Golf round-up: A session with former snooker world champion Ken Doherty's sports psychologist helped Athlone's Colm Moriarty into the perfect frame of mind to post a second consecutive four-under- par 68 and take control of the Skandia PGA Open at the tournament's halfway stage, while Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey remains in second spot at the Challenge Tour's other event - the Rolex Trophy.
Moriarty has found himself far more relaxed and focused on the job in hand following his meetings with Liam Moggin, and he is hoping that his partnership with the psychologist can inspire him to the same kind of heights that his countryman Doherty achieved on the green baize.
Hoey, meanwhile, added a 68 to the opening 66 he recorded at the Golf Club de Geneve on Thursday to lie just two shots behind the leader, Marc Warren of Scotland.
David Higgins is seven behind Warren on five under par after a second round 71.
Back at the Skandia PGA Open, Moriarty's room-mate for the week - Dubliner Stephen Browne - was two strokes behind the Athlone man with two holes to play, but finished the day in the worst possible fashion with a triple bogey eight and a double bogey five to fall back to one under.
Justin Kehoe (four over) and Tim Rice (nine over) missed the halfway cut of three over par.
SENIORS TOUR: Sky Sports commentator Jeff Hawkes let his clubs do the talking in the first round of a rain-lashed Travis Perkins Senior Masters at Wentworth Club, carding a four-under-par 68 for a share of the lead with fellow South African John Mashego. Argentina's Eduardo Romero is alone in third place after a round of 70 over the Edinburgh Course.
Back down the field with a one-over-par 73 was Scotland's Sam Torrance, who struggled in his defence of the title he won in spectacular fashion last year.
A shot behind Romero, in a four-way tie for fourth place are Englishmen Martin Foster, Ian Mosey and Kevin Spurgeon, plus another South African in Bobby Lincoln.
Denis O'Sullivan is best of the Irish - six shots back after a 74 - while Paul Leonard and Eddie Polland are on 77 and Liam Higgins on 79.
EUROPEAN AMATEUR: Rory McIlroy will attempt to move into top gear today in his bid to become the second successive Irish winner of the European Amateur Individual Championship.
The 16-year-old Irish title-holder from Holywood is still in contention for top honours over the Rinkven course in Antwerp - and if not successful in his bid for the crown he should certainly collect a medal.
McIlroy goes into the fourth and final round in joint third spot five strokes behind leaders Matthew Cryer, the 30-year-old English international from Coventry and Spaniard Rafael Cabrera. He recorded a one- over-par 73 yesterday to add to his previous scores of 69 and 71 and is on 213 - three under par - a highly creditable performance.
"I played pretty steadily today, but just was not able to hole any putts of note," said McIlroy.
Darren Crowe from Dunmurry who had swept into contention on Thursday with a splendid 67 slipped back down the field yesterday carding a poor 78 for a 54-hole total of 220. "Nothing went right. It was one of those rounds," said Crowe.
Defending champion and Amateur title-holder Brian McElhinney fell away completely with a 79 while both Mervyn Owens and Michael McGeady also flopped in round three.
WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN: Heather Macrae from Dunblane kept the British Women's Strokeplay Championship in Scottish hands at sunny Nairn yesterday.
In a repeat of last year's climax, when Claire Queen won a play-off for the trophy, it was Macrae who triumphed at the first extra hole of a shoot-out against Nicole Gergely.
The Austrian three-putted the first green for a bogey five, missing her second putt from some four feet, while Macrae, also on in two, rolled her approach putt to within a couple of feet for a cast-iron par.
Macrae and Gergely had tied on level par 288 after the regulation 72 holes, one shot ahead of another Scot, Jenna Wilson and Germany's Sandra Gal.
Ireland's only qualifier for the final two rounds, Claire Coughlan, never recovered from the opening 81 and finished on 300 after a final round of 74.
BOYS' CLOSE: Niall Kearney kept his nerve to stitch together three pars and an insurance birdie from the closing four holes at Kilkeel, and dramatically claw back a six-shot deficit to win the Nissan Irish Boys' amateur Close championship.
The plus-one handicapper from Royal Dublin was well out of contention after three rounds, but ended with a one-over-par 73 final round and a four-card aggregate of 288 to beat fellow international Simon Ward of Co Louth by two strokes.
During a day of mind-blowing twists and turns, Kearney started with a four-stroke lead, trailed by six shots after three rounds, and reduced the gap to three strokes with a smart birdie-par-birdie start to the closing examination.
But, with nine holes left, Ward seemed the most likely to succeed, when holding a four-shot cushion . . . until the fateful par-four 14th hole where he had to endure a sickening triple-bogey seven.
His lead was now down to only one, and the title hinged on the last four holes, with Ward never recovering from that ugly score.
