Nothing quite grips the imagination like sport. It mirrors life itself in its unpredictability, bringing untold joy and despair in equal measures to both fans and participants alike.

In some sports, like road motorcycle racing — as we have seen far too often in Northern Ireland over the years — it even brings tragedy. One newspaper this week has been recalling great sporting moments, events which last eternally in the minds of those fortunate enough to witness them, proving that sport, at the highest level, produces moments when the boundaries of human achievement are pushed to unimaginable heights.

This weekend two events are taking place where the potential for surprise results exist. One is the Open golf championship at Turnberry in Scotland, the other the Ulster GAA football championship final at Clones in Co Monaghan. Both championships have already produced shocks, but could even more seismic tremors be in store?

At Turnberry the man acknowledged as probably the greatest player ever to stride along a golf course, has already packed his clubs and is preparing to go home. Tiger Woods found, as so many have before, that wind and a links course is no respecter of reputation or ability. For only the second time in a major championship he failed to make the cut as his game disintegrated in unforgiving conditions. Instead it is a past master of the game, Tom Watson, at the age of 59 and after a hip replacement operation who sits at the top of the leaderboard. Surely he cannot sustain his bid for glory? Who knows? Remember the old adage — form is temporary, class is eternal.

Of course fans on this side of the Irish Sea will be hoping that our local golfers Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and the precocious Rory McIlroy will make a stirring charge for fame over the closing two rounds. They currently lie well adrift of Watson and the other leaders, but sport, as we have already noted, is unpredictable. Luck, skill and changeable weather could all conspire to give them a fighting chance. Even the current holder Padraig Harrington — he has won the last two Open championships — cannot be ruled out entirely, although he too may be playing more for pride than victory.

At Clones Antrim, so long the Cinderella team of Ulster Gaelic football, is the shock finalist, taking on the All-Ireland champions Tyrone. To gauge the task that confronts the team on Sunday, it is like MK Dons playing Manchester United at soccer. Victory is possible but improbable. Yet Antrim is a team of very young players who have no baggage of continual defeat to carry. They have got further than they could have dreamed, and why shouldn’t they dream?

For those who like the tension to build slowly, the second Ashes test between Australia and England continues, with England in a strong but by no means invulnerable position. Victory for either team, however, does not mean defeat for the other in this most famous of cricketing clashes. It is a best of five series and the Australians will not surrender their crown easily. Who knows what the weekend sport will bring. Could one of these great sporting events produce a moment that will feature in some future roll call of the great, or will form triumph over hope?