MICHAEL COLLINS shares a name with one of Ireland’s most iconic figures but now the Cork native is desperate to be remembered for achievements of his own.

OPTIMISM is high a successful season for professional golf in this country will be maintained, in the €150,000 Challenge of Ireland tournament, starting over the picturesque Christy O’Connor Junior-designed Glasson course near Athlone this morning.

IF THE three key ingredients of a successful Irish golf resort — the course, the lodgings and the cuisine — were thoroughly critiqued, few would tick all the boxes as emphatically as Faithlegg Golf Club in Waterford.

Waterford's Gavin McNeill is hoping the European Challenge Tour can be his passport to golfing glory when he found his travel documents just in time to make a mad dash to the Galeria Kaufhof Pokal Challenge.