RUGBY: As the season for under-age golfers draws to a close, Meath venues host the remaining fixtures this week with the Irish club youths national finals, the under-15 county championship and the schools' finals at Royal Tara today and the boys' interprovincials at neighbouring Headfort (Old Course) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
In the schools semi-finals Leinster champions, St Paul's, Raheny, will play Ulster representatives Sullivan Upper while in the second semi-final St Augustine's, Dungarvan, will play Balla from Mayo.
British Open junior champion, Cian McNamara (Limerick) will lead the Munster Boys' team when the cream of under-aged golf in the country converge on Headfort tomorrow for the boys' interprovincials.
Among the other internationals on view will be Brendan McCarroll (Ballyliffin) while Leinster have The Island's David Rawluk and Connacht's Michael Mulryan (Athenry).
Meanwhile, Scottish champion Heather Stirling has had the seal set on an outstanding season when it was announced by the Ladies Golf Union at the conclusion of the women's home internationals at The Berkshire Golf Club last week that she had been selected as one of the team of three to represent Britain and Ireland in the women's world amateur team championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy at Kuala Lumpur in October on a team captained by Ireland's Ada O'Sullivan.
Ireland's Alison Coffey and England star Rebecca Hudson were unavailable for selection. Hudson is turning professional and Coffey has decided to concentrate on her civil engineering career after a year's leave of absence to prepare for the Curtis Cup.
The Britain and Ireland team is: Becky Brewerton (Abergele and Wales), Emma Duggleby (Malton & Norton and England), Heather Stirling (Bridge of Earn and Scotland). Reserves are: Kerry Smith (Waterlooville and England), Lynn Kenny (Stirling University and Scotland).
The Scottish Golf Union (SGU) and the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) have put forward a joint bid to bring the World Amateur Team Championships to Scotland in 2006.
The proposed venue is St Andrews Bay Resort and Spa, a high quality, modern, five-star resort hotel with two highly acclaimed golf courses. The first of these was jointly designed by the late Gene Sarazen and Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance and the second by Australian Bruce Devlin.
St Andrews and the surrounding areas are known throughout the world for golf at the highest level and have a long history of hosting major golf tournaments. These include the British Open 26 times, the Dunhill Links Championship (formerly the Dunhill Cup) since its inception in 1985, the Walker Cup and many other high-profile events.
It was in 1958 that the inaugural Eisenhower Trophy was played at St Andrews when a young Bruce Devlin, playing for Australia, helped win the trophy from the US in a play-off.
This year for the first time, Ireland and Scotland's male golfers will compete in the Eisenhower Trophy as individual nations. Previously they have been represented as part of the B&I squad.
The ladies, meanwhile, will be competing as part of an LGU, B&I squad for the Espirito Santo Trophy - the women's world championship.
The Scottish bid will face competition from three other nations - South Africa, the Czech Republic and Spain - and the successful nation will be announced at this year's championships.
These championships will be played from October 24th-27th over the Palm and Bunga Raya courses of the Saujana Golf and Country Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where over 350 players from the world's golfing nations will be competing for golf's highest amateur honours.
At home, Sutton have a mountain to climb in the second leg of the FBD-sponsored Barton Cup final after losing the first leg 4-1 to Baltinglass on Saturday. The home side took full advantage of their local knowledge and Ray Williams and Maurice Byrne set the target with a 6 and 5 win over Dougie Heather and James Moran in the top match after winning the first five holes. Equally impressive were Fr PJ McDonnell and Brian Kilcoyne, who had a 7 and 5 win over John O'Neill and Bill Thompson.
Sutton's only success came in the last match where Alan Darbey and Brian Wallace beat Fergal Doogue and Bernard Bowes on the 17th. The second leg of the final is scheduled for Sutton on September 14th.
BOYS INTERPROVINCIALS
MUNSTER: David Daly (Muskerry), Graeme Dunlea (Killarney), Chris Kendrick (Cahir Park), Cian McNamara (Limerick), Pat O' Brien (Fota Island), Aaron O'Callaghan (Douglas), James Walsh (Mallow). Captain: Bill Murphy (Fermoy).
ULSTER: Andrew Boyle (Malone), Karl Gilbert (Malone), Chris Long (City of Derry), Ciarán McAleavey (Banbridge), Brendan McCarroll (Ballyliffin), David McKee (Massereene), Rory Doran (Banbridge). Captain: Maurice McKinley (Shandon Park).
CONNACHT: James Burke (Strandhill), Barry Donohue (Athenry), Hugh Feeney (Athlone), Iain Hall (Enniscrone), Garth Mcmanus (Co Sligo), Michael Mulryan (Athenry), Thomas Walsh (Claremorris). Captain: Patsy Lynch (Loughrea).
LEINSTER: Nigel Colfer (New Ross), Andrew Fox (Black Bush), Kevin Kinsella (Waterford), Paul O'Hanlon (Curragh), Tom O'Neill (Rathsallagh), Ronan O'Reilly (Headfort), David Rawluk (The Island). Captain: Fintan Buckley (Hermitage).
