Home boys get chance to shine

In some ways, the club professional tends to live in the shadows of the touring professional who appear to enjoy a glamorous, high-profile existence.

On Thursday next, however, some of Ireland's top local professionals will engage in combat when the Irish regional final of the Glenmuir Club Professional Championship takes place at Baltray. The winner will progress to the PGA Finals at Royal St David's, Harlech, on June 23rd-26th.

Headfort's Brendan McGovern is exempt from the regional finals and the winner in Co Louth will join him in the finals next June. Barry Hamill, who is based at Newlands, and Liam McCool, who was runner-up in the Golfplayer Tour Championship at the Curragh last season, are among the favourites to lift the Irish crown.

An added incentive is that the eventual winner of the Glenmuir title will claim a place on the British and Irish team to play the United States in the PGA Cup in Colorado next September.

Irish Regional Final draw (Thursday): 9.00 - S O'Grady (Blackbush), A Skerritt (Rosslare). 9.09 - K Kelliher (Island), D Reilly (Leopardstown), R Yates (Open GC). 9.18 - L McCool (Slieve Russell), B Hamill (Grange), B Wilson (Shandon Park). 9.27 - P McCrystal (Scrabo), S Cotter (Celbridge DR), L Owens (Royal Dublin). 9.36 - G Hendley (Kilternan), R Machin (Coldwinters), V Teague (Moyola Park). 9.45 - G Morrison (Nenagh), K Whitson (Royal Co Down).

One of golf's success stories, the Dublin United Golfing Societies, will celebrate it's 76th year in existence with the Spawell Challenge Cup at Beech Park over the next two weeks. The popular competition is restricted to 80 societies and the qualifying rounds take place at Beech Park next Monday and Tuesday with the finals scheduled for the same venue on April 27th. The Grocers Golf Society are defending their title.

Going by their attire - splendid green sweaters and yellow shirts provided by McGuirk's Golf - the Irish journalists who challenged their Swedish counterparts at Luttrellstown Castle last week took their task very seriously indeed. And the home scribes maintained Ireland's golfing reputation by inflicting an 8-2 defeat on the visitors who were in Ireland to monitor the progress of their amateur international golfers'. The Swedish amateurs have abandoned the sunshine of Spain to base their training camps in this country.