Rory McIlroy today said he was unable to clarify reports that he is leaving Horizon Sports Management to create his own management group, but revealed he has cleared the air with Graeme McDowell.

Graeme McDowell believes Rory McIlroy’s poor form this season is behind the world number two’s decision to leave Horizon Sports Management to create his own management group.

Alan Dunbar, the 2012 British Amateur champion who competed in the Masters earlier this month, has turned professional.

Paul McGinley to captain Europe at Gleneagles in 2014 followed by Darren Clarke at Hazeltine in 2016.

THE Chinese government has a history of detaining dissidents, but putting the US Open golf trophy under lock and key sounds too bizarre to be true.

Rory McIlroy says he remains “very close” to the man he dropped as his manager last month and insists there was “nothing personal at all” in the move that stunned golf.

DUBLIN-based sports management company Horizon, headed by Galway man Conor Ridge, pulled off its biggest coup yesterday with the news that US Open champion and world No 3 Rory McIlroy will become their latest acquisition after leaving Andrew “Chubby” Chandler’s International Sports Management (ISM) company.

THE announcement that Rory McIlroy split from management company International Sports Management (ISM), headed by Chubby Chandler, will come as a surprise to many but others who have been following Rory’s meteoric rise through the pro ranks saw this one coming.

Rory McIlroy has announced that he has joined Horizon Sports Management.

World number three and US Open champion Rory McIlroy has ended his association with management company International Sports Management, they announced today.

DARREN CLARKE flew out of Atlanta last night as delighted to be heading for a well-earned break as he was disappointed with the form that prompted his missed cut at the PGA Championship.

THERE may be green, white and gold at the top of the Irish Open presented by Discover Ireland leaderboard heading into today’s second round but it belongs to an Indian, not any one of the four Irish Major champions who drew in the big crowds in Killarney yesterday.

GOLF agent Andrew ’Chubby’ Chandler is hoping the ground will not be too soft at York today as Hoof It warms up for Glorious Goodwood.

HE was Andrew Chandler’s first client and in winning The British Open, Darren Clarke has delivered the third leg of what would be a remarkable “Chubby Slam” for the founder of International Sports Management.

IT WAS a chilly, windy morning for the third round of the Irish Close Championship at Tramore in 1987.

Rory McIlroy’s first major has been a couple of decades in the making — but it has built a solid foundation for future success

WHATEVER about his US Open chances this week, Rory McIlroy has been backed by Ernie Els to change the face of golf once he makes his major breakthrough.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL emerged triumphant at the Masters last night at the end of a thrilling final day at Augusta National that saw Rory McIlroy's hopes of a fabled Green Jacket disappear in heartbreaking fashion.

TIGER WOODS has a final chance to claim his first victory of the year at this week’s Chevron World Challenge and close the curtain on a 2010 campaign he described as “very painful”.

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

RORY McILROY suspects he might still have been unable to catch runaway eight-shot winner Louis Oosthuizen no matter what happened in Friday’s second round, but he also realises his failure to cope with the dreadful conditions cost him, at the very least, a serious chance of challenging for the claret jug.

TWO years after crashing out of the British Open at Royal Birkdale with rounds of 80 and 89 John Daly lit up St Andrews yesterday with more than just his trousers.

JOHANN RUPERT, chief of the South African company Dunhill, one of the European Tour’s chief sponsors for many years, laid it on the line for players and officials at the annual Tour dinner on Tuesday night.

RORY McILROY made it look like child’s play but the Ulsterman’s stunning PGA Tour breakthrough at Quail Hollow required some intense work behind the scenes from his backroom team.

RORY McILROY’S outstanding4th place in the HSBC-WorldGolf Championship in Shanghai at the weekend has moved him to within touching distance of a Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor next October.

The start of the second round of the Quinn Insurance British Masters has been delayed because of fog.

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.

Chris Wood, the 20-year-old English amateur who finished a brilliant joint fifth at The Open eight days ago, has decided to turn professional.

Darren Clarke has withdrawn from next week’s United States PGA championship, the last major of the season, and now seems likelier than ever to miss next month’s Ryder Cup, the first to be held in Ireland, as well.

Tournament golf returns to The Belfry in May – and for obvious reasons Paul McGinley is delighted.

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

Peter Williams

THE PGA Championship week could hardly have opened on a brighter note for Lee Westwood.

WEATHER delays or not, it was a marvellous weekend for Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Fiji's Vijay Singh.

DARREN CLARKE and Graeme McDowell will head the field in the first European Challenge Tour event to take place in Northern Ireland when they tee up in the Northern

DAVID Duval, who showed a very welcome return to form when shooting 62 in the Capital Open in Maryland last weekend, is an almost certain starter in the Smurfit European Open at the K-Club on June 3-6, writes Charlie Mulqueen.

Three leading golf management companies whose clients include Ireland's Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey today announced a joint venture agreement on the eve of the US Open.

Prize money at the British Masters next year is going up by over £200,000 (€313,000) following an agreement reached between the European tour and the International Sports Management company.

YOU might have expected Darren Clarke to have enough on his plate with the $5.5 million American Express World Championship over the next four days followed immediately