DIGEST/SENIOR MEN'S HOME INTERNATIONALS: Ireland are just one step away from retaining their title after victory over England at Westport, Co Mayo, yesterday.
They followed their easy success against Wales with a 5½-3½ defeat of England – their European championship conquerors – and face an unbeaten Scotland today in the title showdown.
Ireland lost two of the three singles and appeared to be in a spot of bother when Tom Cleary was thrashed 6 and 5 by Andrew Carman.
Then the Irish fought back when Adrian Morrow, Hugh Smyth and Michael Quirke won their matches, and the icing was put on the cake by Seamus McParland who won three of the last four holes to defeat Chris Reynolds.
SENIOR WOMEN'S HOME INTERNATIONALS: Meanwhile, Ireland flattered to deceive on the second day at Newport in south Wales yesterday.
Having lost to Scotland on Tuesday Ireland knew a victory over Wales was essential to keep alive their fading hopes of winning the Sue Johnson Trophy, and when they led 2-1 after the foursomes there was real hope of maintaining their interest in the contest.
But those hopes were short-lived as Wales, the defending champions, destroyed them in the singles, winning three of the five and halving the other two for an overall 5-3 triumph.
And in the bottom two games they were well and truly beaten, Phil O’Gorman crashing 6 and 5 to Jean O’Connor and Rhona Brennan overwhelmed 7 and 6 by Denise Richards.
Only a resounding success against Scotland will prevent the ignominy of finishing at the bottom of the pile.
Scotland are in sight of the title as they followed up their victory over Wales with defeat of England, and now a share of the spoils with Ireland will be sufficient for them to collect the silverware.
US CHAMPIONS TOUR: Des Smyth will tee off at 1pm Irish time today in the opening threeball as the Senior Players Championship gets under way at Baltimore Country Club in Maryland.
Smyth will be chasing the €270,000 first prize in a tournament for which local boy Fred Funk is the favourite.
Not only will the popular American have the hometown crowd in his corner, but more important is Funk’s string of impressive major finishes. He has finished fifth or better in the four majors this year, including a win at the US Senior Open.
CHALLENGE TOUR: There are just four events left on the Challenge Tour and the race to grab one of the top-20 places on the rankings to win a place on the full European Tour moves this week to Holstebro Golf Club in Denmark for the Tour Championship.
Only three Irish players are in the field: Colm Moriarty, Simon Thornton, Michael McGeady.
EUROPEAN TOUR: World number two Phil Mickelson, winner of the US Tour Championship in Atlanta last week, has entered the European Tour-sanctioned Singapore Open on October 29th-November 1st.
Pádraig Harrington and Ernie Els have already committed themselves to the event.
