(Golf news) Disappointment for Des Smyth in France.

There was disappointment for Des Smyth at the Cannes Mougins Masters in France when he went from an opening 7 under par 65 and leading by 2 shots to finish down in 16th place after closing rounds of 74 and 78. Smyth, who won the Travis Perkins Senior Masters at Woburn last month, lost his game over the closing two rounds.

Local man Mark Farry was an easy winner on 9 under par after a 2nd round of 65, beat Gordon Brand Jun to the winning prize of €38,287 by 2 shots.

Dennis O'Sullian +4, Eddie Polland +9 and Jimmy Heggarty +13 were the other Irish contenders.
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39 year old Irishman Padraig Harrington has ended a two-year title drought by winning the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia.

Harrington, who went into the final round with a comfortable five-stroke lead, after opening rounds of 64, 67 and 68. He hit a closing three-under-par 69 to cruise to a three-shot win from Korean Noh Seung-yul on 20 under par.

The three-time Major winner was never threatened during the final round at the Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club to secure his first victory since winning the US PGA Championship in 2008 and collect $198,125.

"Two years is a long time, especially when you're reminded most weeks you play. It's nice and very important for me to win. It's somewhat a monkey off your back," Harrington said.

Showing no ill effects of a neck injury which almost forced him out of the third round, the Irishman tightened his grip with three straight birdies from the second hole on a day when conditions were ideal for low scoring.
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Andreas Harto captured his second Challenge Tour title in thrilling fashion in only his fourth appearance at the Roma Golf Open 2010.

In so doing the 22 year old from Copenhagen, who only turned professional last month after winning the ECCO Tour Championship as an amateur, became the fastest player in history to capture two Challenge Tour titles.
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47 year old, Rocco Mediate won the Fry's.com Open on the PGA Tour with scores of 64,65,67 and 73 for a 15 under par total of 269. It was Mediate's first win for 8 years and he led from start to finish.

Mediate managed an eagle in each of the 4 rounds and never had to use his putter. Round 1, he had a hole in one at the 3rd hole. In round 2 he holed his 2nd shot from 160 yards at the 4th hole. A 110 yard shot went into the hole at the 15th hole for an eagle 3 at the par 5 in round 3 and in the last round when Bo Van Pelt and Alex Prugh were in the clubhouse on -14, Rocco holed from 116 yards at the 17th to win by one shot on 15 under par.
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Banbridge Professional, Richard Kilpatrick has been playing on the Alps tour based in Switzerland this year. He is lying in 17th place on their order of merit with €12,799. His best finish so far has been a 5th place in the Atlas Pro - Tour Magador tournament where he finished 7 under par.
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There was a popular winner of the PGA Grand slam of golf at Port Royal golf club in Bermuda. Ernie Els came from 3 shots behind David Toms with 5 holes to play to win by a single shot. Els who scored 70/69 in windy conditions collected the $600,000 first prize on 5 under par. Toms 69/71 was second on 4 under par. Graeme McDowell 72/73 and Martin Kaymer 74/71 tied for 3rd place on 1 over par.
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Defending champion, Scotlands Martin Laird, Austrailian, Cameron Percy and Jonathan Byrd tied on 21 under par in the Justin Timberlake tournament around the TPC Summerlin course in Las Vegas. After 3 play off holes the trio couldn't be seperated and as it was getting dark, they decided to play one more hole. Laird & Percy both hit water at the 204 yard 17th hole. All Byrd needed to do was hit the green. He went one better and hit a 6 iron that finished in the hole for a winning ace, that gave him his first win since the John Deere Classic in 2007.
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Rory McIlroy played his first ever event on the Challenge Tour, when he accepted an invite to play in the JW Marriot, Egyptian Open around the Mirage City golf club. Rory took time to get used to the course, opening with a 71 and a 74 to make the cut on one over par. He found his swing over the weekend and recovered with 69/68 to share 12th place on 6 under par. Fellow Irishman Colm Moriarty finished one shot behind Rory on 5 under par. The tournament was won by Mark Tullo from Chile who shot a final round 66 to win on 13 under par. Rory became the 1st person to ever hit golf balls around the famous Pyramids.
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Waterville Professional, Mark Murphy closed with a 4 under par 68 to skip through the 1st stage of qualifing for the USPGA Tour at Lantana Golf Club in Texas. Murphy shared 8th place on 7 under par after 4 steady rounds of 71, 72, 70, 68. He will be joined at stage 2 by Chris Devlin from Ballymena.

Seamus Power from West Waterford was unlucky when he failed to make stage 2. Power took 73 in the final round to miss out by only 1 shot on 3 under par. Niall Kearney from Muskerry returned a 66 in his final round, but unfortunately still missed the cut by 4 shots on level par.

Ballyliffen's Thomas Kearney finished 10 shots away from the cut on +6, while Fergal Rafferty from Dungannon was another 2 shots behind Kearney on +8.
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Ireland made a fighting comeback to finish in 6th position at the World Amateur Team Championships in Argentina. The tournament was reduced to 54 holes because of the inclement weather, which made the Buenos Aires golf course very difficult.

Ireland were at the back of the field after day one. Paul Cutler ( Portstewart ) had a 74 while Alan Dunbar ( Reathmore ) and Kevin Phelan ( University of North Florida ) both hit 76s. Ireland moved up to 22nd after round two when Cutler & Dunbar both returned 73s. The Irish boys reserved their best golf to last. Cutler hit a very impressive 71 and along with Phelan ( 72 ) they returned the joint best score of the day with the US team. Their 143 total helped them to move into 6th place, 16 shots behind the winners, France.

Paul Cutler 74, 73, 71 was 11th in the individual table on +3, 9 shots behind the winner Joachim Hansen ( Denmark ) on 6 under par. Kevin Phelan 76, 75, 72 was 24th on 8 over par and Alan Dunbar 76, 73, 79 was 57th on 13 over par.
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Rebecca Coakley ( Carlow ) was only one shot away from recording her first win on the Ladies European Tour. Playing in the China Ladies Open, Coakley returned scores of 69,70 and 73 that left her 1 shot short of a 5 way play-off.

South African, Lee-Anne Pace made it back to back wins when she came from 6 shots behind to beat Hannah Jun, Julieta Granada and Christel Boeljon in a 2 hole play-off.

Rebecca Coakley shared 5th place with Becky Brewerton & Dewi-Claire Schreefel. She collected a cheque for €7,160 and has now moved up to 34th on the order of merit.
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Tiger Woods dropped down in Bangkok to play a one day skins game on his way to Melbourne for the defence of the JBWere Masters. He came a poor last when he only managed to win one skin that was worth $6,600. Camillo Villegas won 5 skins but they were worth $109,800 while Paul Casey won 9 and his total was $92,400. Thongahai Jaidee won 3 skins and collected $90,000.
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53 year old Bernhard langer won the US champions tour seniors order of merit for the 3rd year in a row after a brilliant season that saw him win 2 major titles. He won the British seniors and the US seniors. His reward for winning the order of merit was a $1 Million annuity.
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Irish PGA Champion, David Mortimer was the top Irish Professional in the GB&I Srixon play-offs at Little Aston golf club. Mortimer had rounds of 70, 72 ( -2 ) but only finished in 7th. The winner was Aberdeen Professional 37 year old Greig Hutcheon who holed a 15 foot putt in a play-off to beat Richard O'Hanlon, ( Cornwall ) and James Harris ( Kent ) after they all finished on 7 under par.

Irish Race to Mount Juliet order of merit winner David Higgins was 9th on i under par after rounds of 71, 72 and Belfast man Damien Mooney was 19th after rounds of 74, 74.
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39 year old Stuart Appleby came from 7 shots behind to win the JB Were Masters in Melbourne, Austrailia. Left hander, Adam Bland took 73 in the final round as Appleby hit a 6 under par round of 65 to pass him and win by one shot on 10 under par.

Daniel Guant who started the year on the Europro Tour took 3rd place on 8 under par, beating the defending champion Tiger Woods by a shot. Woods was struggling with his game until the last 4 holes of the final round. He finished eagle, birdie, par, eagle to claim 4th place.
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Italy’s Matteo Manassero has been named The Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 2010 following a record-breaking start to his professional career highlighted by him becoming the youngest player to win in the history of The European Tour.

Manassero launched his professional career in the BMW Italian Open at the beginning of May and in 14 starts since then has won the Castello Masters at the age of 17 years and 188 days; earned €890,401 to finish in 31st place in The 2010 Race to Dubai; and played 54 rounds for which he was 73 under par with only seven scores over 72.