Golf: If it can be said that even the dogs in the street were aware that this year's AIB Irish Seniors Open was destined to be played at the Adare Manor Hotel Golf Resort, at least yesterday's official announcement of the move to the south-west provided confirmation that the event - a key tournament on the European Seniors circuit - will have its sixth new home in six years.
Since being played for the first time at St Margaret's in 1997, the tournament has been staged at Woodbrook, Mount Juliet, Tulfarris and Powerscourt. The policy of moving the tournament around, however, has been effective.
"We've had the opportunity to see some great golf played at some of Ireland's great courses and this year's move will continue that trend," remarked John Hickey, general manager of AIB. The 54-hole event will take place on May 17th-19th.
Adare Manor, a course designed by Robert Trent Jones Senior, will be playing host to its first major men's professional tournament, but it previously staged the inaugural Ladies World Cup of Golf which was won by Swedish duo Sophie Gustafson and Carin Koch in 2000.
Christy O'Connor Jnr, winner of the Senior British Open in 1999 and 2000 but who missed most of last season due to injury, is the attached touring professional at Adare Manor and will be seeking to win the event for the first time. He is shortly due to resume competitive action on the US Seniors Tour, where he received a medical exemption.
The European Seniors Tour gets under way in March with back-to-back tournaments in the Caribbean: the Barbados Open and the Tobago Classic. The remainder of the tour schedule is due to be announced later this month, but the Irish Senior Open - confined to 72 players - forms the opening stage of the tour in western Europe.
"It will be a challenging test - I am sure we will have a tournament to remember," commented Andy Stubbs, managing director of the European Seniors Tour.
Japan's Seiji Ebihara, who won at Powerscourt Golf Club last year, the first of his two victories in the 2001 season which saw the 52-year-old eventually finish eighth on the European Seniors Tour Order of Merit, will be defending his title.
Ebihara, who was taught the game by the Japan's most famous golfer Isao Aoki, produced a birdie-birdie finish in the last two holes to pip overnight leader Simon Owen by a stroke to claim the €52,884 top prize at Powerscourt. Other past winners of the tournament include Englishmen Tommy Horton and John Morgan, American Bruce Fleisher and Ireland's Joe McDermott, who triumphed in a play-off at Woodbrook in 1998.
Ireland's Peter Lawrie, who missed the qualifying cut for last week's South African Open by just one stroke, failed by the same margin in yesterday's qualifying for this weekend's European tour event, the Alfred Dunhill Championship, which begins at the Houghton golf club, Johannesburg tomorrow.
Lawrie may still make it however, as he has been put on standby as second reserve for the tournament, which features big names Ernie Els and US Open champion Retief Goosen, as well as fellow Irishmen Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington.
