It can be pretty cold at lovely Rosses Point, home of the County Sligo Golf Club, when they play the West of Ireland there each Easter. To say it was cold on such a day in the early 1960s, when hailstones had to be swept off the greens, would be an understatement and that was the background to one of the most amusing incidents ever at that great championship.

A young lad from Laytown by the name Val Smyth was thundering the ball vast distances and looked like annihilating the diminutive veteran Jack O'Sullivan from Athlone when he faced for home with a four hole lead. But O'Sullivan, caddied for by this writer, was always a tough nut to crack and he eventually brought a man virtually one-third his age to extra time.

Smyth was miserable when he ran his first putt on the 19th three feet past and turned to the gallery and declared "If I miss this youse can beat me with your umbrellas."

He made the putt to go to the 20th where, if fading memory serves well, he managed to squeeze the win and went on from there to play for Ireland in the wake of his more famous brother, Des. So it is with some pleasure that it is reported that the same Val is still playing superb golf and, as recently crowned Irish Seniors' Amateur Open Champion, will lead our team into the European Seniors' Team Championship at Bled, in Slovenia, on August 15-18.

Sweet-swinging Nigel Duke from Killiney is a worthy member of the team which also includes the battlehardened Tony Goode, Maurice Kelly, Seamus McParland and Hugh Smyth. Their non-playing captain is Lindsay Shanks and here's hoping they win and so will be defending champions when the event takes place at Shannon Golf Club next year.

McIIROY ABSENCE GIVES LEINSTER ADVANTAGE

With Ulster handicapped through the absence of Rory McIlroy, trying to win an Open Championship no less, it looks as though defending champions Leinster will be invincible when they take place at Donegal on Tuesday through Thursday.

In an age when the lines between youths and senior golf have become totally blurred the Leinster squad includes Irish Close champion Shane Lowry, Walker Cup panel member Simon Ward and regular senior championship contenders Niall Kearney, Dara Lernihan, Niall O'Briain, Andrew Pitcher and Andre Hogan. Awesome.

The other teams look good, too, with Connacht being represented by Tony Finnegan, Alan Glynn, Damien Glynn, Shane Kelly, Daniel Kneafsey, Ciaran O'Connor and Stephen Brady; Munster fielding Cian McNamara, Aaron O'Callaghan, Tom O'Flynn, Seamus Power, Patrick Sheehy, Gavin Smyth and Jacon Tobin; and Ulster's colours are being carried by Byron Campbell, Nicky Grant, David Leathem, Wayne McCully, Paul O'Kane, Fergal Rafferty and Gavin Reid.

NAVAN GOLFER CLAIMS LEINSTER U-15 TITLE

It is necessary to announce the arrival of another bright spark in the person of Stephen Barry from Navan who skipped around an Ashbourne course playing long after recent rains in a two-under-par 69 to win the Leinster Under-15 Championship. He won by two from Daniel Murphy of Portarlington with defending champion Graham Donohoe from Enniscorthy a stroke further back in third place.

These are exciting days for the Navan golfers as they prepare to host their inaugural pro-am on August 10 with a professional prizefund of 12,500. A few team spots remain at 450 each and these can be secured by telephoning Sheila Slattery at 046-9098157.

BALLYLIFFEN SET FOR IMPORTANT MEETING

Extraordinary general meetings usually generate a degree of heated debate and no doubt it will be like that in Ballyliffin tonight at 7pm when the members convene to vote on the possible expenditure of up to /1.5-million on the installation of a state of the art irrigation system to the club's two renowned links courses.

No doubt there will be those who will be blinded to the virtues of such a move by the recent rains, drought always seems remote until it strikes, and the suggestion that the members would be levied /150 per person for the next five years.