Gary Hurley will look to make the most of home comforts when the European Challenge Tour returns to Ireland for the Volopa Irish Challenge hosted by Mount Wolseley Hotel Spa and Golf Resort.

Like the 46A bus to Dun Laoghaire, which would take an age to come and then arrive with another stuck to its exhaust pipe, there are signs that things are about to start moving apace in Irish golf.

From the Senior Cup to a World Celebrity Pro-Am, it has been quite the journey for Irish PGA professional Brian O’Donovan.

Niall Kearney, the 26-year-old European Challenge Tour player from Royal Dublin, achieved an ambition he has chased since turning professional in 2009 when he birdied the 18th hole at Adare Manor yesterday to capture the 104th Irish Professional Championship.

He may never match the feats of his major-winning father Darren but Tyrone Clarke has dipped his toes into competitive golfing waters this year and yesterday strutted his stuff in the Pro-Am ahead of this week’s Northern Ireland Open Challenge at Galgorm Castle.

Pádraig Harrington suffered a meltdown on the final day of the Travellers Championship last night, finishing his final round in 80 — 10 over par.

Two armchair viewing experiences crystallise the story of Nicolas Colsaerts’ journey to a Ryder Cup debut this weekend in Chicago.

IRELAND’S Michael Hoey and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood stormed clear of a host of big names, sharing the second-round lead at the Dunhill Links Championship yesterday.

Thomas O’Flynn pro golfer; Danny Nickless, Operations Manager, PGA EuroPro Tour and Kevin Morris Director of Golf, Fota Island Resort all set for Audi Cork Irish Masters today in Cork.

PGA EuroPro Tour boss Danny Nickless has thrown down the gauntlet to Ireland’s young professional golfers to make their mark at the Audi Cork Irish Masters this week and take an important step towards life in big-time golf.

RORY McILROY will have his first session on his home driving range this week after revealing that the state of the art practice facility he has building at his Holywood home in Northern Ireland is finally ready to use.

FOR a man who began the week with a performance that ranked as “the worst I have ever hit it as aprofessional,” Rory McIlroy left the Egyptian Open the knowledge that he is on the way back to his after finishing the tournament with his lowest score of the week, a four under par 68.

WHEN he drove into a bush at the second and took a penalty drop on the way to a double bogey six, Shane Lowry began to wonder if he could even break 80 in yesterday’s second round of the Open Championship at St Andrews, let alone finish among the top 30 by the end of proceedings.

GARETH MAYBIN played the 17th and18th in yesterday’s first round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in eight shots.

A storming finish to his round enabled Trevor Fisher Jnr to share a five-way tie at the top of a clustered leaderboard after day one of the Africa Open in East London today.

THE six nations bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup in Europe have been invited to come together at a Heathrow hotel on January 13 to share opinions, information and questions.

The six nations bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup in Europe have been invited to come together at a Heathrow hotel on January 13 to share opinions, information and questions.

The Omega Mission Hills World Cup is set for a three-way final-round tussle after defending champions Sweden and Italy trimmed Ireland’s lead to just one stroke after today’s third-round fourballs.

Padraig Harrington’s fourth place finish in the US Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship puts him third on the European Ryder Cup table.

NORTHERN Ireland’s Jimmy Heggarty played himself into contention at The De Vere Collection PGA Seniors Championship with a superb three-under-par 69 to lie two shots behind clubhouse leader Angel Franco.

Journeyman professional Jeff Brehaut is intent on enjoying his time at the top of the US Open leaderboard, however long it lasts at Bethpage Black.

DONEGAL giant Michael McGeady feared he might have thrown away his chance of appearing in this week’s 3 Irish Open at Baltray when he faltered over the closing six holes of the Italian Open in Turin on Sunday.

IT’S been revealed Frenchman Jean Francois Lucquin celebrated last week’s Omega Masters European Tour maiden Tour success with champagne intended for Rory McIlroy.

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.

Irish former US collegians Peter O’Keeffe and Niall Turner came up short on their respective bids for major tour cards this week.

Ian Poulter is hoping he and England partner Justin Rose can continue their recent success and demonstrate a potential Ryder Cup pairing at the inaugural Omega Mission Hills World Cup this week.

JUSTIN KEHOE couldn’t be blamed if he hardly knew where he stood these days.

IT WASN’T easy to look star struck at Carnoustie yesterday as a miserable, unrelenting mist — or haar as the Scots like to call it — swept over the great old course from the nearby North Sea.

World Cup winner Marcel Siem is following the example of Thomas Bjorn by personally supporting an event on the European Challenge Tour.

France’s Adrien Mork has become the first player to score 59 on the European Challenge Tour – and it even included a double bogey.

England’s Shaun Webster made a purposeful opening to his bid for a European Tour card as he set the early pace in the first round of the qualifying school final at San Roque.

KILKENNY’S Gary Murphy needs to win the £1m Mallorca Classic at Pula to ensure qualification for next week’s season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama.

WITH Seve Ballesteros playing his first stroke play tournament in two years and Colin Montgomerie bidding to improve his number one position in the European Tour, this week’s Madrid Open assumes more interest.

HAVING ousted the holders Enniscrone in Thursday’s semi-final, Moate overcame Newcastle West by three and a half matches to one and a half to capture the BMW sponsored Irish Mixed Foursomes at Monkstown Golf Club yesterday.

Rory McIlroy, the 16-year-old Irish amateur champion, outplayed each of his professional countrymen to be the only Irishman to survive the halfway cut at the European Challenge Tour’s Morson International Pro-Am Challenge yesterday.

IRISH Amateur Champion Rory McIlroy made an impressive European Challenge Tour debut at the Morson International Pro-Am in Manchester yesterday.