EISENHOWER TROPHY AND CHALLENGE TOUR: It is five years since the Golfing Union of Ireland first mooted the idea of going it alone in the World Amateur Team championships for the Eisenhower Trophy instead of being under the umbrella of Britain and Ireland - and today that ambition comes to fruition.

History will be made as the 22nd staging of the evennt gets under way in Kuala Lumpur with Ireland, England,Wales and Scotland competing as separate nations for the first time.

Ireland captain Eddie Dunne said: "We always found it hard to get representation in the B and I team. To be truthful, we did not feel that we got our fair share of players into the team, so now we can see what we can do on our own."

Ireland will not lack encouragement as they go in search of glory over Saujana's two fine courses - Palm and Bunga Raya - as 60 supporters have travelled.

Ireland are represented in this 72-hole contest by recently-crowned World Universities champion Justin Kehoe from Birr, Athlone's South of Ireland champion Colm Moriarty and the experienced Noel Fox of Portmarnock.

Today in the first of the four rounds the Irish trio play the Palm Course and are last out, with Moriarty followed by Fox and then Kehoe. According to Dunne, all three players have been performing well in practice.

The Irish have been helped in their preparations by Padraig Harrington, who lost in a play-off to Vijay Singh in the Malaysian Open last year. "We had a great session with Padraig who told the boys about every shot, every green and every bounce on the courses. That has really helped enormously," said Dunne.

Competitors play one round each day with the best two scores counting in each round.