Inside Track: It happened over the weekend
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
It’s a pity Donald Trump was about the place as the Irish Open drew to a close at Doonbeg. It took some of the shine – but only a little – of Shane Lowry’s magnificent win.
It says somewhere else on these pages that Lowry is the best golfer to come out of Offaly. Yes, but he’s also one of the best the country has produced, and there’s no reason to believe there’s not more to come.
He has now won the Irish Open twice and the British equivalent once. He came home alone at Portrush back in 2019, but this time was doing handstands over the last number of holes.
It was a win the Clara man so badly needed and thoroughly deserved. He had the winning post in sight in a couple of big tournaments at the beginning of the season, but faltered. This time, taking on one of the classiest fields ever assembled for the ‘Irish’, there was no catching him
CARRICK DOG RUNS A CRACKER
For a time in the final of the BOYLES Sports Irish Greyhound Derby final it looked as if Sleight Of Hand might prevail. The Carricmacross runner was up alongside the odds-on favourite, Bouncing Monarch, going down the back, holding a lovely position on the inside.
But there was a coming together of the pair, and this opened the door to the wide-running Bocko’s Gold. The 8/1 shot ran on to credit his owners with the €125,000 first prize.
Running in the name of Laurence Jones, Sleight Of Hand, the youngest in the field, took the runner-up spot, earning connections €30,000. He’s one who should have a say in next year’s big competitions.
SPURS DON’T KNOW WHERE THE GOALS ARE
If Roberto De Zerbi, the Tottenham Hotspurs manager, is feeling the heat after four rounds of the Premier League, it can’t be too comfortable for the team’s forwards coach.
Spurs have two points on the board, but have yet to score, this despite bringing two new players on board, one of them costing £65m, the other even dearer at £80m, though there are conditions attached to the latter sale.
It’s not much good for newly-promoted either. Frank Lampard’s team are in the same boat, unable to find an opponent’s net. But worse for them, they have a zero in the table’s outside column.