No home stars but Ireland can bask in Solheim Cup success

THE greatest week in the history of Irish ladies’ golf has arrived with the 12th Solheim Cup clash of the United States and Europe set for the Jack Nicklaus-designed Killeen Castle near Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, on Friday.

Perhaps the occasion won’t rival The K Club’s hosting of the Ryder Cup in 2006, although the hope is that the weather will be a whole lot kinder for the teams captained by Rosie Jones of the States and Europe’s Alison Nicholas.

Killeen Castle should be an ideal venue, with a first-class and aesthetically pleasing course with the imposing 800-year-old ancestral castle home of St Oliver Plunkett providing a magnificent backdrop to the closing hole.