BALLYCLARE’S Gareth Maybin continued to stake his claim for a first Race to Dubai Tour success with a three under par 69 on the opening day of the BMW Italian Open in Turin.

Much has been made of England having eight players in next week’s Masters, but the South African contingent is arguably even stronger.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON is not about to throw in the towel but he has confessed he’s now staring at the near impossible odds of capturing a second European Number One crown.

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.

Sweden’s Michael Jonzon, with one European Tour win in 290 starts and fighting for his future, leads the Castello Masters in Spain with a round to play.

Francesco Molinari continued on his merry way at the Portugal Masters in sunny Vilamoura today – and Order of Merit leader Rory McIlroy was among those having to fight hard to stay in touch.

Witnessing Simon Dyson stride to victory on Monday appeared to have rubbed off on Darren Clarke today as he took the early lead in the Madrid Masters at Centro Nacional.

A year to go to the Ryder Cup, Colin Montgomerie had other things on his mind today after starting the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with a double-bogey six at Carnoustie.

PAUL McGINLEY is poised to end a four-year winless drought after producing his lowest opening two round scoring effort in 15 months in the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

Scotland's Paul Lawrie, whose 10-year European Tour exemption for winning The Open ends this season, leads the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles after the opening day.

THIRTY-NINE year-old Frenchman Christian Cevaer held his head while all around were losing theirs to win the European Open by a shot from England’s Steve Webster, the Scot Gary Orr and Spain’s Alvaro Quiros at a sunny London Club yesterday.

THE TUG-OF-LOVE that ensued between the rival agencies for Shane Lowry’s signature after his remarkable victory in the 3 Irish Open was always going to end in favour of Conor Ridge’s Dublin-based Horizon Sports Management.

FAR be it from me to take issue with Pádraig Harrington, one of the best intentioned people I know, but I am fully in favour of Shane Lowry’s decision to turn professional rather than wait until after the Walker Cup next September.

IRISH Open hero Shane Lowry will not compete in the €4.5mBMW PGA Championship starting at Wentworth on Thursday – but he will be a professional golfer by the end of the week.

Amateur Shane Lowry, playing what Colin Montgomerie called “incredible” golf, continued to live in a dream world at The 3 Irish Open at County Louth today - and is joint leader with England’s Robert Rock heading into the final round.

The failure of Padraig Harrington to survive the halfway cut at The 3 Irish Open left a hole to be filled when the tournament resumed at Baltray today.

IRISH golf had a day to remember at Baltray yesterday and, incredibly, Pádraig Harrington was not part of the feel-good story.

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.

Oliver Wilson defied the rain, the cold and a couple of injuries today to keep alive his hopes of finally registering his first European Tour victory.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON has made a disappointing start to the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. Having reached the turn in a highly impressive three under par 33, he missed a number of great chances on the way home before coming a cropper at the par three 17th.

Michael Hoey has move up to 148th in golf's world rankings after picking up his first European Tour title in Portugal yesterday.

Former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst moved into position today for a tilt at a third Portuguese Open title in five years.

From beating Tiger Woods to watching his comeback in an Arizona television studio less than 3 1/2 years later is not quite what David Howell had planned for his career.

Former Ryder Cup player David Howell’s climb back up the rankings after a nightmare slump was continuing in Vilamoura today.

Portuguese teenager Pedro Figueiredo cruised to an impressive seven-shot victory in the AIB Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin today.

Volvo China Open winner Damien McGrane insists his maiden victory on the European Tour will not cause him to change the way he plays.

Michael Lorenzo-Vera continued to impress at the Volvo China Open as he secured a one-stroke lead at the end of the second round in Beijing today.

France's Gregory Bourdy denied David Howell what would have been an amazing victory on Sunday night, winning the Portuguese Open at the third hole of a play-off at Oitavos Dunes.

England’s David Howell, Scot Alastair Forsyth and Frenchman Gregory Bourdy went into a play-off for the Portuguese Open today after they tied on 18 under par.

France’s Gregory Bourdy went from five ahead to two behind in the space of five holes at the Portuguese Open final round today.

France’s Gregory Bourdy takes a commanding four-stroke lead into the final round of the Portuguese Open at Oitavos Dunes tomorrow.

England’s Miles Tunnicliff today became the fifth player to shoot a course record 63 in the Portuguese Open at Oitavos Dunes to come from 40th place to one off the lead.

England’s Miles Tunnicliff improved from 40th to fourth with a lightning fast start to his third round in the Portuguese Open at Oitavos Dunes today.

Thomas Levet is heading to The Masters next week - to commentate, not to play - and it could be with a second successive European Tour victory to his name.

After six European Tour events this season in which he has not broken 70, Spain’s Pablo Martin returned to the scene of his triumph today and shot a course-record 63.

Another sign that Darren Clarke is on the way up again came this morning when he took the early lead in the Portuguese Open at Oitavos Dunes.

Paul McGinley will be leading the Irish challenge this morning at the Portugeuse Open in Estoril.

England’s Graeme Storm hopes to follow up his sixth place finish in Miami two weeks ago with victory in the Portuguese Open on Sunday – if he does not have to rush home first.

The Portuguese Open has attracted more big names than normal this week, but as David Howell admitted today: “We’re here because we’re not playing that well.”

Almost a year to the day that he was lying a shot off the lead at the Masters, David Howell goes into tomorrow’s Portuguese Open at Oitavos ranked 237th in the world – and with a new coach.

Rory McIlroy’s remarkable start to life as a professional golfer continued in the third round of the Madrid Open today.

Jean Van de Velde will not be returning to the scene of his British Open Championship heartbreak in two weeks’ time.

Marc Farry was back making golfing headlines on Thursday and, unlike last time, he was perfectly happy about it.

Bradley Dredge is not going to next week’s US Open, but Wales will still be represented there – by 22-year-old amateur Rhys Davies.