Jack Hume Fires 68 in Austria

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Jack Hume got off to a flying start yesterday in his bid for his European Tour card.

Playing in the first qualifying stage over the Ebreichsdorf course in Austria the young Naas star fired a highly impressive four under par 68 to grab a share of second place after the opening round.

His round was almost flawless as he collected six birdies and just two bogeys.three of his birdies coming in succession from the third.

He finished with six straight pars playing some really clinical golf.

Paul Dunne also in action in Austria carded a 70 which included four birdies and two bogeys.

The Greystones man who jointly led the Open going into the final round disappointingly closed with a bogey five.

Leading the way in Austria on 66 was Os Lengden of Sweden.

Meanwhile at Collingtree Park in Northampton Irishman Clontarf’s Eamonn Bradymade a solid start to his bid for a card returning a level par 72 to be two strokes adrift of leader Paul Reid.

Richard Weldon from Killeen Castle retuned a 74 to remain in the hunt but PaulMcGibney has some work to do after an opening 77.

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Dunne Helps Seal Walker Cup

Great Britain and Ireland regained the Walker Cup in comprehensive fashion at Royal Lytham on Sunday, securing the points required against the United States with six matches still to finish.

Leading 10-6 after the morning foursomes, the home side needed just three and a half points from the 10 singles to secure a fifth win from the last six contests on home soil.

And they did so at the earliest possible opportunity thanks to victories for Ashley Chesters, Cormac Sharvin and Jimmy Mullen and a half from Paul Dunne in the top four matches.

Chesters was sent out first once more and made it three and a half points from four by beating Jordan Niebrugge, who lost all three of his matches just two months after finishing sixth in the Open at St Andrews.

Sharvin then saw off 52-year-old Mike McCoy 4&3 before Mullen, who had partnered Chesters to two foursomes wins, beat Denny McCarthy to become the first GB&I player to have a perfect 4-0 record since Paul Casey and Luke Donald at Nairn in 1999.

That left Dunne to secure a half against world number two Maverick McNealy, who missed from five feet for birdie on the 18th to keep the biennial contest between the best amateurs from both sides of the Atlantic alive.

Captain Nigel Edwards struggled to put into words what it meant to lead his side to victory for the second time in three attempts.

"Gosh. It's great," the 47-year-old Welshman said. "At Royal Aberdeen (in 2011) we were up against it until the death but the boys at the top of the order went out fast as we needed them to do."

Asked about his perfect record, the 21-year-old Mullen said: "It did not matter as long as the team won, but to win all my matches is the icing on the cake."

Dunne, who led the Open after 54 holes before fading on the final day, added: "I will take winning over 30th place every day. It's so much better to do it as a team. Nigel has been a fantastic captain and inspired us from start to finish."

United States captain John Miller, who curiously sent NCAA and US Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau out last in the singles, said: "I am very proud of everyone to a man. They played hard and fought hard and lost with grace and dignity, and that's not easy to do.

"Nigel and his boys outplayed us, simple as that. They earned it."

DeChambeau had been on the 10th hole when the contest was decided and went on to beat Gavin Moynihan 6&5.

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Spieth Shows Human Frailty

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Jordan Spieth has missed the cut at The Barclays and is set to lose his status as world number one to Rory McIlroy.

Spieth, who shot his worst score (74) for three months at Plainfield Country Club on Thursday, could only do marginally better with a second round 73 after hitting five bogies, a double bogey and four birdies.

His surprise struggles mean that McIlroy, currently recovering from an ankle injury, will return to the top of the tree despite not lifting a club this weekend as a precaution.

There were no such problems for Bubba Watson, who now has a one-shot lead over the rest of the field after sharing a four-way tie at the top of the leaderboard following day one.

The American hit a sublime five-under 65 in the first round and backed it up with a solid 68 on Friday to nudge in front on seven under overall.

Colombia's Camilo Villegas and Americans Spencer Levin and Tony Finau had a share of the lead going into day two, but they all struggled to maintain that pace.

Finau is the highest-placed out of that trio, but a bogey on the 16th scuppered his hopes of staying toe-to-toe with Watson and he sits one shot back in a four-strong cluster on six under.

There he is joined by Sweden's Henrik Stenson, who shot five birdies on the first 12 holes to push up the leaderboard, Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner.

Villegas is just behind on five under - where he is joined by Jason Bohn after the American hit six birdies in a blemish-free round to card the lowest score of the day (64).

Levin, meanwhile, is one of seven men on four under after hitting one-over par on Friday.

Spieth admitted he would need some time to work out where his week had gone wrong.

"Yeah, tough week," he said on the PGA Tour website. "I'm definitely searching for answers. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do from here as far as how I get prepared for next week but I have some time to figure it out. We don't start till Friday."

Despite the disappointment, Spieth, who remains top of the FedExCup rankings, swiftly turned his attention to the Deutsche Bank Championship as he downplayed the importance of the ranking.

"I've reached that peak already and I know it's going to be close enough to where if I just get the job done next week, I'll be back in that ranking," he said. "But again, that ranking, it's great once you reach it but it's not something that I'm going to live or die on each week. It doesn't really make much of a difference. If you go on a three- or four-year cycle, Rory is No. 1 in the world. If you go just base off of this year, I am. They just use two years.

"In my mind, it's just about trying to win the FedExCup at this point."

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McIlroy Happy With Comeback

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Rory McIlroy was pleased with his comeback at the US PGA Championship despite not being able to defend his title at Whistling Straits.

Coming into the tournament, the 26 year old had not played a competitive round since a closing 66 at the US Open Championship at Chambers Bay after suffering ankle ligament damage whilst playing football with friends in early July.

But he finished 17th in Wisconsin after rounds of 71-71-68-69 and is confident he will be back to his best soon.

"I feel like I did well," he said "Obviously coming back after the lay-off, not hitting a competitive shot in two months, shooting nine under was a decent effort.

"I didn't see 19 under winning this week. I thought something between ten and 15 but it just shows you how high the standard is these days.

"But first week, coming back, I thought I did pretty well."

He added: "The ankle is fine. We came up with a plan that after this week I could take a couple of weeks off just in case anything did happen or there were any setbacks.

"It feels fine, but I'm just going to take a couple of weeks off and not need a strap or anything to play. And then after that I've got another week off, so by the time I'm in the middle of September, there will be no issues and hopefully I can give it a good run in the FedEx Cup.

"I felt like I gave it a good run this week and the ankle is in good shape.

"Overnight the ankle did swell a bit, but once I got it moving and compressed it a bit, it was fine. It probably won't look like a normal ankle for two or three months, but there is no pain in it, which is the main thing."

The Northern Irishman began his round on Sunday with five pars but made a sensational up and down from the rough to make birdie on the sixth and followed that with another on the seventh.

Another gain was made on the tenth and, despite dropping a shot on the 13th, McIlroy picked up another on the 16th and feels his game will come back together as he plays more often.

"I just need to sharpen up," he said. "I feel like ball striking-wise, tee to green, it's there. And it's sort of been there all year. If anything, just around the greens (I've got to be) being more efficient, really. When I give myself opportunities inside, wedges in my hand, I've got to take advantage of those.

"And today is a prime example, it's my fourth day of competitive playing, getting those two balls up and down on 17 and 18, that's something just playing a bit more and just having experience with certain shots and certain lies.

"That all just comes with playing a bit more."

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Spieth Second Tops World

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Jordan Spieth was still smiling after his second place finish in the 97th PGA Championship as it saw him take Rory McIlroy's place as world No 1.

Spieth concluded his remarkable season in the major championships by finishing three shots behind Jason Day at Whistling Straits, but that result was enough to lift him to the top of the Official World Golf Ranking.

The 22-year-old won the Masters and US Open before finishing in a tie for fourth in the 144th Open at St Andrews, where his dreams of a Grand Slam finally came to an end.

Asked by Sky Sports' Rich Beem if the No 1 spot was a nice consolation prize, Spieth said: "Sure it is. That's as good of a consolation prize as I have ever had.

"I'm really pleased. It was not easy to get out there and try to dethrone Rory, and it's going to be even harder to try and stay on top.

"But this year, the way we have played I think we've earned it as a team and we are going to work our butts off to stay in this position."

Spieth started the day two behind Day but could never quite get close enough to put pressure on the Australian, who was winning his first major championship after a number of near misses.

A dropped shot at the ninth proved particularly costly and Spieth said that was the key part of the round where he should really have been making up ground.

He added: "The middle of the round, really eight through 12, I had a really good opportunity to shoot three-under and I played those holes even par.

"That was killer because at that point I would have got it to about square and it would have been a different story coming down the stretch. 

"But it was Jason's day today and he really didn't miss many shots, and when he did it ended in a good spot and he made plenty of putts."

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