Youngster Sean Flanagan will today bid to become the first local golfer to claim the West of Ireland Golf Championship in 65 years.

Four golfers whose names don’t really ring a bell for followers of the amateur game have qualified for this morning’s semi-finals of the Clare Coast Hotels South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch.

Des Smyth will never forget the first time he saw Rory McIlroy hit a golf ball. "Oh my God," was his reaction. This weekend, a new generation of young Irish golfers will be at Seapoint for the Irish Amateur Close Championship.

PAUL CUTLER, the Portstewart golfer who reached the British Amateur Championship quarter-finals at Muirfield yesterday before going down to the South Korean, Jin Jeong, won’t need to contest the weekend’s 36-hole qualifying procedure for the Golfsure Irish Close Championship at Royal Dublin.

ALAN DUNBAR led the Irish brigade at the 115th British Amateur Championship in Scotland yesterday with a champagne performance.

A total of 13 Irish players are included in the field for the 115th Amateur Championship which gets underway next Monday June 14 at Muirfield & North Berwick Golf Clubs.

WEST WATERFORD’S chances of a first Bulmers Irish Senior Cup pennant at Tullamore over the weekend have taken a big blow because of the absence of key man Seamus Power.

Defending champions Leinster were held 6 ½ - 6 ½ by Munster on the second day of the Golfsure sponsored Interprovincial Championships at Douglas Golf Club, while Ulster beat Connacht by 9 ½ - 3 ½ .

Laytown and Bettystown's Robbie Cannon captured his first amateur major when he beat Cork's Gary O'Flaherty 4 and 3 in the final of the South of Ireland Amateur Open at Lahinch today.

Laytown and Bettystown's Robbie Cannon is facing Cork's Gary O'Flaherty in this afternoon's final of the South of Ireland Amateur Open at Lahinch.

FOR a pleasant change, all four South of Ireland semi-finalists at Lahinch this morning are career amateurs, men who work during the day and play golf in their spare time.

Limerick's Pat Murray remained on course for a famous double in the South of Ireland Amateur Open at Lahinch today.

Irish champion Shane Lowry and Royal Dublin's Niall Kearney were the only Irishmen to make the cut in the Lytham Trophy.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy cruised into the last 16 of the Golfsure Irish Amateur Close at The European Club.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy has set his sights on Tiger Woods' course record in the Irish Close at the European Club.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy is still on course for the Radisson SAS West of Ireland title at Rosses Point after producing a stellar performance to beat Scrabo’s Ryan Boal with a birdie at the 20th in the first round.

Pre-Championship favourites Ulster captured the Golfsure sponsored Interprovincial

Irish Amateur Close Championship at Westport Golf Club

Florida’s top prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for four men charged with the sadistic killing of six people during a break-in.

An ex-convict who blamed a young woman for taking his video game system and clothes recruited three teenagers to stab and beat her and five others to death, Florida investigators said.

A MAN who was angry about a suspected theft of an Xbox videogame recruited three teenagers to stab and beat six people to death with baseball bats in a Florida home, investigators said yesterday after making four arrests.

A man who was angry about a suspected theft recruited three teenagers to stab and beat six people to death with baseball bats in a Florida home, investigators said today after making four arrests.