Mary Hannigan

21 hours ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

There’s a chance that you’ll have read and heard no end of chat about Rory McIlroy’s love affair with Quail Hollow, a venue where he’s won four times in official Tour events, set the course record of 61 back in 2015 and finished in the top 10 in 10 of his 14 appearances. Jordan Spieth, as the BBC reported, is so blown away by the Northern Irish man’s history there, he suggested that Quail Hollow be renamed “Rory McIlroy Country Club”.

1 day ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

All we can hope back home, as we lather on the after-sun, is that our Denis Walsh brought his waterproofs to North Carolina for the US PGA Championship. Once again, Quail Hollow was left drenched by the heavens for a spell on Tuesday, but Denis, the trooper that he is, if a damp one, still made his way about the place to report on the toughest three finishing holes on the PGA Tour. He details just how treacherous ‘The Green Mile’ is.

1 day ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

Among the former US PGA Championship winners who won’t be in action at Quail Hollow this week is John Daly. Back in 1991 at Crooked Stick, Daly left the golfing world gobsmacked when he won the tournament having been the ninth – ninth! – alternate to get into the field. Instead of making his way to North Carolina, Daly, who’s not best pleased about the scheduling clash, will be playing in Alabama at The Tradition, one of the senior tour’s majors.

2 days ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

One of the very great Irish sporting careers came to an end on Monday with the announcement by Rachael Blackmore that she was retiring from horse racing. It was, writes Brian O’Connor, reflecting on “a trailblazing career by a singularly talented and ferociously determined figure”, “perhaps the most groundbreaking career any jockey has ever had”. Mercifully, Blackmore was never asked to wear a skort (as far as we know).

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

A measure of how long it had been since Louth last won a Leinster football title? As Malachy Clerkin tells us, Éamon de Valera was Taoiseach at the time. And that’s not today nor yesterday. Sixty-eight years ago, to be exact, so little wonder the Louth fans in the 65,786 crowd were “bouncing in delirium”, as were manager Ger Brennan and captain Sam Mulroy when Malachy spoke with them after.