The sunny south-east lived up to its reputation in style at Tramore, Co Waterford, yesterday when the opening day of the AIG Irish Close Championship was favoured by glorious weather conditions.

Memories of the 1987 final at Tramore will be revived this week when the AIG Irish Close Championship takes place over the outstanding seaside layout for the third time.

His success in the WGC Bridgestone Invitiational has made Shane Lowry a bona fide star of world golf, but followers of the European Tour will remember when he burst onto the scene in 2009, winning the Irish Open as an amateur at Baltray.

Triple Major champion Rory McIlroy has revealed that as a youngster he almost quit the game, but put it down to being a ‘grumpy teenager.’

Reaching 100 years as a golf club is not a rare achievement but it is no mean feat either, and the hope is that longevity is a sign of an institution that has earned its success on and off the course.

Des Morgan will chase his Mullingar Scratch Cup dream again today — just 10 weeks after a four-hour operation to have a faulty heart defibrillator replaced.

Kelan McDonagh confessed that golf has been put firmly in perspective by his girlfriend’s brave battle with cancer after he opened with a battling 72 to keep the leaders in his sights in the Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin.

REVITALISED Munster staged a dramatic fight back in the afternoon singles to force a tie with Leinster on the second day of the Golfsure Inteprovincial Championship at Douglas yesterday. Nevertheless, the stage is still set today for a showdown between Leinster and Ulster, who had a comfortable victory over Connacht and go into the decider with a 100% record.

THIS will be a big weekend on and off the course for several of our leading golfers.

SHANE LOWRY’S class isn’t confined to the golf course.

PAUL CUTLER continued his rich vein of form yesterday to grab a place among the first-round leaders in the European Amateur Individual Golf championship in Denmark.

UNDER normal circumstances, Albert Lee would have been across the Irish Sea in a flash to watch Pádraig Harrington defend his British Open title but, in the end, he decided he had no other option but to remain at home in Mullingar perched on his own couch.

A revitalised Rory McIlroy is licking his lips at the prospect of a head-to-head battle with Mark Campbell for the Mullingar Scratch Cup.

SOUTH of Ireland winner Cian McNamara (Limerick) and runner-up Greg Bowden (Hermitage) are the two new caps in the Irish team for the Home Internationals at Prestwick on September 8-10.

There are two new caps on the team selected to represent Ireland in the men’s Home Internationals from 8th-10th September at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.

IRELAND’S Darren Clarke returns to the scene of his greatest triumph this week when he contests the $5 million Accenture World Match Play Championship at La Costa in California.