AS always after an Open Championship, especially one at St Andrews, there are many talking points.

MATTEO MANASSERO, the player tipped to be Europe’s next golfing great, officially became a professional yesterday, two weeks after his 17th birthday and three days before he plays his home Italian Open.

THE more he thought about it, Augusta National and the Masters became a no-brainer for Tiger Woods as he figured out the best way to restart his golfing career.

It is now nearly 50 days since Tiger Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant and a tree – and still there is no word on his whereabouts or when he might resume his career.

A TELEPHONE call at the end of last year from Graeme McDowell, at the time a promising if slightly under achieving professional, to Conor Ridge, managing director of Horizon Sports Management, drastically changed both men’s golfing world.

The wrist injury suffered by Luke Donald at the US Open has now put him out of the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond this week.

The World Match Play Championship, not being staged this year for the first time since it began in 1964, will start a new era next season with a move from Wentworth to Spain and a new round-robin format.

Welsh Walker Cup player Rhys Davies, who qualified for the US Open in June, has turned professional and become a stablemate of Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie at International Management Group.

Scotland’s Richie Ramsay dealt a blow to Britain and Ireland’s hopes of winning back the Walker Cup by announcing today he was turning professional – just five weeks before the match against the Americans.

Five years after announcing a 10-year deal to sponsor the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, banking giants HSBC today announced that this October’s event will be their last.

Eighteen-year-old Oliver Fisher, who last week became the third youngest player to survive the European tour qualifying school, announced today that he is turning professional and becoming a stablemate of world number one Tiger Woods.

Six years after he thought his European Tour career was over, England’s Stuart Little has the chance this weekend to put the icing on easily the best season of his golfing life.

“WHATEVER my personal view might be, the reason I’m not playing the Seve Trophy is because of my schedule.”

Padraig Harrington today pulled out of the Open championship following the death of his father last night from cancer of the oesophagus.

Peter Hedblom heard the crack and knew what it meant – a broken leg and the end for the time being of his European tour career.

Colin Montgomerie and Ernie Els had to work hard to survive the halfway cut in the BMW Championship at Wentworth today – and then made an urgent appeal for water.

A GOLF magazine has revealed that top players like Vijay Singh and Ernie Els are available as playing partners to the public - if you have between $100,000 to $200,000 to spend on the privilege.

CORK-BORN Jackie Cott has been living the dream of many golfers this week by caddying for Greg Norman at the Heineken Melbourne Open.

The sports and celebrity management firm which represents clients such as Tiger Woods and Elizabeth Hurley is to be sold to a buyout specialist, it emerged today.

MARK MCCORMACK, once famously described as “the most powerful man in sport”, died in America yesterday, four months after suffering cardiac arrest and falling into a coma from which he never recovered.

AT LEAST four major property developers are believed to have formally expressed interest in building a national stadium.

Ian Woosnam has only to think back 12 months not to worry too much about his form going into the Cisco World Match Play Championship at Wentworth this week.

Belfast’s Michael Hoey, the British amateur champion who missed the halfway cut by only one shot at Augusta, is now a stablemate of three-time Masters champion Tiger Woods.

Organisers are still trying to fill the last three places in the 12-man field for the Cisco World Match Play championship at Wentworth on October 11-14.