All we can hope back home, as we lather on the after-sun, is that our Denis Walsh brought his waterproofs to North Carolina for the US PGA Championship. Once again, Quail Hollow was left drenched by the heavens for a spell on Tuesday, but Denis, the trooper that he is, if a damp one, still made his way about the place to report on the toughest three finishing holes on the PGA Tour. He details just how treacherous ‘The Green Mile’ is.
Denis also dropped in on Jordan Spieth’s chat with the media, the Texan taking inspiration from Rory McIlroy’s Masters win as he dreams of – finally – completing golf’s Grand Slam. Could this be his week? McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele will do their utmost to ensure not. And as luck would have it, the world’s top three have been drawn in the same group for the opening round. That’s what you call box office.
Scheffler is, marginally, the bookies’ favourite, as David Gorman tells us in his scene-setter for the tournament, one that will be played on a course that doesn’t quite float Hunter Mahan’s boat. It is, he said, “like a Kardashian – it’s very modern, beautiful and well kept. But it lacks soul or character”.
There was no little character on display in Clones last weekend, Darragh Ó Sé left “exhausted” just watching an Ulster final that performance analyst Paul O’Brien dissects. And fatigue, says Darragh, could yet separate the contenders from the pretenders in this year’s championship. After their Leinster final triumph, Louth will hope to fall in to the former category, Seán Moran looking back on a win that brought “a sense of paradise regained” to the county.
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Gordon Manning, meanwhile, heard from camogie’s Mairéad Teehan, hurling’s Brian Hayes and football’s Síofra O’Shea who all offered their support to the stance taken by camogie players on the skorts issue.
In rugby, Gordon D’Arcy reflects on his own mental struggles during his career when he writes about “a brutal couple of weeks for the entire Leinster squad”, no one suffering more than captain Caelan Doris whose shoulder injury, that will rule him out for four to six months, saw him miss out on selection for the Lions. And Gerry Thornley hears from Craig Casey ahead of Munster’s crunch URC game against Benetton on Friday, the Italian side “probably the best to ever set foot on an Irish ground”.
In football, we talk to Ellen Molloy, the Kilkenny native who is trying to regain her love for the game after it was severely tested by a serious injury and a family bereavement. And in a different footballing code, Muireann Duffy has news on October’s NFL game at Croke Park. The Minnesota Vikings will be the Pittsburgh Steelers’ opponents in what will be the first regular season game to be staged in Ireland.
TV Watch: Tipperary and Clare meet in this evening’s Munster under-20 hurling final (TG4, 7.30pm) and at 8pm AC Milan and Bologna square up in the Coppa Italia final (Premier Sports 1). It’s Bologna’s first final in 51 years, while Milan haven’t won the competition since 2003, so there’s a bit of a novelty feel to this one.
