West of Ireland Championship: A year on, the precocious teenager is as much hyped as ever. Rory McIlroy, all of 16 years of age, has genuine star appeal: he hits the ball as far as a professional, dresses like a pop star and has the inbred mental fortitude that only champions possess. In short, he is something special.

So McIlroy is again the star attraction at Rosses Point, where he returns to defend the West of Ireland Amateur Championship, sponsored by the Radisson SAS Hotel. But, if he is to retain his title, he will have to overcome recent history, as the last player to successfully defend the championship was Niall Goulding, back in 1991. Of all the domestic majors, the West, with its early start to the season and unpredictable weather, is the hardest to defend.

McIlroy, who is also the Irish Close champion, has decided to give priority to amateur events this year. There are those who believe his frequent dalliances with the professional circuit last year - when he availed of a number of sponsors' invitations to play, as an amateur, on the European Tour - hindered his claims to be part of the British and Irish Walker Cup team, which lost to the United States.

While this will be a start to the season for many of the participants at Co Sligo, McIlroy is already much-travelled, with appearances in Australia, South Africa, the Middle East and continental Europe under his belt. He will start as a justifiable favourite, although the first part of the assignment is to negotiate the 36-hole of strokeplay qualifying which begins today and finishes tomorrow, before the matchplay phase starts on Sunday.

McIlroy, at plus-four, is not the lowest handicapped player in the field. That distinction falls to 20-year-old English international David Horsey, the Cheshire and English County Champions' champion, who plays off a 4.4.

Darren Crowe, a current Irish international, will also be among the favourites.

Although Michael McGeady's move into the paid ranks, and Brian McElhinney's decision to seek out a career in the professional game (see panel), means the West will be missing some of its traditional big names of recent years, while the US collegiate system has also taken a number of players out of the equation, the conveyor belt that is Irish amateur golf is reflected in the inclusion of Irish Youths champion Séamus Power of West Waterford and Irish Boys' champion Niall Kearney of Royal Dublin in the field.

Pamela Murphy of Ennis celebrated her 25th birthday in style yesterday when she reached the semi-finals of the Munster Senior Ladies Championships at Limerick County GC.

Murphy meets Athenry's Fiona Carroll in today's semi-final while Heather Nolan of Shannon faces Marian Riordan of Tipperary.