Clarke bridges 10-year gap to play in North Tour event

DARREN CLARKE and Graeme McDowell will head the field in the first European Challenge Tour event to take place in Northern Ireland when they tee up in the Northern

Ireland Masters at Clandeboye GC from September 11-14.

The Northern Ireland Masters will be promoted by International Sports Management in association with the Northern Ireland Events Company and will carry a total prize fund of £150,000 (216,800).

In Clarke’s case, all prize money he wins will be donated to the Darren Clarke Foundation, a major initiative for the development of junior golf in Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Masters brings the total of tournaments on the 2003 Challenge Tour Schedule to 28 and the top 15 players in the rankings at the end of the season will take their place alongside Clarke and McDowell on the 2004 European Tour International Schedule.

Clarke said: “I’ve never played in a Challenge Tour event and I’m delighted to confirm my participation in the Northern Ireland Masters as it is the first time Northern Ireland has hosted a Challenge Tour event.

It will be great to play competitively in Northern Ireland after a gap of 10 years.” There will be television coverage of the event through the series, The Challenge shown on Eurosport, Channel 5 (UK), The Golf Channel (USA & Canada) and a one hour highlights programme on Sky Sports.

Clandeboye is a 36-hole inland complex in a setting of rare beauty. Only 12 miles from Belfast, it was

created in 1933 by William Renwick Robinson, a local linen merchant with a love of golf and a flair for landscaping. The original Clandeboye course played host to all the major Irish championships until the early 1970s when the original layout of the

Dufferin Course was redesigned by German architect Baron Von Limburger in association with Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas.

An attractive prize and the chance to help Irish emigrants who have fallen on hard times is the incentive to play the Ring of Kerry Golf and Country Club tomorrow.

The Templenoe course is hosting the Wild Geese Fund Golf Classic for mixed fourballs, with the choice of a fourball at the Old Head of Kinsale or the K Club on offer to the winning team.

Organiser Tom O’Driscoll says there is no entry fee but competitors are asked to make a donation to the Wild Geese Fund, which was set up by Fr Paul Byrne to assist needy Irish immigrants in Britain and the USA.

All profits from the day will go to the fund and teams are invited to call the Ring of Kerry Golf and Country Club on 064-42000 to book a place on the time sheet or sign on in person at the clubhouse reception.

The Castle Golf Club in Dublin will play host to a special Pro-Am tomorrow to highlight the club’s youth development programme and celebrate the opening of six new greens.

The Castle has a strong record in developing junior players and are the current holders of the Smurfit Girls All Ireland Championship.

Its special Schools Challenge, sponsored by ACC Bank and Hilary Haydon & Co Chartered Accountants, will see children, selected from local schools, playing three holes of golf with Gary Murphy and other leading professionals, including fellow European Tour members Philip Walton, Stephen Browne, Damien McGrane and Christy O’Connor Jnr.