WALKER CUP CROWD LIMITED TO 10,000
PER DAY AT ROYAL COUNTY DOWN

By MARK GARROD, Press Association

Demand is certain to exceed supply after the decision to put a crowd limit of 10,000 on Britain and Ireland's attempt to regain the Walker Cup - the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup - at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland on 8-9 September.
The figure is only a third of the daily attendance at last year's Ryder Cup in Dublin and Royal and Ancient Club championship director David Hill said: "If we could accommodate more people safely we would do so, but moving crowds around on this course is particularly difficult and we have to be mindful of that.
"The golf fraternity understands that the Walker Cup is very different to the Ryder Cup and we think that giving every club in Ireland an allocation of tickets is the fairest thing to do. There will be allocations for the United Kingdom and America as well."
Unlike the Ryder Cup, the crowd will be allowed to walk on the fairways behind matches - four foursomes followed by eight singles on each of the two days.
The United States won by a single point in Chicago two years ago, but Britain and Ireland were successful at Porthcawl in 1995 (Tiger Woods was part of the American line-up that year), Nairn in 1999, Sea Island in Georgia two years later and then again at Ganton in 2003.
The demand for the tickets will be huge, especially since the home team is almost certain to include Northern Ireland's 18-year-old Rory McIlroy, the reigning European amateur champion. Team captain Colin Dalgleish said: "To have somebody of his extraordinary talent definitely ramps up the interest."
Dalgleish gave a broad hint that six players - McIlroy, United States amateur championship winner Richie Ramsay, his fellow Scot Lloyd Saltman, Welsh pair Rhys Davies and Nigel Edwards and England's Jamie Moul - are likely to be in the 10-man line-up.