Cullen fit to stake his claims

There is no shortage of incentives for the 150 players who tee-off in the first of two stroke-play qualifying rounds in the Irish Amateur Close Championship, sponsored by Bank of Ireland, at Killarney today. Apart from the national title itself, the six-man team for the European Championships in Italy on June 29th-July 4th is due to be finalised afterwards.

Still, the quest for a championship title that dates back over 100 years is bound to be paramount - although a spate of withdrawals in recent days, including that of former Walker Cup player Jody Fanagan, has meant the reserve list has been stretched to its limits to ensure a full complement. The top 64 players from the stroke-play qualifying will progress into the matchplay phase.

Fears that Gary Cullen would also be forced to withdraw have been allayed, however. The 23-year-old Beaverstown player, who won the Irish strokeplay championship last month, has been troubled by a back injury first sustained in the St Andrews Links Trophy last month.

He was unable to compete in the recent British Amateur and was then forced to withdraw from last week's East of Ireland after just one round. Intensive treatment in the interim, though, has allowed Cullen, a semi-finalist last year, to take to the first tee today.

Eddie Power, something of a specialist in this championship down the years, is the defending champion. In fact, when the championship was last staged over the Killeen course, in 1983, Power finished as runner-up (to Tom Corridan). But it is interesting to note that, since then, no fewer than nine of the subsequent winners used it as a route into the professional ranks.

Power, a career amateur, was not part of that haemorrhage to the paid ranks and is a three-time winner (1987, 1993 and 1998) of the championship. Garth McGimpsey (1988) and Ken Kearney (1997) are the only other previous winners of the championship competing, and Kearney goes into the event on the back of his record-breaking score in winning the East of Ireland earlier this week.

Paddy Gribben, the European Amateur champion, will be one of the favourites, but considerable interest will also be focused on Royal Dublin's Eamonn Brady, who has completed his college studies in the United States and is making his seasonal debut on this side of the Atlantic.