GOLF DIGEST/CHALLENGE TOUR: Ireland's Stephen Browne wrote his own piece of golfing history in Kazakhstan yesterday when he became the first winner of a professional golf tournament in the country's history, capping a magnificent week at the Nurtau Golf Club with a final round of three-under 69 to take the title and the €40,000 first prize by a single stroke from a five-strong group of players on 14 under that included his room-mate, Colm Moriarty.
Browne has, with his victory, brought his season back to life after spending the majority of the year on the European Tour, where he struggled to find his best form after undergoing swing changes at the beginning of the year.
There was no evidence of poor golf this week as he compiled four sub 70 rounds to secure the second Challenge Tour win of his career, ahead of Moriarty, England's Lee James, Steven Jeppesen of Sweden, Spain's Carl Suneson and England's Tom Whitehouse.
SENIORS TOUR: Ireland's Denis O'Sullivan slipped back on the final day of the Bendinat London Seniors Masters, but was heartened to find that he had still climbed a place on the European Seniors Tour Order of Merit.
The Corkman could only manage a one-over-par 73 yesterday and finished in a share of 12th place with a three-round total of three-under-par 213. However, it was still enough to see O'Sullivan climb up to eighth in the rankings.
The event at The London Golf Club was won by Scot Sam Torrance, who clinched his third wire-to-wire victory of the year by three strokes from England's David J Russell.
Torrance pulled off "the shot of the week" at the last hole, a nine iron out of heavy rough to five feet, to close with a birdie and a winning total of 15-under-par 201.
PGA CUP: A 20-foot putt by Matthew Ellis on the 441-yard 16th at The K Club brought back the PGA Cup to Britain and Ireland after a gap of 21 years.
The Welshman, from Clays Golf Centre in Wrexham, was never down in a tense battle against the American veteran Bob Ford, but with the points standing at 13-10 in the home side's favour after a gallant US fightback in the singles, that meant Ellis was two up with two to play, and his guaranteed half point took the home side to the safe haven of 13½ points.
Within minutes, victory was his, by 3 and 1, when Ford went into the water and conceded the match.
The leaderboard took on an ominously red hue early in the day as the Americans fought back tigerishly in a bid to wipe out a seemingly impossible nine-point deficit.
However, Darren Parris beat Rich Steinmetz 2 and 1 in Britain and Ireland's only other singles win while Richard Dinsdale collected a half point from Scott Spence to take the overall score to 16-11 in favour of the home side.
EUROPEAN WOMEN'S TOUR: Karine Icher of France secured her fifth career victory with a successful defence of her Catalonia Masters title at the 54-hole event in Spain, the final tournament on the European Tour calendar.
The 26-year-old from Chateroux defeated three other players by a one-stroke margin at 12-under-par 207 (70, 69 and 68), clinching victory with a birdie putt from eight feet at the final hole.
Gwladys Nocera from France, Spaniard Paula Marti and Italian Sophie Sandolo finished in a tie for second place at 11-under-par 206.
New Zealander Lynnette Brooky rounded off her season in fifth place totalling 10 under par with rounds of 71, 70 and 68.
