It was like a final insult in what was Rory McIlroy’s final event as the defending European No. 1 — being asked to tape a TV piece congratulating Henrik Stenson on succeeding him in winning the Race to Dubai.

Graeme McDowell today claimed his third win of the season, and third in eight events, with a hard-fought victory in the Alstom Open de France.

Rory McIlroy’s miserable run of form showed no sign of abating as he shot an opening-round 78 to finish six over par on the first day of the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

For more than three years, Shane Lowry has looked back on his famous victory in the Irish Open at Baltray with a variety of emotions.

THE European Tour and sponsors, the Andalucian Tourist Board, must have been furious the Andalucian Masters was bypassed by many marquee names in favour of the Shanghai Masters.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

THEY’RE both from the North of Ireland, they’re both members of the Horizon Sports Management team – and they’ll be playing together in the last match on the course in today’s third round of the Andalucia Masters.

THERE is a delightfully green hue to the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama, with the final match in today’s third round involving Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and Gareth Maybin.

HAVING celebrated his 36th birthday with just a sole European Tour victory to his credit — the 2008 Spanish Open — it is unlikely Peter Lawrie will ever qualify for superstar status on the European Tour.

FOUR years ago, 3 Irish Open Championship leader David Howell was ranked the ninth best golfer on the planet, one of the heroes of the 2006 European Ryder Cup team that thrashed the USA and was seemingly destined to challenge for golf’s highest honours.

FOUR Irish amateurs have the opportunity to emulate Shane Lowry’s amazing success at Baltray last year and upstage the professionals in the ‘3’ Irish Open Championship.

THE MAGNIFICENT victories at the weekend of Justin Rose in Ohio and Graeme McDowell in Wales coming on the back of the recent achievements by Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are piling the pressure on Padraig Harrington to end his title drought.

BETWEEN tying for third in the CA WGC Championship at the weekend and returning to the top 10 in the world and making a flying visit to Washington tomorrow to meet US President Barack Obama, 2010 is suddenly taking on a much brighter vista for Pádraig Harrington.

TIGER WOODS isn’t one of those American golfers content to sit at home from one end of the year to the other and flood his already overflowing bank account with still more dollars.

RORY McILROY is edging ever closer to taking the lead in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai order of merit.

IF one were to search for flaws in Pádraig Harrington’s mental approach to the game of golf, poor course management would figure well down the pecking order.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON returned to the world’s top ten as a result of tying for 2nd in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at the weekend but the picture isn’t quite so bright for most of the other leading Irishmen.

Paul Casey believes his maiden PGA Tour victory can propel him to Masters success this week.

Tiger Woods is poised to extend his astonishing winning streak after finishing day two of the CA Championship one stroke behind leader Geoff Ogilvy.

Tiger Woods notched his sixth victory in a row when he blew away hapless Stewart Cink by a record margin in the final of the Accenture Match Play Championship.