AMATEUR SCENE: The Irish elite squad will be on a double mission when they break new ground in the Sherry Cup at the Royal Golf Club, Sotogrande, in Andalucia, Spain, from tomorrow to Saturday.
This will be Ireland's first year to compete in the team and individual events, as in previous years this competition clashed with the Irish team training camp in Portugal and so was passed over in the calendar.
This year, however, Ireland had their week's training last month in Portugal, and so will enter two teams comprising seven members of the elite squad plus Limerick's Tim Rice.
Under the captaincy of Eddie Dunne, the Ireland One team will consist of Noel Fox (Portmarnock), Justin Kehoe (Birr), Gavin McNeill (Waterford) and Colm Moriarty (Athlone), while Ireland Two will be made up of Johnny Foster (Ballyclare), Andrew McCormick (Scrabo), Michael McDermott (Stackstown) and Rice.
While the team event will be the main attraction, the individual title is also a stake under the revamped format. The European Nations Championship will be completed for over 72 holes by teams of four. Under the new format, the best three cards each day will count, and if the championship ends in a tie, the teams involved will nominate one player to compete in a sudden-death play-off.
The individual event is also over 72 holes, and here England's Gary Wolstenholme will be seeking a hat-trick of victories. The Walker Cup star clinched the individual title in 2000 by two strokes from former West of Ireland champion Mikko Ilonen of Finland - who also went on the win the British Amateur title that year - and again in 2001 after a play-off against David Griffiths.
In order to keep the Ireland elite squad at the peak of their games, members will spend two days with national coach Howard Bennett and another two days with fitness expert Helen Lennon each month for the remainder of this season.
Ireland have four players in the Walker Cup panel which will have its first meeting with captain Garth McGimpsey at the Belfry on April 23rd and 24th. Graeme McDowell, who played a major part in the Britain and Ireland win at Ocean Forest, will be joined by Fox, McNeill and Moriarty.
"I'm impressed with the quality of the players in the squad and I'm certain that we now have the basis of a strong team for the match later this year," McGimpsey said. "I'm really looking forward to working with the players and to continuing the recent successes if the GB & I teams."
Ireland will also be well-represented in the Brabazon Trophy at Royal Cinque Ports from May 17th to 19th, and the following week at the St Andrews Links Trophy at the Old and Jubilee courses at St Andrews.
Meanwhile, McDowell maintained his remarkable sub-par streak of rounds, but failed to continue his blistering winning form of recent months when he finished fifth in the Cleveland Golf/ASU Invitational at Forest Hills in Georgia on Sunday.
McDowell, a scholarship student at the University of Alabama, who had won his previous two events on the competitive American collegiate circuit, extended the number of consecutive rounds under par to 10 in shooting a 10-under-par, 54-hole total of 206, three behind winner David Skinns of Tennessee.
The Irish amateur champion of 2000 had rounds of 68, 71, 67 and remains in the top-five in the GolfWeek amateur rankings for America.
In the women's game, 12 members of the Evian European Tour will take on the Britain and Ireland elite squad, which includes three Irish women, on Saturday in the annual Weetabix Challenge, held this year at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.
The tour side includes Australia's Corinne Dibnah, and victorious Solheim Cup captain Dale Reid, so the amateurs could have an uphill task.
In their favour, the elite squad have returned from a visit to South Africa where they won the Test match against an all-African team and beat a highly-rated team of South African women professionals.
BRITAIN AND IRELAND: B Brewerton, A Keighley, F Brown, L Kenny, A Coffey, A Laing, C Coughlan, L Mackay, E Dowdall, F More, E Duggleby, L Morton, K Fisher, E Pilgrim, S Heath, K Smith, R Hudson, H Stirling, S Jones.
BRABAZON TROPHY: J Foster (Ballyclare), J Kehoe (Birr), A McCormick (Scrabo), G McNeill (Waterford), C Moriarty (Athlone) and T Rice (Limerick).
ST ANDREWS LINKS TROPHY: J Foster (Ballyclare), J Kehoe (Birr), A McCormick (Scrabo), M McDermott (Stackstown), C Moriarty (Athlone), N Fox (Portmarnock).
