News: Padraig Harrington has withdrawn from the Smurfit Irish PGA Championship at Adare Manor which starts on Thursday to spend more time with his wife Caroline and their new baby, Patrick Daniel.
Instead the man to beat at Adare will be Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley, fresh from his impressive performance in the BMW International Open last weekend.
McGinley has won the Irish PGA Championship on three previous occasions, last year in the weather-shortened event at Wesport and also in 2000 (Co Louth) and 1997 (Westport).
Gary Murphy has also confirmed his participation while former Walker Cup star Michael Hoey will be in action alongside those who qualified from the Irish PGA region, a tournament that was held in The K Club.
Royal Dublin's Neil Manchip, who famously pipped Darren Clarke in The Island in 1999 will also tee it up on Thursday.
In order to promote their game children's golf clinics will be held during the week at Adare. Open to all Boys and Girls under 16 the clinics will feature a number of the professionals playing in the tournament under the supervision of John Coyle, the teaching professional at Adare Manor.
There will be clinics on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 4.30 to 5.30 p.m.
Admission to the clinics is free. Those wishing to participate do not need to be members of a golf club, and do not need to pre-register.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/b8579731-42ca-490f-b2ff-27eb94cbcd65.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)