Rain gear weather forecast for three competition days

Weather: Ryder Cup players may well be wearing their rain gear for the entire tournament if Met Éireann predictions of changeable weather are accurate.

The meteorology service has said that the weather will definitely not be as fine as last weekend and are forecasting a lot of low pressure, bringing rain, occasional strong winds and the outside chance of a thunderstorm.

Today is the first of three scheduled practice days for the players in advance of the tournament.

Their wives and girlfriends will also be outdoors for the day, attending Ryder Cup Race Day at the Curragh. The weather is predicted to start dry, but with rain and wind extending throughout the country in the afternoon. Wednesday looks like being windy with heavy rain clearing to showers later in the day.

Thursday night and Friday morning, when the tournament begins, look like bringing strong winds, Met Éireann has said. And there may be a pattern of rain, wind and occasional sunny spells for the rest of the event.

Meteorologist Michael Cleary said that it was too early to forecast accurately what the weather would be like for the weekend, but it was looking unsettled.

"We are looking at a very changeable picture at this stage," he said. "There is an outside chance of stormy weather. We are expecting pretty strong winds on Thursday night and Friday morning, not ideal golfing weather."

A spokesman for the organisers said they had contingency plans in place to deal with extreme weather conditions.

"As with any sporting event, we have the option to continue the competition into Monday if we need to," he said.