It turned out to be a day too far for the Irish at St Andrews yesterday.

Every year around this time our neighbours across the Irish Sea treat the sporting world to a bonanza of world class events like the British Grand Prix, Wimbledon and the Open Championship.

Shane Lowry will go into today’s Scottish Open with a new look and a determination to ignore the expectation building around him ahead of next week’s Open Championship at St Andrews.

Golf returns to the Olympic Games next year after more than a century in the wilderness but a ceremony conducted on the fifth tee at Ballybunion over the weekend served as a reminder that the game has made a small contribution to Irish sporting success on the world’s biggest stage.

Veteran BBC commentator Peter Alliss has said that the corporation should have tried harder to win the rights to the Open Championship and that attempts to give women equal rights in golf have “caused mayhem”.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wowed New York as they ended their US Tour by attending a glamourous fundraising event in aid of their old university.

Women who have made a “significant contribution” to golf will be first in line to join the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, if the club votes in favour of women members.

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has announced it will recommend women be finally allowed to join the club, 260 years after it was founded.

Conference side Kidderminster will take on Premier League Sunderland in the FA Cup fourth round after they claimed a 3-2 win over Peterborough in their replay at London Road.

’All fours’ runner sets 100m record

Flies may not be deep thinkers but they can make good decisions very quickly to avoid being swatted.

All animals and plants will vanish from the Earth within the next billion years, a new study suggests.

A real-life miniature version of the “tractor beam” featured in the 'Star Trek' series has been created by a team of scientists which could be used in medical testing.

The Face of God

Two Halifax companies that are part of the Lloyds banking group have brought petitions for transfer of their life and non-life insurance businesses to two London-based based companies within the Lloyds Banking Group.

Huge plant-eating dinosaurs may have produced enough greenhouse gas by breaking wind to alter the Earth’s climate, research suggests.

What It Means To Be Human, Joanna Bourke

THERE is one possible solution to the Government’s difficulty in providing adequate funding for special needs education.

It’s called The Open — always has been and always will be

Alex McLeish has resigned as manager of Birmingham City.

RATHMORE’S Alan Dunbar believes his hopes of making this year’s Walker Cup team have been damaged by what he described as a “stupid” decision by the Golfing Union of Ireland not to take up its option of four exemptions for this weekend’s prestigious St Andrews Links Trophy.

Birmingham have confirmed the release of Kevin Phillips, Sebastian Larsson and Lee Bowyer following the club’s relegation from the Barclays Premier League.

It’s less than two weeks to the wedding of the year. Allison Pearson looks at Kate Middleton and asks if she can save the royal family.

It was like St Andrews all over again in The Masters today as 21-year-old Rory McIlroy displayed his talents for all the world to see.

FORMER Waterford senior hurling star Fergal Hartley is set to assume the managerial reins of the county U21 side for the coming season.

CONSUMERS could have a new incentive to eat fruit after a study found that eating heavily pigmented produce such as carrots and plums makes people more attractive.

A SEVEN-POINT return from games at home to Chelsea and on the road at Wigan and Birmingham is not to be sneezed at.

Reforming Stormont’s mandatory coalition system of government in the North will be a key priority for the Democrat Unionists in the future, party leader Peter Robinson indicated today.

An Northern Ireland Assembly bid to protect the Irish language failed tonight.

Lee Westwood gave himself a chance to become world number one with a superb charge at Carnoustie today, but little-known John Parry was still the man to catch in the Dunhill Links Championship.

FORMER Northern Ireland international Keith Gillespie has been declared bankrupt, it was revealed yesterday.

Scotland’s most-capped player, Chris Paterson, is returning to the national squad for a three-day training camp in St Andrews later this month.

IT seems inconceivable that a man could walk off the Old Course at St Andrews after shooting a nine under par 63 in the first round of the 150th Open Championship and feel just a little disappointed.

WHEN he arrived at St Andrews on Sunday and took a tour of the Old Course, 45-mile-per-hour winds were out of the west, meaning you could just about reach the par four 18th green with a hybrid or even a long iron.

FAY WELDON has often found herself in situations not of her own choosing.

Everton will be without midfielder Leon Osman at Birmingham tomorrow with a groin problem that is likely to sideline him for at least two weeks.

IT FELT like déjà vu at the Britannia on Saturday, as the Gunners stared down the barrel of another “there but for the grace of...” bone crunching, potentially career-wrecking challenge.

Sinn Féin has fulfilled its obligations in government and now wants unionists to do the same to avoid a political crisis, the North's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said today.

ALEX MCLEISH, the Birmingham City manager, was caught in the maelstrom of intense derby encounters on many occasions during his time at Glasgow Rangers – whether at Ibrox or Parkhead.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will today hold talks with the North's political leaders in Belfast as they broker an historic deal on sharing responsibility for the local justice system.

JAMES MCFADDEN scored an injury-time penalty to earn Birmingham a dramatic victory over Portsmouth at St Andrews.

Birmingham 1 Portsmouth 0