There will be only one pair of smiling Irish eyes at this week's Andersen Consulting Hong Kong Open, writes Spencer Robinson.
Originally, organisers announced that Ronan Rafferty, a former runner-up at Fanling, would be joined in the starting lineup by fellow Irishmen Paul McGinley and Philip Walton.
However, to the disappointment of tournament promoters Sports International and the SAR's Irish community, McGinley and Walton have both withdrawn, leaving former European number one Rafferty as the sole Irish entrant.
Walton, who holed the winning putt for Europe in the 1995 Ryder Cup, informed Sports International president Steve Feuerstein that he was pulling out because he will be undergoing eye surgery at the weekend.
McGinley, meanwhile, has a more pleasant duty to attend to - the wedding of Padraig Harrington, whom he partnered to victory in the World Cup of Golf at Kiawah Island a fortnight ago. The Irish withdrawals come in the wake of the news that Americans Steve Jones and Brandel Chamblee, Dane Thomas Bjorn, English golfer Jamie Spence and Scotland's Raymond Russell, will, for a variety of reasons, also be unable to make the journey to Hong Kong.
However, apart from the big three of Frank Nobilo, David Frost and Costantino Rocca, the Fanling starting lineup includes three other players who are ranked in the world's top 200.
