Full Korean support for Wie

It's a tad ironic that while South Koreans are falling over backwards to facilitate Michelle Wie, who tees up against the men in this week's SK Telecom Open in Seoul on the Asian Tour, one of their own, Mi Hyun Kim, won a title on the LPGA Tour in America on Sunday.

Although it was the sixth win of Kim's career, it was her first since 2002 and ended a winless streak that had stretched to 103 tournaments.

For her troubles, Kim collected a paycheque for $375,000, the fifth largest top prize on the LPGA this season, as her final round 71 for 276 in the Ginn Open in Florida gave her a two-stroke margin over Lorena Ochoa and Karrie Webb.

Ochoa kept her top-spot on the money list with $667,528 in season earnings, and also went over the $4 million mark in career earnings with her runner-up finish.

Ironically, that top prize was originally marginally more than Wie has earned in appearance money for travelling to Seoul. Wie, whose parents are Korean, is reputed to be getting $300,000 to play in the tournament, where she will attempt to at least survive the cut.

The 16-year-old is the third high-profile woman golfer, after England's Laura Davies and Japan's Ai Miyazato, to feature on the men's Asian Tour. Neither survived the cut.

Among those in the field in Korea, but not receiving anything like the appearance money given to Wie, is defending champion KJ Choi.

Stephen Browne, meanwhile, has been boosted by a sponsor's invitation to next week's Quinn Direct British Open at The Belfry.

Philip Walton has also secured a special invitation.

Browne's first paycheque of the season, thanks to a tied-20th finish in the Spanish Open at San Roque, has kick-started his season, and the Dubliner can now look forward to a run of appearances on tour, as he is also playing in this week's Italian Open in Milan and the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House in three weeks.

Browne will be joined in Milan by David Higgins, Michael Hoey and Brian McElhinney, who missed the cut in the Tessali Open on the Challenge Tour last week, but who is making his full tour debut as a professional after securing a sponsor's invitation.

Meanwhile, in a novel move, Ulster Bank have announced they will absorb the ticket price of 35 to provide free admission for the public to the first round of the Smurfit Kappa European Open at the K Club on Thursday, July 6th, while all public car parking is also free.

It is the first time an event has undertaken such an ambitious scheme, and Ulster Bank's marketing manoeuvre is set to be rewarded with bumper crowds.

The free entry offer for Thursday's first round represents another significant initiative for the tournament following the announcement in January that the prize fund was to increase to a record €3,524,260, a rise of 143,282 on 2005.

Commenting on the announcement, Cormac McCarthy, the group CEO of Ulster Bank Group, said: "This is the biggest year in Ireland's rich golfing history and we at Ulster Bank are delighted to play our part by giving everyone in Ireland the opportunity to see world-class players in the majestic surroundings of one of the country's greatest golfing venues."

Irish positions on PGA European Tour Order of Merit (events played in brackets): 19th, Padraig Harrington (4) 317,055; 46th, Darren Clarke (4) 158,437; 52nd, Peter Lawrie (12) €143,269; 57th, Damien McGrane (15) €129,237; 83rd, Paul McGinley (5) €92,935; 115th, Graeme McDowell (2) 57,297; 123rd, Gary Murphy (11) 50,692; 126th, David Higgins (11) 48,335; 180th, Stephen Browne (6) 18,645; 217th, Michael Hoey (9) 9,172.