Irish golfers have captured four major championships since 2011 but in that same timeframe, eight of our best and brightest have taken the plunge into the professional ranks.

The withdrawal of favourite Gary Hurley and Irish Close champion John Ross Galbraith has come as a major disappointment to organisers of the Clare Coast Hotels South of Ireland at Lahinch, which begins this morning.

It’s been a very busy week on the PGA Irish Region circuit with five events staged across seven days in four counties.

Belfast’s Ruaidhri McGee returned to the top of the leaderboard on the European Tour qualifying school in Cheshire yesterday — and looks certain to move into the second stage.

Irish golf has never produced as many players willing to chase the ultimate dream of a place on the game’s major tours. Whether they can afford to follow their dreams is another matter altogether.

Paul McGinley continues to make it clear that he will be his own man when attempting to mastermind Europe’s Ryder Cup defence at Gleneagles next year.

Twenty-six years-old Simon Ward, a native of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan and a member of Co Louth, made his final appearance in an amateur championship a winning one at Lahinch yesterday when he won the South of Ireland for a second time.

Kilkenny’s Paul O’Hara crashed a young man’s party at Lahinch yesterday by winning two fine matches against Ulster duo Stephen Coulter and Nicky Grant to qualify for this morning’s first semi-final of the South of Ireland Championship against 20-year-old Ryan McKinstry (Cairndhu).

Holder Pat Murray (Limerick), Stuart Grehan (Tullamore) and Robbie Cannon (Balbriggan), the three players with most reason to feel aggrieved at the announcement of the Irish Home Internationals team before the South of Ireland began, all bit the dust on an eventful day at Lahinch yesterday.

Stuart Grehan and Pat Murray are amongst the big names competing in the South of Ireland, which begins in Lahinch this morning.

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

Simon Ward (Co Louth) and Muskerry’s Niall Gorey, a member of the Munster team that won last week’s Interprovincial Championship at Royal Co Down, yesterday came through two testing encounters in the South of Ireland at Lahinch to set up a mouth-watering 5th round clash this morning.

Six members of the triumphant Munster team in this week’s Interprovincial Championship at Royal Co Down are included in the field for the South of Ireland Championship starting at Lahinch this morning. And yet, they will all have to take a back seat behind the remarkable Ennis man, Noel Pyne, who is competing for the 50th successive year.

Brilliantly led from the front by Kevin Phelan, Munster got their Interprovincial Championship campaign off to the best possible start when beating holders Connacht with two matches to spare at Royal Co Down yesterday.

Noel Pyne reaches a remarkable milestone when he makes his 50th successive appearance in the South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch next Saturday.

Kelan McDonagh confessed that golf has been put firmly in perspective by his girlfriend’s brave battle with cancer after he opened with a battling 72 to keep the leaders in his sights in the Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin.

It was a polished Diamond — one Harry Diamond from the Belvoir Park club in Belfast — who shone brightest at scenic Rosses Point to take the title in the final of the Radisson Blu West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship yesterday.

Stephen Healy (Claremorris) will represent the home province on the final day of the Radisson Blu-sponsored West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship at Rosses Point today after a clear-cut 4 and 3 triumph over Nicholas Grant (Knock) in their quarter-final yesterday.

NIALL TURNER, the former Muskerry golfer was last night left to rue four bogeys he simply couldn’t afford to concede if he was to come through yesterday’s final qualifying rounds for the British Open Championship.

COLM MORIARTY will lead a seven-strong Irish challenge bidding for just 12 spots in the British Open at Sandwich when 36-hole Local Final Qualifying takes place at four venues in Kent today.

REVITALISED Munster staged a dramatic fight back in the afternoon singles to force a tie with Leinster on the second day of the Golfsure Inteprovincial Championship at Douglas yesterday. Nevertheless, the stage is still set today for a showdown between Leinster and Ulster, who had a comfortable victory over Connacht and go into the decider with a 100% record.

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 .

THIS will be a big weekend on and off the course for several of our leading golfers.

MONDAY madness is nothing new in the South of Ireland and so it came to pass yesterday when four members of the Irish team in the recent European Championship were yesterday all eliminated in the third and fourth rounds at Lahinch.

Defending South of Ireland Championship champion Niall Kearney suffered a shock defeat in the third round of the 2009 event today at Lahinch.

PAT MURRAY has the ideal opportunity to show the Irish selectors the error of their ways in the 108th South of Ireland Championship which begins at Lahinch today.

IRELAND begin their bid this morning to become the first country for almost four decades to win three European Amateur Team titles on the bounce.

SHANE LOWRY, Paul Cutler and Niall Kearney, all members of Ireland’s winning team at the 2008 European Amateur Team Championships, have been included in the Great Britain & Ireland squad ahead of September’s Walker Cup.

World stock markets were mixed today as banking stocks on both sides of the Atlantic took another pounding.

CLASS, youth and fitness made all the difference at Athlone yesterday when Leinster won the Golfsure Interprovincial Championship for the first time since 2004 by beating Munster 7-6 in an enthralling decider.

LEINSTER include the three outstanding players of the amateur season so far — Shane Lowry, Niall Kearney and Paul O’Hanlon — in their side for the Interprovincial Championship getting under way at Athlone tomorrow.

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.

Five Irish internationals have made an early exit from the West of Ireland championship at Rosses Point.

England’s Jonathan Hurst has set his sights on the West of Ireland Amateur Open title after a level-par 71 gave him the first round lead at wind-blown Rosses Point today.

Portstewart's Paul Cutler will face Johann López Lázaro of France in the quarter-finals of the Spanish Amateur Championship in Girona tomorrow.

Dunmurry’s Darren Crowe has withdrawn from Ireland’s team for the Home Internationals at Co Louth Golf Club September 19-21.

Reigning Irish champion, Shane Lowry scored a sparkling five under par 68 in the final round, to finish on 14-under-par and leading individual player in the Portugal Nations Cup at Vale de Lobo's Ocean Course in the Algarve, while Ireland narrowly lost out to England for the Nations Cup.

Reigning Irish champion, Shane Lowry scored a sparkling six under par 67 in the second round of the Portugal Nations Cup at Vale de Lobo in the Algarve, and supported by team mates Niall Kearney and Simon Ward, Ireland holds a four shot lead over Sweden going into the final round on Monday.

West of Ireland champion Joe Lyons edged out Monkstown's Shane Horgan by one hole to reach Wednesday's sem-finals of the South of Ireland championship.

Lurgan's Gareth Shaw made two visits to the 20th before progressing to the last 16 of the South of Ireland Amateur Open at Lahinch.

Hurling great Davy Fitzgerald grabbed a shock win over Newlands’ Cian Curley in the South of Ireland Amateur Open Championship at Lahinch today.

Former goalkeeper Davey Fitzgerald will miss Clare's All Ireland Hurling Championship quarter-final clash with Limerick tomorrow after cruising into the second round of the South of Ireland Amateur Open at Lahinch.

ULSTER redhead Darren Crowe and Limerick’s Pat Murray will be hoping for better luck over the coming days in the South of Ireland Golf Championship at Lahinch.