Even if the surname was not the same, the eyes would give the game away. Raul Ballesteros is unmistakably the nephew of his uncle, with all of Severiano's charm and a smile that women will swoon over.

Just how much of his uncle's golf game he has remains to be seen, but yesterday, with a big wind blasting over the links, the teenager had a round of 74 - two over par, but two under the standard scratch score - to qualify comfortably for the matchplay stages of the Amateur championship.

After a 72 at Wallasey on Monday Ballesteros' 146 will almost certainly mean a place among the 32 seeds who will meet the remaining 32 qualifiers when the matches start today.

He survived, not only a wind gusting to 35 mph, but also a vicious thunderstorm which halted play for 35 minutes and left him "scared".

Ballesteros, aged 19 and playing off a handicap of plus one, has had a round of 61, nine under par, at his club, Royal Pedrena. The son of Baldomero, he plays frequently with Seve but has yet to beat him, even now that the three-times Open champion has subsided to mere-mortal golf.

Has he offered his uncle any advice? "No, no, no, everyone is doing that," said Raul. "I think that is the problem."

The problem for Raul, inevitably, is weight of expectation. He finds "there are more bad things than good" in being in golf and called Ballesteros.

Such as? "Well," he said to the assembled scribes, "what am I doing here, now? I have done 146 and there are other, better scores. You should be talking to them." Touche.

Tim Rice, a former Irish Youth cap who recently returned from a four-year university course in the US, shared the overall lead when he tacked a 71 to his first round 68 to lie at three-under-par.

But he admitted after reeling off four birdies in the last five holes: "I've never played in wind like that before - it was a real shock, but I drove the ball well."

Ireland's Andrew McCormick shot a 76 to finish on a four-over 146, while Michael Hoey is on 147 after a round of 75.