Ireland's Peter Lawrie was among the leaders in Shanghai after carding a five-under-par 67 in the first round of the BMW Asian Open.

PÁDRAIG Harrington, seeded seventh, was a major casualty – going down three and one to South African Rory Sabbatini in the Accenture World Match Play Championship in California.

GRAEME MCDOWELL remembers that Darren Clarke did not give him enough strokes when they first met at Royal Portrush 11 years ago.

THE MANY who claimed beforehand that level par might be good enough to win the Smurfit European Open left here last night more than a little red-faced.

JUSTIN ROSE is to the English golfing media what Tim Henman is to their tennis counterparts.

Ernie Els extended his commanding lead at the Heineken Classic to eight shots as he continued his stride towards a third consecutive title at Royal Melbourne.

MARC FARRY of France, one of six members of The European Tour who underwent voluntary drug testing during the Open de France in June, has tested positive, The European Tour announced yesterday.

Irish Open Leaderboard

England's David Lynn has given himself a chance to join the European Tour's millionaires club this weekend in real style - by winning his first title.

Philip Golding, the 40-year-old who has made a record 16 visits to the European tour qualifying school, has a chance to be remembered for something more than that.

British golfer Simon Khan continued to enjoy the best season of his career in the third round of the Italian Open.

Ireland's Gary Murphy continues to be tied for seventh place at the Italian Open today.

TIGER WOODS breezed into the quarter-finals of the Accenture world matchplay championship at La Costa in California.

FOR the first time this year Tiger Woods and Ernie Els share the same stage this week.

AN injury to Vijay Singh has given Swede Carl Pettersson the chance to claim the biggest scalp in golf tomorrow — Tiger Woods, of course.

St Mary's College 38 Terenure College 23

Buccaneers will have seven of their 10-man Connacht contingent on deck now that the Connacht-Ulster warm-up has been cancelled for the visit of Lansdowne.

Trevor Immelman and Peter O'Malley lead the German Masters.

Scandinavia held sway over the rest of the field on a day of glorious shot making and a glut of birdies and eagles in the third round of the Murphy’s Irish Open at Fota Island in Cork which ended with no fewer than 27 players within four strokes of the lead.

In possibly his last season on the European Tour, Des Smyth has stayed firmly in the frame for a high finish in the Murphy Irish Open at Fota Island.

Peter O'Malley took the early clubhouse lead on the second day of the Murphy's Irish Open.

Lee Westwood was back to top form in the first round of the Murphy's Irish Open at Fota Island.

Peter O'Malley made a fine start to his defence of the Compass Group English Open.

Justin Rose begins his bid for a fifth win of 2002, in the Compass Group English Open this afternoon.

Three Irish competitors are in action on day one of the World Matchplay Championship in California.

Ernie Els cruised to a five-stroke win in the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne.

Ernie Els showed his class yet again to regain command of the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne.

Tiger Woods shone bright at The Players' Championship of Europe in Heidelberg as he claimed a 26th victory in his last 51 starts.

Scotland's Colin Montgomerie has won the Australian Masters at Huntingdale in Melbourne.

Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia made slow starts to the Australian Masters.