Golf: Holder Stuart Paul from the Tandragee club will be aiming to become the first player since Niall Goulding in 1991 to retain the Standard Life-sponsored West of Ireland championship when he lines-up at Co Sligo Golf Club, Rosses Point in the qualifying rounds on Friday and Saturday.

And Paul will be hoping that last year's form returns in time for the West, when he opened with a 69, then slumped to a 79 that just made the cut and before going all the way to the final where he beat Derek McNamara by one hole.

The quality of the field this year is such that whoever is crowned champion on Tuesday will have to be on top of his game.

The quality of the field is epitomised by the lowest handicap cut-off point in the history of the Championship at 1.3, a half shot lower than last year, with 72 of the playing field playing off scratch or better.

Adding to that is the presence of the Swedish Golf Federation national amateur team of 13 golfers, ranging in handicap from scratch to plus three.

Paul will face very stiff opposition in former winners Ken Kearney, Noel Fox, Michael McDermott and Declan Brannigan.

Current Irish Close champion, John McGinn of Greenore, and Andrew McCormick of Scrabo, an Eisenhower Trophy panellist in 2002, add to the strong Irish challenge.

Connacht, too, will have high hopes of producing its first winner since Kearney's 1992 triumph, following the excellent showing of many of the province's young stars over the last 12 months.Martin McTernan (Co Sligo), Michael Mulryan (Athenry) will along with Kearney carry strong local support.

Meanwhile, the JB Carr room at Sutton Golf Club was the perfect backdrop for the 50th Jubilee Dinner of the Hilary Golf Society last Friday night with founder members Carr and Michael Fitzpatrick among the large attendance.

"The idea was hatched at Sutton Golf Club to give the best amateur and professional players some competitive golf during the winter months. The first outing at Royal Dublin had 20 amateurs and 10 professionals and you had to have a handicap of three or less to play in any of the six events," said Fitzpatrick as he recalled some of the great memories of the past 50 years.

"The society is unique in that members of the society have won 93 Irish championships between them. Eight amateurs of the 1953 group had already won 22 championships, of which Joe Carr had won 12. Carr went on to win another 25 plus three British Amateurs titles."

The Society also had a special card on which the score at each hole was marked in relation to four. Where a four was scored at a hole the card was not marked. So a signed card returned without any markings meant that the players had scored level fours 72.

Among the former champions attending the dinner sponsored by BMW were Noel Fogarty, Bryan Malone, Ray Kane and local professional Nicky Lynch, who was also celebrating 50 years as professional at Sutton Golf Club.

One player who will be anxious to add his name to that list is 23-year-old Seamus McMonagle, who won the coveted Hilary gold medal on his first year in the society with a four round total of four under. McMonagle from Dunfanghy in Donegal, who recently joined the Sutton Club, puts his recent form down to a 10-day trip to South Carolina with coach Brendan McDaid and professional Raymie Burns.

"I reached the quarter finals of the West two years ago," said McMonagle. "But last year after gaining a place on the Ulster senior panel my game just went off and I lost some confidence. But that has all come back thanks to the coaching and advise from McDaid and I'm now looking forward to another crack at the West in Rosses Point."

McMonagle started the winter season off two handicap and is now down to scratch. After a one over par at Laytown and Bettystown he added a two under at Seapoint, three over in difficult conditions at Co Louth and a level par at Royal Dublin took him to the gold medal.

Missing from this week's West will be Justin Kehoe and Colm Moriarty. Kehoe the World Universities champion and South of Ireland champion Moriarty, are members of the Walker Cup Elite squad and have opted to play in the Duncan Putter, a 72 holes event in Wales at which many of the top players are expected to play.

Meanwhile, Brian McElhinney, winner of the Connacht Youths Championship at Connemara Golf Club last weekend, Munster champion David Ryan from the Grange and Robert McCarthy a member of last year's winning side at Seapoint are included in the Irish Youths side to face Wales at Ashburnham Golf Club on Friday, April 25th.

The team will also compete in the Trubshaw Cup, a 72 holes strokeplay event, which will be played over two courses at Ashburnham and Tenby, on Saturday and Sunday, April 26th and 27th.

Irish team: Greg Bowden (Hermitage), Connor Doran (Banbridge), Robert McCarthy (The Island), Brian McElhinney (North West), Philip McLaughlin (Ballyliffin), David Ryan (Grange).