Golf: The PGA of Ireland will be represented by Damien Mooney, Brendan McGovern and Michael McDermott at the International Team Championship at the Belek-based Gloria Hotels & Resorts in Turkey from December 8-11.

It’s been a very busy week on the PGA Irish Region circuit with five events staged across seven days in four counties.

BARRIE TRAINOR’S good form has closed the gap on Irish PGA Order of Merit leader David Higgins as the Lexus Race to Mount Juliet, in association with Ping, continues.

THREE major champions will be among the 27 home golfers taking part in the Irish Open Championship at Killarney from July 28 to 31.

A DOUBLE eagle blast on the back nine shot Barrie Trainor to the top of the leaderboard at Malahide in the north Dublin club’s annual pro-am tournament.

DES SMYTH, now 57, has already won the Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA Championship six times and quietly fancies his chances of a seventh title when the event gets underway over the Seapoint links, Termonfeckin, Co Louth this morning.

THE strength in depth of the European Tour was demonstrated graphically at Baltray yesterday when 89 players finished under par in the opening round of the 3 Irish Open. But Pádraig Harrington, the pre-tournament favourite and 2007 champion, was not a member of that elite group.

DONEGAL giant Michael McGeady feared he might have thrown away his chance of appearing in this week’s 3 Irish Open at Baltray when he faltered over the closing six holes of the Italian Open in Turin on Sunday.

AUSTRALIAN Brett Rumford, the winner when the event was previously staged at Baltray in 2004, and newly crowned Spanish Open champion Thomas Levet, are among the latest entries for the 3 Irish Open starting at the Co Louth links on Thursday week, May 14.

DNA samples were needed to identify a man who was murdered and whose body was dumped in a slurry pit, an inquest has heard.

THE European Tour School is an annual end of season exercise that tries the hearts and minds of young and old alike.

NICK DOUGHERTY’S dream of a first head-to-head with Tiger Woods was close to becoming reality after the second round of the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai.

THE inherent difficulty of the annual end-of-season European Tour School assumed new proportions yesterday for Dubliner Stephen Browne.

England’s Shaun Webster made a purposeful opening to his bid for a European Tour card as he set the early pace in the first round of the qualifying school final at San Roque.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON is hopeful that a recent run of good form will culminate in a serious challenge for this week’s inaugural HSBC Championship at the Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China.

IRELAND will have five players competing in this week’s European Tour School at San Roque in the south of Spain.

EAMONN BRADY, a former West of Ireland champion and a nephew of the celebrated Arsenal and Ireland footballer Liam Brady, represents Ireland’s best chance of reaching the European Tour School at San Roque next week as the field goes into the final round of the second pre-qualifier at Costa Ballena near Cadiz today.

FORMER Walker Cup player Noel Fox, fellow Dubliner Eamonn Brady and David Mortimer, the Galway-born Newlands club professional, battled back into contention for places in the European Tour School at San Roque next week with excellent rounds in yesterday’s second day of pre-qualifying at the Costa Ballena course near Cadiz in the south of Spain.

IRELAND will have a minimum of ten players on next season’s European Tour.

EIGHT Irish golfers came through the first qualifying stage of the European Tour Qualifying School over the St Annes Old Links in Lancashire yesterday.

AS Paul McGinley and co play for the £1 million first prize in the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, other matters are taxing the minds of hundreds of hopefuls all over Europe.

THE DONALD Steel-designed Lackabane course at Killarney hosts the first European Challenge Tour event in the Republic of Ireland over the next four days with the arrival of the Ireland Ryder Cup Challenge.

IRISH golf breaks new ground this week when the European Challenge Tour comes to our shores for the first time.