The 2020 Irish Open belatedly gets underway today, with Shane Lowry the stand out name in action at Galgorm Castle, Ballymena. There is a reduced field of 144 this week and a reduced purse of €1.25 million, with the tournament being played behind closed doors. British Open winner Lowry gets his first round underway at 9.25am alongside George Coetzee and Lucas Herbert, and he will be hoping for a slightly easier test than last week's US Open. He said: "[Winged Foot] was probably the toughest golf course I have ever played, mentally and draining over the week. I got a good bit of rest the last few days. I'm probably a bit drained but, when it comes to it, I will get out there and the little bit of adrenaline will keep me going." You can read Philip Reid's hole-by-hole guide to Galgorm Castle here, while he has also picked out four players to keep an eye out for. You can also follow all four days live via the Irish Times liveblog, with John O'Sullivan teeing off at 9am this morning before Ruaidhrí Croke takes over at the turn.
Arsenal's resurgence under Mikel Arteta continued last night, as they beat Leicester City 2-0 away from home to progress to the fourth round of the League Cup, thanks to a Christian Fuchs own goal and a late Eddie Nketiah strike. Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell made their Chelsea debuts in a 6-0 rout of Barnsley which saw Kai Havertz take home the match ball after his hat-trick at Stamford Bridge. Brighton will meet Manchester United after their win over Preston North End, Everton thrashed Fleetwood 5-2 and Newcastle were 7-0 winners away to Morecambe. Elsewhere Dundalk's European journey continues tonight with the next round of Europa League qualifiers - if Filippo Giovagnoli's side can beat Moldova's Sheriff Tiraspol away from home they will be one win away from the group stages (kick-off 7pm).
Elsewhere this morning Joanne O'Riordan has spoken to Clive Tyldesley - one of football's most recognisable voices. And he recalls a rare trip to Ballybofey in 1978, and earning the respect of Roy Keane: "I think once he saw the amount of preparation that I make for a live broadcast, he identified with his own preparation for a football match. Roy would tell you, that in the days leading up to an Arsenal game, the Manchester United-Arsenal game, he would be playing that game from Wednesday onwards."
In today's rugby statistics column John O'Sullivan has picked the bones out of Leinster's emphatic 25-17 Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Saracens in Dublin last weekend. And he has analysed one glaring area where the odds-on favourites came up short - at scrum time. "Koch took and dominated the gap between Healy and Sean Cronin - the hooker has to be a very strong scrumagger to counter this - allowing George and Mako Vunipola, supplemented by the power coming from the secondrow, to physically isolate and pressurise Leinster's tighthead prop Andrew Porter."
And in her column this morning Sonia O'Sullivan remembers that famous night in Sydney when she won an Olympics silver medal in the 5,000m - with the 20th anniversary looming. She writes: "At exactly 10.55 on Friday morning I will run for 14 minutes and 41 seconds, starting at Cobh Hospital and down along an old familiar route through the streets of Cobh that will lead to my statue alongside Cork harbour in the town centre. This being the time of the race start in Ireland, and also the time it took me to run the 5,000m at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, on the same day 20 years ago."
