A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Delaney hints at return to top form

Karen Delaney (Kent State University) from Carlow recaptured some of the form that won her the Irish girls' championship in 2002 and 2003 when she shot a 76 over the tough Traditions course at Bryan, Texas, in the final round of the Texas A&M Mo-Morial women's college tournament. Delaney made significant improvement from an opening 90 to a second-round 81 and then that 76 in halves of 33 and 43.

Karen's younger sister, Tara, had rounds of 85, 75 and 79 for 239 - the same total as team-mate Becky Wood, who scored 80, 81 and 78. They were joint 28th. No birdies for Dubliner Suzie Hayes (Notre Dame) who scored 91, 87 and 97 for a total of 274 and a final placing of 93rd.

Meanwhile, the highest placed Irish or British player in the latest Golfweek women's American College Division One golf rankings is Tara Delaney. Tara, winner of the Irish women's open stroke-play championship for the past two years, is ranked at 51. The Duke University pair of Amanda Blumenherst and Anna Grzebien head the list while other Irish rankings include Maria Dunne (Bethune-Cookman College) at 307, Shauna McVeigh (Troy) at 350, Suzie Hayes (Notre Dame) at 502 and Karen Delaney at 517.

Golf Show focus on Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup will be centre stage at the Golf Show at the RDS, Ballsbridge, this weekend (Thursday to Sunday). Courtesy of Fáilte Ireland and the European Tour, visitors to the show will have a unique opportunity to have their photograph taken with the trophy. One lucky visitor will take away two corporate tickets to the Ryder Cup in the K Club, worth over €6,000. There will be over 120 exhibitors participating, representing equipment, apparel, golf holidays and property destinations.

Best Cup draw in Malahide GC

The draw for the Best Cup 2006 will take place in Malahide GC tomorrow week (March 22nd) at 7.30pm. Clubs are invited to send two representatives to participate in a nine-hole golf competition, which will be held prior to the meeting.

The agenda is: minutes of agm 2005. Secretary/Treasurer's Report; election of officers and a proposal from Greystones to change the handicap to 18 plus. Entry fee is €50. Greystones are the holders after beating Newlands in last year's final.

Competition in honour of Harte

Strandhill GC in Sligo have released details of a new open matchplay competition that will be played in honour of the late Val Harte. In addition to being a long-standing member of the club, Harte was a prominent member of the Connacht Branch of the Golfing Union of Ireland for many years. He was captain of Strandhill in 1955, and remarkably remained on council until his death last May. The competition is open singles matchplay, with the qualifying round being played on March 26th at Strandhill. The best 64 cards will make it through to the matchplay stages. For further details and timesheet, phone 071-9153543.

Moran closes in on gold medal

Declan Moran from The Island GC took another step towards winning the gold medal for the best overall score of the season when taking the gross prize at the BMW-sponsored Hilary Society outing to Portmarnock Links on Sunday. Moran was just edged out of the nett prize by Royal Dublin's Brendan O'Malley but at three-under-par for the best three cards and level for the best four, the Island Senior Cup player will be difficult to catch. Gerry O'Dwyer and Conrad O'Donovan made it an all Royal Dublin finish in the nett, while Peter O'Hagan (The K Club) won the professional prize with a 72 and also figured in the winning team with Lucan's Tony Goode and Gary McGrane (Royal Dublin).

Connell claims victory in Abbeyleix

Showing the men the way and at the same time recording an impressive score last week was one of Abbeyleix's lady members. The club voucher competition was played over three days and was a mixed competition, and although placing was in operation, it took a huge score of 48 points to claim victory, by Brigid Connell, a 24-handicapper. Connell's nearest challenger was Alan Scully, who was the winner of the men's section on 45 points to pip Denis Scully (18) by three. The lady section winner was Cait Cooney, playing off 15, with 40 points, two better than Geraldine Murphy (20). The two gross winners on the day were Pádraig Purcell (4) and Maria Cahill (12), who won respectively with scores of 32 and 23 points.

Quigley's patience pays dividends

You may remember recently we wondered what Maude Quigley had to do to win down at The Heath during the recent 12-hole competitions after she had to settle for a couple of runners-up spots. Well her patience paid dividends last week when in the club's fourth such competition, last week, playing off a handicap of 21, she claimed victory with 23 points. That was one better than Carmel Doorley (25). Pat Lambe, meanwhile, secured her second recent win when she recorded 28 points.

Doyle delivers in nine-hole event

We all know playing well over nine holes doesn't guarantee you'll make it an 18 to remember. But last week at Charlesland Maeve Doyle had a nine to remember and in the process was a runaway winner. Over the nine-hole event, she recorded a massive 25 points, which gave her a seven-point winning margin over Kate O'Leary (15) who was in runners-up spot with 18 points. Doyle will always wonder would she have been able to continue that good golf through to the second nine in an 18 hole event and have got close to the magical 50 points mark.

Good week for Moore in Malahide

IT was a good week for Philomena Moore in Malahide last week with two placings. Last Tuesday she was the class-three winner in the 12-hole singles competition with a score of 23 points. The other class winners were Una Mulcahy (17) and Annette McInerney (25). Then last Saturday, she teamed up with Eileen Emmett (19) to secure runners-up spot in the 18-hole fourball competition behind Linda Newman Matthews (21) and Aileen Conlon (30), who won with 39.5 points.

skeenan@irish-times.ie