Teen defies odds

A 17-year-old South African, warned by doctors that he might be disabled at the age of 20, is the lowest handicap player in next week’s AIB Irish Amateur Open at The Island club in Dublin.

Anton Haig, last season’s South African matchplay champion, was diagnosed with a disease which causes parts of bone to chip off.

This was in 1999 when he began to take golf seriously and he is now playing off plus five.