The opening round of the 2019 US PGA Championship gets underway today, with New York's devilishly difficult Bethpage Black the setting for the year's second Major. There are four Irish golfers in the field - Shane Lowry (12.29pm), Graeme McDowell (12.51pm), Pádraig Harrington (6.05pm) and Rory McIlroy (6.38pm). The latter is bidding to lift the famous Wannamaker Trophy for a third time, and end his five year drought in the Majors - but it won't be easy. From New York, Philip Reid writes: "If reputations are meant to instil fear, then this notoriously difficult layout, which is set to test the mental strength, shot-making and physical fibre of each and every player in the field, has claimed some sort of hierarchal place." But the course layout should, in theory, be suited to McIlroy's game - especially off the tee: "And so, a certain type of player has an edge: long, straight. Those golfing bombers who like to flex their muscles. Think Brooks Koepka. Think Dustin Johnson. Think McIlroy." You can follow all four rounds of the tournament via the Irish Times liveblog, which will be running from around 1pm this afternoon.
Elsewhere Leeds United's long exile from the top flight of English football will continue, after they were beaten 4-2 by Derby County at Elland Road last night - the Rams progressing to the Championship playoff final after a 4-3 aggregate win. The hosts had looked destined for Wembley after Stuart Dallas gave them a 24th-minute lead but Frank Lampard's side staged a stunning comeback, with Jack Marriott's 85th-minute goal meaning they became the first side in playoff history to progress having lost the first leg at home.
In this morning's GAA Statistics column Eamon Donoghue looks ahead to Saturday's Ulster clash between Monaghan and Cavan - a match which will bring together two sharp-shooting goalkeepers in the form of Rory Beggan and Raymond Galligan. Between them, the pair have been the football championship's top scoring 'keepers in each of the last three seasons and both - particularly Beggan - are at the forefront of a goalkeeping evolution. He writes: "Last summer Beggan scored a remarkable 18 points in eight matches; the summer before, six was enough to lead the goalkeepers' scoring chart. And the year previous he was outdone by his opposite number in this weekend's Ulster championship quarter-final at Breffni Park."
Saturday sees Leinster welcome Munster to the RDS in the Pro14 semi-finals, as they look to bounce back from last weekend's brutal Champions Cup final defeat to Saracens. In the same fixture last year, Joey Carbery started at fullback for Leinster - on Saturday he will be lining out in red. But while he admits it will be strange for him to be entering the away dressing room in Dublin, he is in no doubt about where he wants to play his rugby: "I love it down here. I love the people, they've made me feel very welcome and I'm loving playing rugby down here as well. The potential is roofless - we can get wherever we want to." Last night Carbery's Ireland teammate James Ryan was named the Irish Players' player of the year - the 22-year-old becoming the youngest ever recipient of the award.
Elsewhere, in this morning's rugby statistics column, John O'Sullivan looks at Stuart McCloskey's impressive campaign with Ulster and whether or not the big man will be able to enter Joe Schmidt's Rugby World Cup plans. He writes: "McCloskey is a physical handful, gets over gain-lines, gets his hands free in the tackle and can be an immoveable object at the breakdown. The challenge has been to improve his range of passing, his defensive reads and decision-making sufficiently to convince Schmidt that he warrants a couple of runs during Ireland's World Cup warm-up matches in August."
