Mark English has vowed not to allow his disappointing 800m performance at last night’s Cork City Sports meet affect his European U23 championships gold medal bid.

1 R McIlroy (Irl) 11.38, 

Matthias Bachinger knows New York fairytales are real because he is living one at the US Open.

Rory McIlroy has extended his lead at the top of the world rankings following his victory in the US PGA Championship on Sunday.

Golf fans will need to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to arrive in good time at Fota Island to watch the marquee draw in the first round of the Irish Open Championship.

AUSTRALIA:

Graeme McDowell will get Ireland’s challenge at the 2014 Masters up and running tomorrow at Augusta National when he tees off in the opening round of the year’s first major championship at 2.35pm Irish time.

APN News & Media — the Australian group which acts as Independent News & Media’s only overseas interest these days — has reported a strong performance for 2013, with net after-tax profits up by nearly 20%.

Phil Mickelson’s victory in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open yesterday has lifted him three places in the latest world rankings.

Chatting with Australia’s leading greyhound breeder/owner, Paul Wheeler, a little earlier in the week was a real eye-opener.

An Australian resources firm says it has uncovered a huge oil deposit in the nation’s vast outback in a discovery hailed by officials as worth some Aus$20 trillion (€15.6tn).

Two Welsh tourists who broke into an Australian theme park and stole a penguin following a drunken night out have each been fined AUS$1,000 (€786).

A struggling Tiger Woods was forced to hole a nine-foot par putt on the 18th to see off Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez Castano as Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke crashed out in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play at Dove Mountain.

Qantas Airways said today its half-year profit was likely to slide by as much as two-thirds following strikes and high jet fuel prices.

Lewis Hamilton today took advantage of a rare retirement from world champion Sebastian Vettel to claim his third win of the season and finally put all his recent woes behind him.

Fairfax Media Ltd, publisher of hundreds of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, today reported a AUS$391m (€284.2m) annual loss after writing down the value of its publications amid a challenging environment for media companies.

DARREN CLARKE spent the build-up to this week’s British Open deflecting questions about his protegé Rory McIlroy.

RORY McILROY will get his bid for back-to-back major victories under way at Royal St George’s on Thursday in the company of a former champion and a fellow rising star.

INDEPENDENT News & Media’s cash generation efforts have been boosted by a larger-than-expected full-year dividend being paid to it by its Australian subsidiary, APN News & Media.

Knee-deep water inundated communities in south-eastern Australia and split one town in two today as swollen rivers carried flood fears downstream and officials urged residents to evacuate.

SOUTH AFRICAN rugby has reversed its policy of refusing to play against the New Zealand Maori, paving the way for match-ups between the two sides.

TRIPLE major winner Pádraig Harrington ignored reporters and hastily headed to the practice range last night despite taking a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Sun City Challenge.

Katy Perry has announced her ‘California Dream’ world tour, her largest to date, with a Dublin date pencilled in for March 28 next year.

US Open champion Graeme McDowell was upstaged by world number 317 John Parry, who carded a second-round 67 to take the lead at the Austrian Open in Atzenbrugg.

Australian lager giant Foster’s has rebuffed an unsolicited private equity approach for its wine business worth between AUS$2.3bn (€1.65bn) and AUS$2.7bn (€1.95bn) Australian dollars.

The second round of the United States PGA Championship was spared a third fog delay and was able to resume on time at 7am at Whistling Straits today.

England’s Ross Fisher missed a golden chance to score the European Tour’s first-ever 59 in the 3 Irish Open at Killarney today.

England’s Ross Fisher burst into the lead at the 3 Irish Open with a dazzling six successive birdies in Killarney today.

The new US Open champion Graeme McDowell will have to wait until just before 2pm on Thursday when he tees off with two former winners of that title, Jim Furyk and Geoff Ogilvy at the Open in St Andrews.

Tiger Woods will play with fellow American Matt Kuchar and Korean KJ Choi in the first two rounds of The Masters on Thursday and Friday.

I READ the Ryanair spokesman’s comment about overseas visitors to the mid-west being down 27% (Letters, February 16).

It has been a mixed start for two of Ireland's top golfers in the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship so far today.

RORY MCILROY has reached a higher position on the world rankings than any other 20-year-old before him.

Rory McIlroy is back into second place on the European money list with two weeks left and has cut Lee Westwood’s lead to just over €50,000

Sweden’s Michael Jonzon, with one European Tour win in 290 starts and fighting for his future, leads the Castello Masters in Spain with a round to play.

Martin Kaymer has given himself the chance to regain the European Tour number one spot in his first event back from breaking toes in a go-kart crash.

Just as he did when he took third place two years ago – in only his second professional event – Rory McIlroy tamed one of the toughest holes in golf today.

Paul Casey’s injury withdrawal from his last two events has cost him top spot on the European Tour’s ’Race To Dubai’ money list.

Padraig Harrington will tee-off with defending champion Tiger Woods and 2007 champion Angel Cabrera at this week's US Open at Bethpage, New York.

Rising Australian star Katherine Hull surged into a three-stroke lead on the third day of the ANZ Ladies Masters at Royal Pines in Australia today.

Brewer and winemaker Fosters Group Ltd has reported an 88% fall in its annual profits but declined to provide guidance for the 2009 fiscal year while the Australian company conducts a strategic review of its troubled wine operations.

GAVIN O’REILLY has been appointed chairman of APN, the Australian media group in which Independent News & Media is the largest shareholder.

Hopes of further takeover moves among the world’s major miners were fuelled today after Xstrata confirmed consolidation talks with rivals.

Officials at Racing Victoria are confident the outbreak of Equine Influenza will not prevent European horses travelling to Australia for the AUS$5m (€3m) Emirates Melbourne Cup.