Already, there is a sense of deja vu. Two years ago, in the inaugural Musgrave Crumlin Children's Hospital Club Challenge, which is editorially supported by The Irish Times, an all-woman team from Dunmore Golf Club in Clonakilty emerged as champions of Munster to book a place in the national finals in Portugal.

Guess what? The same three women - Noreen Fleming, Mary Scannell and Denise McCarthy - have won their club competition this year, and now are just one step away from booking another trip to the sun for this year's finals in the Algarve on October 7th-14th.

The Munster final of the competition, which is run on a rumble format, will take place at Limerick County (last year's national champions) on September 4th. The other provincial finals are scheduled for Mullingar (Leinster) on September 7th, Roscommon (Connacht) on September 11th and Nuremore (Ulster) on September 14th.

All the provincial winners will participate in the national finals when they will play Palmares, Salgados, Villamoura Old Course and the final round at Vila Sol to decide the millennium year winners. All teams, and club captain, will be accommodated in the luxury four-star Almansor Hotel.

With title sponsors Musgrave underwriting all expenses incurred in the competition, it means that all fees raised by clubs throughout the country go directly to Crumlin Children's Hospital Medical and Research Foundation which has established a reputation as one of the world's leading research facilities.

Money raised last year was used towards building new laboratories at the hospital and a "home from home" on the Crumlin Road to facilitate families to be near their children attending the hospital. The event has raised in excess of £100,000 in its two years, and it is anticipated that over £65,000 will be raised his year.

Clubs affiliated to the GUI/ILGU are eligible to hold a qualifying day and late entries for this year's competition are currently being accepted by the administrator Pat Cashman, who can be contacted at 014096300.