Intriguing personality, this Aussie Jason Day.

Dustin Johnson’s supporters say that what gets overlooked when you focus on the ending to his 2010 PGA Championship is how well he played to charge into the lead. 

If Arnold Palmer romanticised the American pilgrimage to the Open Championship and Jack Nicklaus cemented its competitive importance, Tom Watson humanised it.

When in a cool, gray dusk in the shadows of the Old Course Hotel Tiger Woods turned from his practice-putting at the 16th fairway to see that Jordan Spieth was the next player approaching, the philosophical question could have been asked.

In the surrounds of the richest golf ambiance anywhere and on the threshold of the oldest championship the sport knows, it probably isn’t the proper time to ask if you’ve ever heard of the Greater Milwaukee Open or the Quad City Classic or something called the BC Open, or even the LaCantera Texas Open.

One can only imagine that on occasion a member of the Myopia Hunt Club north of Boston — clear across America by some 3,000 miles from Chambers Bay and the 115th U.S. Open — will come across a golf ball long ago lost by one W.E. Stoddard. 

Veteran presenter Bill O’Herlihy has confessed that he never liked former Republic of Ireland manager Jack Charlton.

It took some of golf’s cogniscenti a while to digest the depth of Rory McIlroy’s quality. No one is doubting the torch has passed now. By Jim McCabe.

Which former Minister for Justice ... I’ve started so I’ll finish ... is set to be Ireland’s newest quiz show host?

THE State is subsidising supermarkets in selling cheap alcohol by refunding them VAT on drink sold at a loss, it emerged at an Oireachtas Committee yesterday.

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

Jim McCabe and Simon Lewis argue both sides of the debate

FAME AND GLORY had to work a shade harder than might have been expected when emerging victorious in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan yesterday.

Fame And Glory had to work a shade harder than might have been expected when emerging victorious in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan.

Positive tactics gained handsome dividends for Chris Hayes when Lechevalier Choisi claimed the opener at Navan today.

AIDAN and Joseph O’Brien dominated yesterday’s action at Navan, where Aidan notched a spectacular four-timer, only one of them ridden by stable-jockey Johnny Murtagh, while Joseph completed the first treble of his career on Fosters Cross, Eirnin and Table Mountain, the latter pair trained by his father.

YOU can measure a sporting victory by financial prize, but that is the superficial way.

DERMOT WELD and Pat Smullen followed-up last Friday’s treble on the track with an ‘all-the-way’ double, achieved by Dreams Forever and Designated Decoy, at Dundalk last night.

WHILE everyone else is talking about a crash, there was a gentle and altogether more reassuring “pop” as the National Off-Licence Association unveiled its 2008 Gold Star Awards.

Europe will win a fourth straight Ryder Cup at Valhalla – but by nothing like the nine-point winning margins experienced in the last two contests.

AFICIONADOS of wine from Australia and Spain have reason to raise a glass to the 2007 National Off-Licence Association (NOffLA) Gold Star selection as those countries have made a clean sweep of two key categories.

A novelty toaster today triggered a mass evacuation from a seven-floor office block building in Ballsbridge.

Caroline O’Doherty

DRUNKEN behaviour in the streets on St Patrick’s Day has tarnished the reputation of Dublin, the Lord Mayor claimed yesterday.

UP TO 80% of off-licence sales at the weekend are for underage drinkers, gardaí said yesterday.

DRINKERS are abandoning pubs in favour of partying at home in greater numbers than ever before with drinks manufacturers predicting alcohol sales could drop by record levels over the next few months.

The National Off-License Association has criticised calls for the point of purchase to be clearly indicated on the labels of all drinks products.

The National Off-Licence Association has claimed that plans to deregulate the sale of alcohol will lead to widespread underage drinking.

SALES of spirits have taken a nosedive since the Government increased taxes in the last budget, according to the National Off-Licence Association Spokesman Jim McCabe said yesterday that while no figures are available since the December budget, the body’s members around the country had seen a “huge” decline in sales of spirits.

The off-licence industry is calling on the Minister for Justice to make it mandatory for young people to carry a national ID card.

Golf fans in New York were waking today to an unwelcome reminder of America’s final-day slump and Europe’s Ryder Cup heroics.

A SCHEME to combat underage drinking by children as young as 12 has yet to be introduced two years after laws were passed.

Off-licence owners are due to begin a course on the responsibilities of selling alcohol this morning.

Relatives of plastic bullet victims in Northern Ireland are to launch a legal challenge to the introduction of a new version of the weapon, it emerged today.