Amateur Scene West of Ireland Championship: European Amateur champion Brian McElhinney (North West) and Irish Amateur Open champion and Walker Cup player Noel Fox (Portmarnock) are among the many top Irish players who set out in search of more glory this week.
The pair tee-off in the Standard Life-sponsored West of Ireland Championship at Co Sligo Golf Club, Rosses Point, on Friday, and later in the month they will play for Europe in the match against Asia Pacific at Circolo Golf Club in Rome.
However, such is the quality of the field at Rosses Point that Fox and McElhinney will have to be at their best to capture the title on Wednesday next.
An indication of the quality of the field is that the cut-off point for entry to this year's championship is 1.1, the lowest in the 82-year history of the event, with the reserve cut-off at 1.4.
In another new innovation, the championship committee have decreed that any former winner of the event whose handicap is within one full shot of the cut-off point can play, and under this rule Co Louth's Barry Reddan and Royal Dublin's Noel McGrane have taken up the option.
Reddan, the winner in 1978, and McGrane, the 1987 champion, are the first beneficiaries of the new tournament condition.
Among the overseas entry is a Swedish senior amateur team of six players, all of whom are plus one in handicap or better. In fact, of the field of 144 competitors, 67 players are scratch or better.
Among those are players of the calibre of Fox, McElhinney, Darren Crowe (Dunmurry), Mark Campbell (Stackstown), Mark O'Sullivan (Galway), Michael McDermott (Stackstown), John McGinn (Greenore), Karl Bornemann (Douglas), Johnny Foster (Ballyclare) and 14-year-old Rory McIlroy (Holywood), the youngest competitor in the field.
Holder Mark Ryan from the Grange Golf Club won't defend his title as he is taking a year out to travel and is at present in Australia. But Hermitage's Alan Dowling, last year's runner-up, will hope to go one better.
The European team to face Asia will also include Gary Wolstenholme, the British Amateur champion, Stuart Wilson (Scotland), James Heath (England), Edoardo Molinari (Italy), Francesco Molinari (Italy), Jan Willem Van Hoof (Netherlands), Hugo Santos (Portugal), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño (Spain), Pablo Martin (Spain) and Nigel Edwards (Wales). Scotland's Colin Wood captains the team.
Meanwhile, Wolstenholme gained a major boost ahead of this week's US Masters when he beat Australian teenager Nick Flanagan 4 and 2 in the battle of the transatlantic Amateur champions.
The traditional Georgia Cup head-to-head match, played at the Golf Club of Georgia in Atlanta, saw Wolstenholme dig deep into his wealth of experience despite being outdriven by his younger opponent.
The 43-year-old Wolstenholme, still remembered for beating Tiger Woods in the 1995 Walker Cup at Royal Porthcawl, covered the four par-fives on the Creekside course in five under par, eagling the fifth hole after firing a seven-wood to two feet.
Now Flanagan, the 19-year-old US Amateur champion, and Wolstenholme, England's most capped player, head off to the Masters where the Leicestershire man is hoping for a happy return to Augusta National after a gap of 12 years.
The Irish Youths will get their first look of the season at The Island Golf Club, the venue for the European Youths Championship in July, when they take on Sweden in an international today.
And places are up for grabs, says team captain Michael Burns. "Nothing is set in stone and the selectors will be watching the progress of all the under-21 players as the season progresses."
Today's team at The Island: James Barton (Ballinasloe), Clancy Bowe (Tramore), Stephen Crowe (Dunmurry), Paul O'Hanlon (Curragh), Gareth Shaw (Malone) and Niall Turner (Muskerry).
Bowe and Shaw have earned caps at under-age level, while Turner was a member of last year's Youths team. The format is three foursomes in the morning and six singles in the afternoon.
Also today, the Boy's team will take on Wales Boys at Cardigan Golf Club in the annual fixture. The team is: Aaron O'Callaghan (Douglas), Rory McIlroy (Holywood), Nicholas Grant (Clandeboye), Seamus Power (Tramore), David Daly (Muskerry), Ronan O'Connor (The Island), Karl Gilbert (Malone) and Niall Kearney (The Royal Dublin).
