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Grant aid for GUI
By COLM SMITH

THE absence of a World Ranking system in amateur golf could have counted Ireland's top golfers out of a share of the lottery land-out but Dr Jim McDaid, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation has endorsed recommendation by the Irish Sports council to give the Golfing Union of Ireland £50.000 in grant aid.
The Sports Council uses an International Carding System as the criteria for issuing grants to athletes and the GUI are working on a system that will allow our golfers satisfy the Council.
Performances in home and international competition, both individual and team, will be considered and points awarded.
The Willie Gill Award which embraces the Irish Matchplay and Strokeplay championships and the West, North East and South Championships to produce the Golfer of the Year will also become part of the system which will be finalised by the end of the year and implemented in 1999 for the award of International Cards in 2000.
Chief beneficiary of the most recent grant is Paddy Gribben. The 29-year-old Warrenpoint player will receive £5,000 in respect of travel and training costs in 1998. It was a pretty special year for Gribben who became the first Irish player to win the European Individual Championship in Golf de Medoc in France during the summer.
He also won the North of Ireland title and joined a British and Irish team of four that won the Eisenhower Trophy for the World Team Championship in Chile.
Ireland also won the European Boys team championship for the first time under the captaincy of Jimmy Greene.
Jimmy's huge contribution has been recognised by the European Golf Association which has just appointed him captain of the European Boys team to play the Americans in a Junior Ryder Cup match in Boston around the time of the real Ryder Cup match from September 24-26 next at The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.
Other successes were Tim Rice in the Scottish Youths Championship, Mark Campbell in the Belgian Youths and the Nations' Cup in which he partnered Graeme McDowell.
Irish Boys champion David Jones was nominated captain of the British and Irish Team that beat the Continent of Europe, a side that also included Justin Keho and Robin Syines.
The GUI has accepted an invitation to enter a team in the World Junior Championship in Kobe, Japan from June 17 to 20, 1999. It is unfortunate, however, that the dates clash with the Leaving Certificate.
Bryan O'Melia from Woodlands, who has committed himself to the pro game although failing to get through to the final qualifying school at his first attempt, will received £4,500 from the Sports Council grant. In all, 37 players were included in allocations for 1998.
The Union also handed over a cheque for £50,000 to Shane Cookman, General Manager, and Moira Cassidy, Director of Golf, at the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links who organised a golf outing on behalf of Darren Clarke for the Omagh Fund. Clarke's day at the Links raised £350,000.
'The sum raised by the Union included contributions from various clubs but the figure is much higher because many clubs forwarded money directly to the Fund. A National B panel confined to players under 25 has been introduced to join the existing panels for senior, boys and youths.