The Benson and Hedges International Open is to move to The Belfry next year, with prize money going up by £200,000 to £1 million.

The year 2000 event, which marks the tournament's 30th birthday, will be played between May 11th and 14th and Colin Montgomerie, crowned this weekend as Europe's number one for the seventh successive time, will be defending the title he won at The Oxfordshire this May.

Mike Maloney, executive director of The Belfry, said: "There has been an overall investment in excess of £40 million since the 1993 Ryder Cup, with £3.5 million spent on the Brabazon course alone."

Montgomerie commented: "Having visited the site recently I can assure everyone that the test of golf has been strengthened to make it a much tougher examination."

"I am delighted that we will also have the opportunity to play two Benson and Hedges tournaments on the course before the Ryder Cup (in 2001)and that experience will be invaluable for all of us. I believe that course knowledge was the main reason we won the Ryder Cup at Valderrama two years ago."

A hole-in-one with a prize of a £85,000 XK8 convertible Jaguar is part of a millennium golf competition shoot-out to be held on the new Adare Manor golf course in Co Limerick on Saturday, January 1st. The prize goes to the first person to hole out at the spectacular 145-yard 16th, which is over a lake.

The course was designed 12 years ago by Robert Trent-Jones Senior and its owner, Tom Kane, said: "We are now ready and pitching for a major tournament and hope it might include the Irish Open sooner rather than later."