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.

IRISH golfers involved at St Anne’s Old Links, Lancashire, yesterday played themselves into excellent positions to progress to the second qualifier for the European Tour.

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.

FORMER Ryder Cup star Phillip Walton is among the recipients of a quarter of a million euro grant allocation announced by the Team Ireland Golf Trust last night.

IT would be a tough old station except they travel in luxury, are treated like royalty and then play four days of competitive golf on beautifully manicured courses for a great deal of money.

On the final day of the European Qualifying School at San Roque in Spain, Walton finished joint 29th on three over, with the top 35 picking up a card for next season.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON takes a week off before partnering Paul McGinley in next week’s $4m World Cup in Seville, Darren Clarke sets out for South Africa via Japan for a money-spinning end to his season — and 168 hopefuls make their way to San Roque in Spain for the European Tour’s final qualifying school, simply hoping to be able to rub shoulders with the stars in 2005 (the top 35 and ties will do so).

FORMER Open champion Tom Lehman has been given the job of trying to restore American golfing pride after their heaviest Ryder Cup defeat.

With only four players under par following the rain-affected third round of the Irish PGA championships, Ballyliffin professional Francis Howley has surprisingly assumed the lead on four under with a controlled round of 74 at the St Margaret’s club in Dublin.

AS we sat a golf buggy in the late afternoon Mount Juliet sunshine, it was hard to believe a five million dollar golf tournament was taking place a 100 yards or so away.

John Langan with a two-under-par 69 topped the leaderboard at Ardee as six players qualified in the Sunderland of Scotland PGA Irish Region Masters at Ardee.