MANY people were extremely surprised when Damien McGrane decided last year to quit his job as club professional at Wexford Golf Club.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON doesn’t fancy a tipple but if he did, he believes the publicans of Ireland would owe him a barrel of beer.

THE lesson of Pinehurst is self evident for Europe’s top golfers - if Michael Campbell can win the US Open, so can we.

DARREN CLARKE needed just four words to sum up his final round collapse in the MCI Heritage at Hilton Head. “Anybody got a beer?” asked the Dungannon man.

Charlie Mulqueen speaks with Colin Byrne, caddie to Retief Goosen.

VIJAY isn’t here, Tiger is struggling with injury and the Europeans are hungover from Ryder Cup heroics.

CONSIDERING the failure of the Irish contingent to keep the title at home for 22 years, it is more than a little surprising that Darren Clarke and Pádraig Harrington have been installed as favourites for the Nissan Irish Open beginning over the links at Baltray this morning.

AND so we come to the third major of the year and, by and large, the one I like most.

PADRAIG Harrington and Paul McGinley lead the Irish challenge after rounds of two under par 70 on the opening day of the Smurfit European Open at The K-Club.

SEVENTEEN Irish golfers face the starter as the 10th Smurfit European Open at The K-Club gets underway this morning.

Retif Goosen put the golf clubs to one side after his US Open win, and fears his game may pay the price at the European Open. Charlie Mulqueen reports from Staffan.

DESPERATE situations demand desperate remedies — so Darren Clarke has decided to swallow his pride and turn to the belly putter for this week’s €3.3m Smurfit European Open starting over the new South (or Smurfit) Course at The K-Club on Thursday.

SUNDAY certainly was some day for the Byrne family from Howth in Co Dublin.

IT’S that time of year again when we shake off the winter cobwebs and our major green fee-taking clubs prepare for an influx of golfing visitors from all over the globe.

FOLLOWING consultation with David Probyn, tournament director of the PGA European Tour, Tom MacKenzie of the Donald Steel design team and local member Des Smyth, it has been agreed that the Baltray links will play to more than 7,050 yards with a par of 72 for next July’s Nissan Irish Open.

MICHAEL CAMPBELL may be a New Zealand Maori of Scottish extraction but he will always have a warm place in his heart for this country.

THE Team Ireland Golf Trust Lunch and National Coaching and Training Centre (NCTC) workshops were held yesterday in Dublin and in attendance were the trust golfers, along with Irish Sports Council CEO John Treacy and members of the Team Ireland Golf Trust committee.

PLANNING the year’s schedule is one of the most important tasks for any top ranking professional golfer. The temptation to play in just about everything is always there given the enormous sums of money on offer almost every week.

IT isn’t always easy to feel sorry for a man who has made many millions of pounds from his sporting exploits at the age of 34 and is guaranteed to live in luxury for the rest of his life.

DAVID Duval, who showed a very welcome return to form when shooting 62 in the Capital Open in Maryland last weekend, is an almost certain starter in the Smurfit European Open at the K-Club on June 3-6, writes Charlie Mulqueen.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON is learning the hard way that it’s very difficult to please everybody all of the time.

DESPITE Padraig Harrington’s amazing achievements in a relatively short professional career, it seems that only victory in a major championship will satisfy everybody interested in his progress.

IT was the last question at the end of a series of four long interviews. It can't have been easy to sit there and be interrogated as to just why you did this and did that or why you hit shots that cost you the Open Championship.

DAVID DUVAL and Tiger Woods are friendly enough to spend the week before the Open Championship holidaying, golfing and fishing together in Ireland.