Golf fans will need to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to arrive in good time at Fota Island to watch the marquee draw in the first round of the Irish Open Championship.

EUROPEAN Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley last night came out strongly in favour of the current status of the Irish Open Championship even though it is still without a title sponsor and its prize fund at Fota Island this week is €2 million, well below what the European Tour and quite a number of leading players would like it to be.

ONE of the country’s premier golf clubs, which has been through several difficult years and has suffered a marked decline in business, expects to be operating profitably again from 2014.

Jose-Maria Olazabal tried everything to play down his prospects of bridging the 23-year gap since he last won the Irish Open Championship.

This country has produced many of the game’s finest but for reasons not always easy to fathom, their record at the Irish Open is a long way short of what might have been expected.

Another senior figure at a financially troubled top golf club is to resign.

Course superintendent at Killarney Golf and Fishing Club David MacIndoe is leaving the club this week after almost 30 years in the position.

Members of a top golf club hit by a cash-flow crisis have been told “very deep and significant change” is needed to ensure its survival.

Many of the country’s leading amateur golfers have signed up for the Killarney Scratch Cup, to be played over the Killeen Course on Saturday, July 21.

McElroy with an E

THREE major champions will be among the 27 home golfers taking part in the Irish Open Championship at Killarney from July 28 to 31.

THE companies that declined title sponsorship of the Irish Open must be kicking themselves given the hype and build up to next month’s tournament in Killarney.

TWENTY years ago, PJ Carroll, the then sponsors of the tournament, invested a considerable sum of money in attracting Payne Stewart to compete in the Irish Open Championship at Killarney.

THE FUTURE of the Irish Open Championship hangs in the balance after telecommunications company 3 yesterday dropped their sponsorship of the tournament.

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 certainty that there will be a fierce battle for places in the European Ryder Cup this year is good news for the ‘3’ Irish Open Championship at Killarney over the August Bank Holiday, less than a month before Colin Montgomerie’s team to face the USA at Celtic Manor is finalised.

OVERNIGHT leader Francesco Molinari of Italy and Ireland’s Michael Hoey committed cardinal golfing errors at Baltray yesterday and were disqualified from the 3 Irish Open Championship.

IRELAND’S global reputation as the home of golf’s greatest links courses will be further boosted this year with the confirmation that the Co Louth club at Baltray will stage the Irish Open Championship on May 14-17.

DON’T be a whingeing Pom! That was US Open champion Michael Campbell’s message to his colleagues complaining about the weather and the difficulty of the Montgomerie Course on the eve of the Nissan Irish Open Championship.

LIFE on the Challenge Tour has been more than a little frustrating for 25-year-old Colm Moriarty from Athlone.