All eyes will be on Le Golf National this week as Ireland go in search of a maiden Olympic medal in golf.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will tee it up for Ireland on Thursday looking to get themselves on the podium in Paris and perhaps open the floodgates for Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow next week.
The pair arrive after contrasting Open Championships where McIlroy missed the cut at a whimper and Lowry had a near miss at a second Claret Jug.
The 2021 Olympics in Tokyo were a close shave for Ireland with McIlroy being pipped in a bronze medal playoff before admitting he had never tried so hard in his life to finish third.
Olympic Opening Ceremony flag bearer, Lowry has been lapping up the full Olympic experience this week and he would dearly love to win a medal.
“For me personally, I know to go back to Ireland with an Olympic medal would be like a dream. Yeah, something that is high on my bucket list,” said Lowry.
Irish Challenge
Conor Purcell grabbed the headlines on Sunday, picking up a maiden Challenge Tour win at the Black Desert NI Open in Galgorm and he will be the favourite to make it a double at the K Club for the Irish Challenge.
The Palmer South course plays host to this week’s Challenge Tour event with fourteen Irish players set to tee it up.
A list of players including Alex Maguire, Conor O’Rourke, Mark Power, John Murphy, Robert Moran, Ronan Mullarney and Daniel Mulligan are playing on an invite this week while K Club pro Liam Grehan and Simon Thornton have also been granted spots in the field.
Galway’s Liam Nolan is the only Irish amateur invite in the field as Jonathan Caldwell and Dermot McElroy complete the home interest.