As European golf chiefs battle to retain sponsors and a healthy schedule their compatriots across the Atlantic are basking in the game’s high profile stateside.

Only a short few years ago, the chances of any player leading the orders of merit on both the PGA and European Tours were slim in the extreme.

As recession bites, enticing golf’s big names is a luxury Spain can no longer afford, says David Henry

Shane Lowry will join a number of fellow European Tour members in taking advantage before the advent of new changes and enter this year’s PGA Tour Qualifying School.

The European Tour have confirmed that next month’s Andalucia Masters at Valderrama has been cancelled.

It’s that time of year when European Tour golfers are perusing the rankings with greater interest.

Spain’s Sergio Garcia moved two shots clear with a round to play at The Barclays in Farmingdale as he chased back-to-back titles on the PGA Tour.

SPEND an hour or two in Shane Lowry’s company and you quickly find an uncomplicated young man with a bright, positive attitude to life and one whose head won’t be turned by fame and fortune.

BELGIUM’S Nicolas Colsaerts leads the Volvo Golf Champions by four strokes after surging clear of the field with a course-record 64 at Fancourt in South Africa today.

Next year’s European Tour will again include just one event Ireland, two in England, one in Wales and three in Scotland.

Next year’s European Tour has been confirmed with the Irish Open switching from late July to the end of June, but with a venue yet to be announced.

GRAEME McDOWELL is targeting a successful end to the season to ease his workload for 2012 as the Irishman bids for his first European Tour title of the year at the Singapore Open.

KEEGAN BRADLEY has not stopped pinching himself all year — and he was at it again yesterday after taking the lead in the final world championship of the season.

RORY McILROY is gunning for Luke Donald.

Sergio Garcia has climbed from 31st to 18th in the world following his second successive victory at the Andalucia Masters.

THE excited Valderrama crowd cheered Sergio Garcia home to a hugely significant victory for himself and Spain yesterday but the sparse but vocal Irish in the gallery also had plenty to shout about after a superb final day performance by Shane Lowry at the Andalucia Masters.

Sergio Garcia made it two wins in a row today – but it was far tougher than the first of them.

Sergio Garcia was locked in a battle with fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez after failing to make the start he was hoping for in the final round of the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama today.

A 20-foot putt on the short third kept Scotland’s Richie Ramsay in control of the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama today.

A red hot putter combined with a delightful touch around the greens has Shane Lowry sitting in a share of 6th place in the €3 million Andalucia Masters at Valderrama.

Sergio Garcia, seeking a second successive win and with it a place in next week’s world championship, remained in joint fifth place after seven holes of his second round in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama.

Four days after proclaiming “Bring on Valderrama”, Scotland’s Richie Ramsay rose to the challenge of continental Europe’s toughest course today.

Peter Lawrie is the leading Irishman of the Andalucía Masters in Spain.

Scotland’s Richie Ramsay made a blistering start to the Andalucia Masters today, surging to seven under par after just 11 holes of his opening round.

HOLDER Graeme McDowell is chasing his first tournament success of 2011. Peter Lawrie is bidding to put his place in the Race to Dubai order of merit on the European Tour beyond any further doubt. Shane Lowry badly needs a big finish to get back among the top 60 who make it to the Emirates for the cash rich Dubai World Championship in December.

FRESH from his remarkable 11 strokes victory in front of his home fans in Castellon on Sunday, Sergio Garcia has moved down the coast in western Spain to Valderrama where the €3m Andalucia Masters gets underway tomorrow.

THIS time last year, Graeme McDowell was the toast of the golfing world.

Sergio Garcia is finally back as a winner in golf – but he needs to do it again this Sunday if he is to play in next week’s world championship in China.

TOURNAMENT host Sergio Garcia exhibited the winning form the golf world has missed in recent years crushing his rivals to capture the Castellon Masters by a career-best 11 strokes.

THERE is a real spring in Michael Hoey’s step ahead of tomorrow’s Castellon Masters with the latest Irish winner on Tour targeting a return next April to Augusta National on the 10th anniversary of his only Masters appearance.

DARREN CLARKE has enjoyed something of a golfing honeymoon since his magnificent victory in the Open Championship at Royal St Georges in July.

KEEGAN BRADLEY’S victory in the US PGA Championship on Sunday was cause for celebration in Kenmare in the early hours of Monday but otherwise the week in Atlanta was a bitter disappointment for Ireland’s best.

GRAEME MCDOWELL last night dismissed his last round collapse in the US Players Championship as “a blip on the radar” and placed it a long way behind Rory McIlroy’s Masters meltdown last month.

GRAEME McDOWELL, now up to fifth in the world rankings, is confident that a change from Callawayto Srixon clubs will not harm hisprospects of making a strong start tothe new season in Hawaii this week.

US OPEN champion Graeme McDowell, his Rathmore clubmate Alan Dunbar; Danielle McVeigh from Royal Co Down and Bill Gibson from the Curragh have been chosen for their annual awards by the Irish Golf Writers Association.

FÁILTE IRELAND’S commitment to the Irish Open, at least for 2011, means that the country’s flagship golf tournament will go ahead for the second successive year and for the fourth time in all at Killarney on July 28-31 next.

Graeme McDowell is up to a career-high seventh in the world after his amazing victory over Tiger Woods in California.

TWELVE months ago, Rory McIlroy arrived in Dubai leading the Euro-pean Tour order of merit but was caught on the line by the fast finishing Lee Westwood.

TIGER WOODS is in unfamiliar territory at this week’s HSBC Champions tournament, but the American has no intention of changing his approach to the game as he bids to regain the world number one spot from Lee Westwood.

LEE WESTWOOD has been officially confirmed as golf’s new world number one.

GRAEME McDOWELL has joined the world’s top ten for the first time in his career after his hard-earned victory in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama.

Lee Westwood insists Tiger Woods should not be written off after deposing the American as world number one.

GRAEME McDOWELL emerged from what he described as a war of attrition at Valderrama yesterday to capture his third title of a momentous season and appreciably narrow the gap between himself and the German Martin Kaymer in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai order of merit.