Pádraig Harrington hopes that this weekend's British Open at Portrush could be the catalyst for a global British Open - could an even potentially more seismic staging take place on the island of Ireland? As in somewhere like Portmarnock Golf Club? John O'Sullivan clears up why it's Royal Portrush to some, and Philip Reid writes that caddie Ricky Elliott's unique insight to the course is a Major advantage for Brooks Koepka. It's little wonder Tiger Woods reached out to Koepka in a text message suggesting perhaps they could hook-up in practice.
Darragh Ó Sé believes that despite Peter Keane's tactics working a treat against Mayo, an improving Kerry will need a different game plan for Donegal: "Kerry can't go to Croke Park and push 13 men up against the Donegal kick-out because Shaun Patton will just kick it over their heads. He has a monster kick of a ball and could bypass most of the Kerry team if they did that." That column is Subscriber Only. Seán Moran thinks that Diarmuid Connolly's return is good karma for Dublin's march on history: "It can't have been great for the player to lose out so publicly on his planned trip to Boston. There had been difficulties for him in his life and being under constant scrutiny with the possibility that his football career would tail off rather than coming to a natural end."
Dundalk are in Latvia tonight for the second leg of their finely balanced Champions League qualifier against FC Riga. Michael Duffy delayed his departure in order to be present for the birth of his first child, but the hope is he will still arrive in time to feature, after having some of his team's best chances in the 0-0 first leg draw. Just short of half the results Dundalk have achieved in the away game of two legged ties in recent years would be good enough for them now and they were upbeat in the aftermath of a game last week that they felt provided a lot of positives. Read Emmet Malone's preview here.
Meanwhile Frankie Dettori starts his midsummer Irish sojourn in Killarney this evening and it could culminate in the Italian superstar riding a 10th Curragh classic winner this Saturday. Dettori has four rides on a card that last year saw the subsequent Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck break his maiden in the first race.
