A Silver Medal may have eluded Irish amateur Paul Dunne at The 143rd Open Championship but the 21-year-old student left Hoylake at the weekend with a clearer picture of his bright future.

The date of the 2014 Irish Open has been confirmed but to be staged the same week as the British Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush.

Given the financial rewards accrued by our top golfers, it is little surprise that many of the country’s outstanding amateurs have aspirations of someday sharing in the massive riches available from the professional game.

If there’s an exact science to producing a conveyor belt of golfing talent, it’s yet to be discovered.

Paul Cutler and Michael McGeady lead an Irish bid for a home victory when the PGA EuroPro Tour resumes today with the opening round of the Kingspan Concra Wood Open on the shores of Lough Muckno in Monaghan.

Qualifying for a major championship would be considered a good week’s work in any golfer’s estimation but, instead of basking in his success, Elliot Saltman went out and won a tournament.

Ireland’s Paul Cutler sits just one shot off the pace at the EuroPro Tour’s Audi Cork Irish Masters with plenty of Irishmen still in contention heading into today’s third and final round at Fota Island.

Michael Collins is making the most of his 888poker.com EuroPro Tour experience at Fota Island Resort this week as he targets a shot at the European Tour Qualifying School this autumn.

Golf fans unable to get to Royal Portrush this week for the sold-out 2012 Irish Open will be able to see some of the game’s stars of the future in action next week when the 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour returns to Fota Island Resort.

MUNSTER golfers Cian McNamara, Aaron O’Callaghan and David Higgins yesterday played themselves into promising positions after the first day of the second qualifying stage of the European Tour School at four venues in Spain.

FOTA ISLAND’S acclaimed Golfand Spa resort will be put on the open market by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) “within weeks”.

Michael Hoey has claimed his second European Tour golf title of the year by winning the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews.

DAVID HIGGINS tees it up at the Irish Open, presented by Discover Ireland, tomorrow confident he can parlay his Irish PGA Order of Merit lead into a strong European Tour showing.

HOMETOWN pro Daniel Sugrue is still sweating on the final available invitation to next week’s Irish Open, presented by Discover Ireland 2011.

KILLARNEY’s Danny Sugrue has given himself the opportunity of a massive confidence boost heading into the Irish Open on his home course with a strong finish today in the EuroPro Tour’s Audi Cork Irish Masters at Fota Island.

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.

FOTA ISLAND’S Belvelly course can offer EuroPro Tour golfers a very good test when the Audi Cork Irish Masters gets underway at the resort tomorrow, says director of golf Kevin Morris.

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.

FOTA ISLAND’S 27-hole golf complex is ready to host another Irish Open, says the Cork resort’s Director of Marketing Seamus Leahy.

FOTA ISLAND RESORT’S Seamus Leahy has welcomed next month’s return of championship golf to the Cork resort.

THE Team Ireland Golf Trust yesterday announced grants worth €217,000 to 17 aspiring men and women pursuing careers on professional tours around the world.

For 212 assorted amateurs and professionals the dream of playing in The Open at Birkdale is still alive following yesterday’s 16 regional qualifying tournaments around Ireland and Britain.

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

WHAT a difference a week makes. Seven days ago, 28-year-old Colm Moriarty from Athlone was relying on invitations to Challenge Tour events as he attempted to get his career back on track after a dismal 2006 season.

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.

Neil Walker closed in on victory in the latest PGA EuroPro Tour event with a fantastic performance on the second day.

WIDE fairways, light rough and little wind combined to leave Killarney’s Lackabane course at the mercy of the field in yesterday’s opening round of the Ireland Ryder Cup Challenge tournament.

THE Team Ireland Golf Trust have announced funding of over a quarter of a million euro for 29 Irish golfers.

FOR the first time since that memorable week at Oakland Hills last month, the 12-man European Ryder Cup team comes together for the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama on Thursday.

THE Irish trio of Stephen Browne, David Higgins and Michael Hoey will head for the European Tour Qualifying School Finals after missing out on their cards at the European Challenge Tour’s Bouygues Telecom grand final in Bordeaux, France, yesterday.

Kariem Baraka, nephew of Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer, blazed his way to a superb nine-under-par round of 63 to lead the BMW Russian Open in Moscow by two shots.

LAST Saturday, few outside his closest friends in Kerry knew much, if anything, about Danny Sugrue.