If perseverance and commitment count for anything, then Pat Murray will win the West Coast Hotels-sponsored South of Ireland at Lahinch today.

FOUR members of the Irish side that retained the European Team Championship in Turin this month contest the South of Ireland, which begins at Lahinch this morning.

AT a time when so much focus in the world of golf is on the professional game, it is good to see that the amateurs are not being forgotten.

WHILE they celebrated at Clandeboye Golf Club last night after the inclusion of Jonathan Caldwell in the British & Irish team to play the US in the Walker Cup at Royal Co Down on September 9 and 10, there was disappointment at Banbridge when Richard Kilpatrick was omitted.

A FEW readers didn’t like my description of Phil Mickelson as “syrupy” after his recent victory in the Masters at Augusta.

DARREN CROWE, a 24-year-old full-time golfer from Dunmurry, meets Pat Murray, 34, secretary/manager at Limerick Golf Club, in the first semi-final of the South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch this morning.

EVEN in the rarefied atmosphere of professional golf, the albatross, three under par, is unusual.