US golfer Tom Watson will be in Northern Ireland next month for the Open Championship, which he has won on five occasions.

Disqualification. In a word, that’s what should have happened to Phil Mickelson on Saturday, following one of the most bizarre moments in the history of professional golf. Lefty will be remembered for his five Majors, his six runner-up spots in the US Open, and his incredible short game, but his antics on Saturday at Shinnecock have tarnished his legacy.

Former champion Rory McIlroy had an anxious eye on the weather as the 146th Open Championship got under way at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.

The Open Championship has not been a happy hunting ground for Shane Lowry over the past two seasons but Pádraig Harrington believes the 30-year-old has the credentials to become Ireland’s fifth recipient of the Auld Claret Jug.

Six PGA in Ireland professionals will compete at next week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, hosted by the Rory Foundation at Portstewart.

Paul McBride’s hopes of Amateur Championship glory were dashed yesterday with defeat by two holes at the hands of Englishman Harry Ellis in their quarter-final on the Kent coast.

Paul McBride is the only Irish star left standing in the 122nd Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s on the Kent coast.

Caolan Rafferty showed his title credentials as he beat Frenchman David Ravetto to cruise into the last 32 of the 122nd Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s, Sandwich on the Kent coast.

I’m happy with the way I’m playing but the Brabazon Trophy did not go to plan, writes Robin Dawson.

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers insists the organisation should "stay out of politics" after revealing its relationship with Turnberry owner Donald Trump has not changed since he became US President.

For all the fire that Patrick Reed brings to the course and for all the emotion his partner, Jordan Spieth, provides, there is always a reminder that there’s another way to bring leadership.

What a way to grab you and your country’s maiden major championship victory.

The motto of Royal Troon Golf Club sums it all up rather nicely. The Latin which adorns the 138-year-old Ayrshire links’ crest reads: “Tam Arte Quam Marte”, which means “as much by skill as by strength”.

The wheels of progress turn very slowly at Portmarnock but if the sticky issue of women members is ever resolved, Shane Lowry will join Rory McIlroy at the top of the queue for the return of the Irish Open to what many consider to be Ireland’s blue riband links.

The way Darren Clarke celebrated winning the Open Championship neatly sums up one of the contradictions at the heart of Europe’s new Ryder Cup captain.

A record-equalling seven under par 66 moved West Waterford’s Gary Hurley into joint fifth in the English Open stroke-play championship for the Brabazon Trophy at Seaton Carew, Hartlepool on Saturday.

Tiger Woods’s withdrawal from next week’s Masters could herald success for one of the three Irishmen competing at Augusta National.

Darren Clarke will have to wait to make his 500th European Tour appearance after pulling out of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters through injury.

Former Open champion Darren Clarke will use the exemption gained from his victory at Royal St George’s in 2011 to rejoin the US PGA Tour next year.

As one of the world’s leading golf coaches Butch Harmon has now helped guide four of his students towards a Claret Jug, but for the veteran American, of all the feats he has seen performed at the Majors, Phil Mickelson’s final-round dash to the most famous prize in golf beat the lot.

The Open Championship may lack a prominent Irish contender, but there are a host of significant others at the top of the leaderboard heading into a testing second day at sun-baked Muirfield to suggest class will out yet again at this venerable links.

Rory McIlroy’s form might be on the rise but things can’t get much worse for former British Open winner, Darren Clarke.

Just over five years ago, no Irish golfer had won a major since Fred Daly in the 1947 Open, but how times have changed.

Graeme McDowell believes the “minimal” shortcomings of Royal Portrush can be overcome in order for the course to stage the Open Championship.

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.

Is there any wonder Rory McIlroy is ready to embrace his tournament favouritism at Royal Portrush as the 2012 Irish Open gets underway today?

Greg Norman is set to return to the scene of his maiden major championship victory after confirming he will play in The British Senior Open Championship at Turnberry next month.

Tom Lewis: His 65 at Royal St George’s last summer was a record low by an amateur.

Darren Clarke has sacked his caddy John Mulrooney.

Few three-inch bogey putts are greeted quite as uproariously as the one which secured the 140th Open Championship for Darren Clarke.

England’s Tom Lewis, who shared the lead in The Open as an amateur and then won on his third professional start, has been named the European Tour’s rookie of the year.

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.

Michael Hoey and Graeme McDowell were today continuing Northern Ireland’s remarkable recent golfing success story in the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.

OPEN champion Darren Clarke admits he would put aside his personal opinion and play at Gleneagles next year if he needed to qualify for the Ryder Cup.

DARREN CLARKE flew out of Atlanta last night as delighted to be heading for a well-earned break as he was disappointed with the form that prompted his missed cut at the PGA Championship.

THE final Major of the year begins at the Atlanta Athletic Club on Thursday with Luke Donald and Lee Westwood still clinging to the top two places in the world rankings and Rory McIlroy the bookmaker’s favourite at 10/1.

DARREN CLARKE last night stood up for Tiger Woods and gave the former world number one a ringing endorsement as a human being and not just a golfing machine with myriad personal problems to solve.

FRIDAY on Tour usually means everything to a professional golfer. For those who have posted good rounds on Thursday, it is a day of consolidation.

A ROUND with the Taoiseach and reports of a glamorous new girlfriend suggest a young US Open champion living the high life but Rory McIlroy is ready to learn again from his Major disappointments.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON has set his sights on winning more Majors in the wake of his compatriots’ recent successes at Pebble Beach, Congressional and Sandwich.

IF success is contagious, Chris Wood could be set to catch some given the company he keeps.

DARREN CLARKE roared into Killarney Golf & Fishing Club in his sleek Ferrari sports car yesterday intent on helping the Irish Open, presented by Discover Ireland, “back up where it should be”.

IT really doesn’t get much better than this.