Farmers Insurance Open today to race into a three-shot lead in La Jolla, California.

THE new “Nike Chums” Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods remain the top two players in the world golf rankings in spite of missing the cut in last week’s Abu Dhabi Championship.

World No 1 Rory McIlroy and 14-time Major winner Tiger Woods have led the praise following the appointment of Paul McGinley to captain the2014 European Ryder Cup side.

Colin Montgomerie would be mad to entertain the thought of returning as Europe’s captain for the 2014 Ryder Cup, according to triple Major winner Pádraig Harrington.

The wisdom of the old expression of horses for courses was rarely more amply demonstrated than at Sherwood Country Club on Sunday when Graeme McDowell captured his second Tiger Woods World Challenge title in three years, and with it the winners cheque for $1m (€765,733).

A little sooner than he would probably have preferred after his British Open meltdown, Adam Scott renews rivalry with Ernie Els in this week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club.

Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano overcame a desert storm to grab the lead away from American John Daly on the opening day of the Commercialbank Qatar Masters in Doha today.

Whether you agree paying Tiger Woods more in appearance money than the entire prize fund was worth in Abu Dhabi at the weekend or not, he contributed hugely to the success of the tournament.

TIGER WOODS, along with the top four players in the world rankings, will contest this week’s Abu Dhabi Championship.

HE has turned 40, fallen to 89th in the world rankings and lost his most benevolent sponsor.

Luke Donald pointed his two index fingers to the sky today after completing an unprecedented double – a double that has earned the English world number one an amazing £8m (€9.4m).

TIGER WOODS thinks his late father would have been proud of him for finally ending more than two years without a win — and especially the way he did it.

Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie were today among those hoping to take advantage of more perfect conditions in the second round of the Dunhill Links Championship.

Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer began the year battling with each other and that was how it was again today as Ryder Cup qualifying started in Switzerland.

AWARE the Irish Open would go ahead in 2011 without a title sponsor, the country’s leading players promised to do all they could to ensure the success of the championship.

PÁDRAIG Harrington was, for once, not conceding an inch to golf’s outside the ropes tournament referees following his latest brush with the rules on Sunday.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON insists he will have to get back to his match play roots if he is avoid a first-round sucker-punch at the hands of Australian heavyweight Geoff Ogilvy in the $8.5m (€6.2m) WGC –Accenture Match Play in Tucson.

THE Irish trio at this week’s Accenture World Match Play in Tucson enter the event with contrasting form.

Tiger Woods will tee off with the two players ahead of him on the world rankings – Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer – in the first two rounds of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday and Friday.

Lee Westwood has the chance to throw down the gauntlet to Martin Kaymer in their duel for the world number one spot at the Qatar Masters this week.

STUNG at his relegation to third in the world rankings, Tiger Woods emerges from his winter hibernation in this week’s Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.

Germany’s Martin Kaymer was given the Abu Dhabi Championship trophy to keep today after winning it for the third time in four years – by a runaway eight-shot margin over Rory McIlroy.

Not even a birdie-eagle finish from Rory McIlroy could put Martin Kaymer off his stride today as he closed in on a third Abu Dhabi Championship in four years.

Martin Kaymer expressed sympathy for Padraig Harrington after taking charge of the Abu Dhabi Championship today.

Charl Schwartzel has been tipped for super-stardom ever since he won a European Tour card just after his 18th birthday in 2002 – and maybe now it is about to happen.

Jose Maria Olazabal today described becoming Europe’s new Ryder Cup captain “my proudest moment”.

Graeme McDowell has now moved level with Phil Mickelson in fourth place in the world rankings as both build up to this week’s Abu Dhabi Championship.

IT HAS been a while since Pádraig Harrington played a round of professional golf but that isn’t to say he has been resting on his laurels over the festive season and the turn of the year.

RORY McIlroy is working harder than ever to get ready for the new season after splitting up with his girlfriend of six years over the Christmas break.

THE many American commentators who wondered aloud about Graeme McDowell’s worthiness to be crowned US Open champion after his great victory at Pebble Beach last June have been forced to eat another dose of humble pie after the latest heroics by the Portrush man in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Sunday.

Martin Kaymer today became the European Tour's youngest number one since Ronan Rafferty in 1989.

CAREERS honed on the windswept links gems of Ireland paid dividends for all six Irish players on the opening day of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha.

RORY McILROY will live the high life this week despite a downturn in his world ranking.