Five-time Open champion Tom Watson will say goodbye to the game’s oldest major this week but it was the Ryder Cup row with Phil Mickelson rather than his legacy that rang out at St Andrews yesterday.

Will MacKenzie hit a hole-in-one and four birdies on Saturday as he took a share of the lead at the McGladrey Classic in Georgia.

It was on Monday evening that Paul McGinley bit the bullet, picked up the phone and put his friendship with Luke Donald on the line by telling him he would not be on Europe’s Ryder Cup team this month.

Ireland's Rory McIlroy came into the clubhouse with 69 after three bogeys and six birdies in his opening round at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte.

There was plenty of comfort for Rory McIlroy, but not for Darren Clarke, on the opening day of the Wells Fargo Championship in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina.

It was a loaded question and Rory McIlroy delivered the correct answer when asked what would be the perfect 25th birthday gift this coming Sunday, which is also the final day of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy has been drawn in with two young American stars in the first round of the US Masters on Thursday.

As Paul McGinley predicted, when he met Darren Clarke, his one-time Ryder Cup team-mate turned captaincy rival on the first tee at Oak Hill yesterday, it was smiles as they shook hands.

Ian Poulter today labelled some of the pin positions for the opening round of the Open at Muirfield as "a joke," while Phil Mickelson called for tournament organisers to "let go of their ego."

They said it would be a massacre of Merion but the grand old lady of American golf proved more than a match for the game’s elite as only Phil Mickelson managed to lay a glove on her in the early stages of the weather-delayed US Open.

Fresh from a cross-country plane journey, five-time runner-up Phil Mickelson today made the perfect start to his bid for a first US Open title on a weather-delayed opening day at Merion.

Ian Poulter made a brilliant start to the 113th US Open at Merion today before bad weather forced play to be suspended after less than two hours of play.

Tiger Woods will play alongside Rory McIlroy and Masters champion Adam Scott in a group containing the world’s top three in next week’s US Open at Merion.

DA Points found form out of nowhere to claim victory at the Shell Houston Open by a shot and book his place at the Masters.

Darren Clarke was right after all — England’s s Chris Wood does have what it takes to be a European Tour winner.

European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal last night underlined just how highly he values his Irish stars by claiming Rory McIlroy was almost as good as Tiger Woods in his circa 2000 pomp and Graeme McDowell was one of his main men at Medinah this week.

American Ryder Cup captain Davis Love would love to see Tiger Woods taking on Rory McIlroy in the Ryder Cup singles in Chicago next month.

Graeme McDowell has joined a growing groundswell calling for organisers to abandon the thought of staging a 72-hole strokeplay tournament when golf returns to the Olympics in 2016.

The gauntlet has been thrown down to the 156 golfers whose ambition today is to become British Open champion at Royal Lytham & St Annes on Sunday evening — play it straight or you are in trouble.

Darren Clarke admitted today as the rain hammered down at Royal Lytham that his golf game was not the only thing in need of some repair – so was the Claret Jug.

Second-ranked Rory McIlroy is with 2010 champion Louis Oosthuizen and reigning USPGA champion Keegan Bradley at the Open Championship.

Local boy Webb Simpson retook the lead heading into the final day of the Wells Fargo Championship as Rory McIlroy roared into contention.

Webb Simpson was nervous about playing with Tiger Woods for the first two rounds at the Wells Fargo Championship, but on day two the challenge came from another familiar face in the form of his house guest Nick Watney.

Tiger Woods is in danger of missing the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, but Rory McIlroy’s hopes of winning back the world number one spot remain very much alive.

Rory McIlroy is five shots off the lead after day one of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.

Paul McGinley fully acknowledges he is widely regarded as a red-hot favourite to become the first Irish captain of the 2014 European Ryder Cup team.

Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia hugged on the course today - but it was only to console each other as they tumbled off the leaderboard at the Masters.

Fred Couples today became the oldest player to lead at the halfway stage of The Masters.

When the question was asked of Augusta National chairman Billy Payne, it wasn’t easy to stifle laugher.

An eagle on a hole where he once took nine gave Padraig Harrington a superb start to The Masters at Augusta today.

Rory McIlroy’s relentlessmission to become thenumber one golfer in the world continues this week at the Honda Classic at PGA National, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood kept alive their hopes of securing the world No 1 ranking when they cruised into the last 16 of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Bill Haas landed a 45-foot birdie putt to win a three-man play-off for the Northern Trust Open in California.

EUROPEAN TOUR chief George O’Grady wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed on Sunday that 2011 has been the greatest year in his organisation’s history.

Australia‘s Robert Allenby led the way as he came to the end of his opening round at the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic.

PHIL MICKLESON has been talked about in many terms –exciting and dynamic, pretentious and confounding being some of the extreme descriptions.

AS curiosities go, there are many when we concern ourselves with the level of golf that is on display here at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Graeme McDowell said in Ireland last week he felt close to his best form and today in Akron he looked closer still, going to the turn in a three-under-par 32 when the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational began.

LOOK up ‘amateur’ in a dictionary and you’ll see words such as non-specialist, layman and even dilettante.

SO how exactly did Darren Clarke, ranked 111th in the world, climb from the depths of despair to become British Open champion?

SERGIO GARCIA is in a happier place than he was 12 months ago and hopes images of the late, great Seve Ballesteros emblazoned around Royal St George’s will provide additional inspiration for this week’s British Open.

FOR an organisation that often times is to creative thinking what Lady Gaga is to civility and good taste, the US Golf Association (USGA) sure gets wild and crazy when it visits Congressional CC.

World number one Luke Donald made a dream start to the US Open with birdies on two of the most feared holes at Congressional near Washington.