Irish international star Pat Murray is the best player in the profession as he holds the hot seat at Limerick.

What a foursomes pairing he would make with old school pal Eddie Lonergan, a one-handicapper, who has just been appointed manager at Woodenbridge. Lonergan, a onetime All-Ireland pitch-and-putt champion, shared a desk with Murray again earlier this month when they sat the exam for the Club Managers' Association of Europe.

The managers boast another Category 1 player in twohandicapper Michael Coote of Castleisland. The rest could claim they need more time off to hone their games but it is only the foolish who would bet against Michael Moss (Portstewart), Michael Delany (Co Louth) and Michael Corry (Shannon), all of whom are "vehandicappers.

One can then name three more competitors off single "gures in sixhandicapper Michael Power (Kinsale), Kerry football hero Tom Prendergast (Killarney) who plays off seven, and Matt Sands (Cork) whose handicap is generous at nine.

Looking at that list another pattern emerges. Six of the nine are from Munster, even though Matt Sands might protest he is from Dublin, and so the other provinces would be ill-advised to moot the idea of an interprovincial match.

SEVEN INTO A 100 GOES PERFECTLY IN 2007 A host of centenaries await in 2007 after a quiet year on that front. Only Athy, Dunfanaghy and Royal Tara celebrated 100 in 2006. As they settle back, up step seven other clubs who attain their centenary in 2007: Borris, Ennis, Enniscorthy, Milltown, Muskerry, Scrabo and Spa.

Irish golf had grown to 148 clubs by 1907 but our centenarians can take pride in the fact they thrived whereas 30 other clubs which existed in that year have failed to survive.

Here is the list of clubs which existed in 1907 but have vanished from the map: Stillorgan, Co Dublin (founded 1893);

Banagher, Co Offaly (1894);

Newborough, Co Wexford (1894);

Blackrock, Co Cork (1895);

Magilligan, Co Derry (1896);

Saintfield, Co Down (1896);

Toome, Co Antrim (1896);

Trabolgan, Co Cork (1896);

Carrick, Co. Donegal (1897), Corick, Co Tyrone (1897);

Courtmasherry, Co Cork (1897);

Derrynane, Co Kerry (1897);

Newmarket, Co Cork (1897);

Ardara, Co Donegal (1898);

Newport , Co Tipperary (1898);

Berehaven, Co Cork (1900);

Killaloe, Co Clare (1900); St Anne's Hill, Co Cork (1901);

Atlantic, Kilbrittain, Co Cork (1901); Montrose, Donnybrook, Dublin (1902); Mountstewart, Co Derry (1902); Maryboro, Co Laois (1903); Newtownbarry, Co Wexford (1904); Aghade, Tullow, Co Carlow (1906); Durrow, Co.

Laois (1906); Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare (1906); Royal Naval/ Channel Fleet, Bere Island, Co Cork (1906); Dervock, Livery Hill, Co Fermanagh (1907); Ferbane & Moystown, Co Offaly (1907);

Valencia Island, Co Kerry (1907).

FUTURE'S BRIGHT FOR TULLAMORE Tullamore Golf Club is proud as punch as its teams reached four Leinster "nals this year and won the under-15 tournament. It bodes well for the future. Eoin Marsden won the Midland Boys' Championship, was fourth in the Leinster Boys and reached the quarter-"nals of the Ulster Boys, gaining him interprovincial honours. The team which beat Headfort in the Leinster under-15 "nal was: Morgan Byrne, John Foran, Stuart Grehan, Gary Hughes and Eoin Slevin. Keith Duignan played in two earlier rounds.

ISLAND BUILD BRIDGES TO GREATNESS The evolution of the links at the Island Golf Club from great to greater continues as work has commenced on this winter's improvements under the guidance of Martin Hawtree.

The main changes are to be at the short par-four fourth where the big hitters had begun to drive the green. No more. It is being moved back 30 yards and to the left with plenty of character added to test short-game skills.

The par-three 16th is being given a new look, too, with a new green set to bring more of the character in the area into play.

Club captain Des Parkinson, soon to hand over to Denis McFerran, has carried the club's baton safely in his term and is very satisfied the year-by-year improvements are moving the links ever on to excellence.

When all is done and dusted it is doubtful the new-look Island will ever yield another 63, as the old one did to Darren Clarke during the 1999 Smurfit Irish Professional Championship.

But the ladies will continue to extract maximum pleasure and none more so than Karen McAllister who last week led teams to victory in two team waltzes and then had a singles win with 24 points for 12 holes. To play so well off 11 on the classic lay-out is quite a feat.

A FINE YEAR COMES INTO VIEW FOR WICKLOW Wicklow Golf Club is to host the regional rounds of the Junior Cup next year and the visitors are sure to be charmed by the scenery and the quality of the greens. New members are being welcomed at the moment, a snip at just 9,000, and next week will see the captaincy move from a former footballer of one code to a former footballer of another. Former Newtown stalwart Billy Alexander is at the end of a happy year and incoming is Bray Wanderers hero Tony McKeever, determined to make 2007 the best year ever for the club.

MOUNT MISERY HARDLY LIVING UP TO ITS NAME They are thinking in Waterford.

They always are. This time it is to do with their wonderful course on Mount Misery . . . it gives so much pleasure it would be better named Mount Joy. . . maybe not.

Declan Branigan, twice Irish amateur champion and a fine designer, has been called in to present a report and suggest ways forward. He's the man for the job because he knows every blade of grass in the place having played in the famous Waterford Scratch Cup many times.

Club captain Tony Gleeson, soon to be replaced by his friend and hero Peter Finnegan, has had a proud year which included the shipping of the great scratch cup to Dublin for display in the Ryder Cup Hall of Fame exhibition.

Waterford Glass were organising the exhibition and they were eager to show off the biggest trophy they've ever made.

LISSELAN DRIVE ON IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE Name the Irish golf course on which you take a train ride between holes to avoid a tough uphill walk, and a raft ride across a river to a green!

Here's a clue. Before it was extended to nine holes a few years back, it was also Ireland's, possibly the world's, only six-hole course open for commercial play.

It is, of course, Lisselan Estate Golf Club near Clonakilty, which is also famed as the ancestral home of the Ford family and the home of the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Call. Lisselan Estate is a truly magical place as it boasts one of the loveliest gardens in Ireland along with all that history.

John Ford, grandfather of the great Henry, was a tenant on the estate from which his son William emigrated to America. Mark Coombes, the golf manager, is justly proud of the fact membership is growing steadily. The club entered the interclub competition fray for the "rst time this year and enjoyed immediate success, winning the West Cork Junior Shield.

GOLF BUSINESS TO GET EVEN BIGGER Hats off to Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue who this week announced a grant of /470,000 to the European Club Managers' Association to kick-start an educational programme allowing managers of sports clubs to acquire a Higher Certificate in Business Club Management from a recognised third-level institution yet to be identified.

About 80% of the members are golf club managers, with Michael Walsh of Killiney as president, so the benefits are obvious. But this new educational highway is to be available to club managers from other sports also.

Core modules will include Financial Management, Human Resources, Risk Management, Sales and Marketing, Sports Management & Training, and IT.

NENAGH'S CASE OF SIBLING RIVALRY Oh brother. Yet another family battle has happened in Irish golf with Tom O'Gara overcoming sibling John in the "nal of the scratch singles at Nenagh. This was the "rst year of this competition so John can look forward to other days.