Golf News: With the addition of several more big names, the momentum continues to build for this month's Nissan Irish Open at the relatively new Carton House Golf Club in Maynooth.
Yesterday, Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and two-time US Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal confirmed their participation in the event alongside Ryder Cup players Paul Casey and Lee Westwood. World top-50 players Graeme McDowell and Australia's Nick O'Hern will also compete in the €2 million event.
Olazabal, who won the Masters in 1994 and 1999, has begun to show signs of a return to form. Having picked up four top-10 finishes on the US Tour this year, as well as losing out in a play-off in the BellSouth Classic and coming third in the Shell Houston Open, the Spaniard will probably figure as one of the more popular competitors at the new, inland links-style course designed by Colin Montgomerie.
The young guns of the tour, Casey and McDowell, are two of the rising stars in the professional game. The Irishman finished joint runner-up in the Bay Hill Invitational this year and also came a respectable eighth in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Famous for capturing his first European title in only his fourth tour event at the 2002 Scandinavian Masters, McDowell has also tasted victory in the Italia Open last year, which helped him to finish sixth in the European Order of Merit. He defends that title this week.
O'Hern, a consistent performer in Europe, will remember last year's Irish Open in Baltray. The Australian set a course record 64, eight under par, on his way to finishing in joint eighth place.
The inclusion of Casey, Jimenez and Westwood, who became one of only six players to remain unbeaten at Oakland Hills, brings to eight the number of Europe's victorious 2004 Ryder Cup team who will play in this year's competition. They join Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, David Howell and Montgomerie.
The Co Kildare event takes placefrom May 19th to 22th.
Former British Open champion John Daly and reigning US Open champion Retief Goosen have entered the Deutsche Bank Players Championship of Europe in Hamburg on July 21st-24th.
The event carries a record prize fund of €3.3 million - the highest purse ever to have been offered in any professional sporting event on German soil - with the winner earning €550,000.
Alex Cejka, Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem will lead the home challenge, and Harrington, Casey, Montgomerie and Ian Poulter have also confirmed their participation.
Philip Walton and Stephen Browne have slipped down the table following the season's first re-rank of players in category 11 of the European Tour. Walton, with earnings of just over €1,100, slips from 17th to 27th, while Brown, who has won €8,150, drops from 20th to 29th. The re-rank means the pair will have more difficulty in getting into the bigger events on the tour.
