Eamonn Darcy rolled up his sleeves at the turn yesterday in broiling Durban, but there was no respite from the thermometer or a treacherous course which conspired to cause him his worst score for many a long year.
A 10-over-par 82, with two nines of 41 on the first day of the South African Open, leaves him 18 shots behind the first round leader Ernie Els - the Druid's Glen professional's plans for a confident start to the season in tatters.
Last year in cooler Johannesburg, Darcy also began his season and provided himself with a heady start, leading this very tournament. Yesterday things could have not have been different as he crashed to three double-bogeys.
Els' eight-birdie 64 - in the relative cool of the morning - gives him a two-shot lead over his playing-partner Ignacio Garrido, Mark McNulty, Greg Chalmers and Mats Hallberg. By the time Darcy went out in early afternoon, the heat was up to well over 100 degrees and the humidity high enough to satisfy even the most ardent sauna-user.
And, although he did not mention a word about it, worries over his father's illness must have caused Darcy's mind to wander at times.
Thus Darcy was not in the greatest shape to take on a course which Els had predicted would cause `a few basket cases' this week. The rough is long in all parts and tight fairways provide agonising little necklaces around the greens.
It was one of the latter which caused Darcy's first double-bogey and eventual slide to his worst start to a season in 27 years.
At the 11th, his second hole, his ball looked to be covering the flag but hopped gently through the green into the rough, from where Darcy needed four more strokes. His chapter of disasters knew no bounds.
It was a day when he had to tuck up his sleeves to his shoulders as the humidity soaked his shirt and hindered his swing.
It was a day when he scattered a television crew in a vehicle near the 18th, his ninth hole. Their van, at least, prevented him going out of bounds but caused him to bend that notorious aching back inside a bush from where his ball had ricocheted.
It was a day when he three-putted from eight feet on a part three for a second double. It was a day when he again found a bush and then could not find his ball. It was a day he will rather forget.
"It wasn't the way I had planned to open the 1998 season," said a chastened, but still chipper, Darcy. "I wouldn't mind but I came to Durban feeling full of confidence and I tried to stay positive all the way round. I tried my guts out. But the heat got to me and I didn't play well. That wasn't a good recipe.
"I'll be doing my best to recover, but I guess really all I can hope for now is to at least get rid of the cobwebs."
Els got rid of his cobwebs by way of Thailand, when he lost a play-off to Tiger Woods, and Perth last week when he played well enough to take a share of third place - with Padraig Harrington - behind Thomas Bjorn.
Today, no doubt, he will again weave a web of birdies like the eight he set up yesterday by virtue of a putter which warmed up as the morning wore on. Perhaps it will fall to McNulty, no slouch with the putter himself, to stop Els making it a two, three, one, start to this European Tour season. Last year Els was eventually omitted from the Order of Merit for falling one tournament short of the 11 required to qualify.
Els felt he could have picked up 10 birdies, but warned: "You still have to be careful out there. It's not so easy. You can go after birdies too much. I just take what the course gives me."
Stung by his surprise lapses when caught by Woods and urged on by his home fans, Els looks likely to surge on to the $80,000 first prize which will enhance his bid to catch Greg Norman for the world number two ranking.
All that Darcy, who plays in a field containing both next week in the SA PGA in Johannesburg, can hope for is that his 82 yesterday was not an portent of things to come. "Ten-over-par," he gasped. "I really can't remember the last time I shot an 82."
