When the wind abated, the mowers had lowered the rough and the rain stayed away, scores came tumbling down as if by magic in the second round of the £100,000 Donegal Irish Women's Open at Letterkenny yesterday. There were even some conciliatory words from Laura Davies.
Sweden's Nina Karlsson set the mood for an eventful day by starting with four successive birdies on the way to a sparkling, five-under-par 66. It brought her from tied 32nd overnight to a share of the halfway lead with three others on 142 - level par.
It was that figure which prompted an unrepentant Davies to defend her "worst course I've ever played" criticism of the venue on Thursday. "I'm truly sorry if I've upset the members but the fact is that we're in the spotlight here and we're finding it very hard to play their course. Maybe that's a compliment in its own way."
She went on: "We're spoiled as we swan around the world playing the best courses and I'm afraid the organisers have simply picked the wrong one here. They should have thought of the players. Look at the scoreboard; there's nobody under par. I rest my case."
Davies's case remained decidedly thin, however, when one considered a 67 from Finland's Riikka Hakkarainen, 68s from Germany's Elisabeth Esterl and defending champion Sophie Gustafson and a 69 from England's Susan Elliott. Indeed Alison Johns of England coped sufficiently well to shoot 72, an improvement of no fewer than 15 strokes on Thursday's score.
Davies has been such a wonderful supporter of this tournament, missing only one out of six stagings, that one is loathe to criticise her. But her comments sit very oddly with an organisation desperately seeking to make a favourable impact on sponsors in their latest incarnation as the Ladies European Tour.
The most accurate assessment Davies made of Letterkenny was during Wednesday's pro-am when she claimed the lack of definition, due to the absence of bunkers, made it an unsuitable course for her. The fact is that some of the finishing holes, notably the 190-yard 13th, the 400-yard 15th and the charming, 489-yard 18th would stand comparison with any parkland stretch.
With a serpentine sweep flanked by trees on the right, the 18th goes downhill to a stream traversed by two stone bridges from where the ground then rises to a large, crowned green, 50 yards further on.
In fairness, Davies is clearly tired and edgy after being on the road for 17 of the last 18 weeks. Yet her competitive instincts were undiminished as she battled to do herself justice in a second-round 70. Having started on the 10th, she had to wait until the third, her 12th, for her first birdie, wedging to five feet.
Then came the sort of play that the biggest gallery of the day had come to see. With wind assistance on the 405-yard sixth, she reduced it to a drive, seven iron and a 35-foot putt for an eagle three.
When the cut was made on 154 - 12-over-par - Barbara Hackett was the only Irish player among the 67 qualifiers. Creditably, the 1996 Amateur Close champion birdied her last two holes, the eighth and ninth, to get through on the limit, just as he did on her professional debut at Ballyliffin last year.
Meanwhile, the leaderboard had an impressive look to it, with Alison Nicholas on 142 and Gustafson in close attendance. On the way to a second round 70, the 1997 US Women's Open champion paid dearly for ignorance of the rules which, it has to be said, is even more prevalent among her male counterparts.
It happened at the seventh, her 16th, where she came across her ball in the rough with a piece of grass lying across it. Thinking it to be a loose impediment, she moved it away only to discover that the grass was actually rooted. Still, there would have been no problem had it been replaced in its original position.
Instead, she left the grass to one side, assuming she had already incurred a penalty by touching it. But after informing an official of her indiscretion, she was shocked to discover that the penalty was, in fact, two strokes for a breach of Rule 13-2, leading to a triple-bogey seven.
Karlsson's game is characterised by a wonderful tempo, not unlike that of compatriot Annika Sorenstam who has been an inspiring figure for her. Her four opening birdies were the product of stunning approach play, three times with a nine iron and once with an eighth.
She went on to sink a 45-footer for another birdie at the eighth and an outward 31, one stroke outside the best front nine of the day, returned by Gustafson. From then on, Karlsson shot nine straight pars on the homeward journey, getting up and down at the short 13th and 16th.
"That my best round as a professional - the best I can do," she said with an understandable glow. "I hit my shots straight: that was the key." Critics of Letterkenny please note.
Brandt Jobe continued to hold the early lead in the Air Canada Championship in Vancouver after shooting a one-under 70 in yesterday's second round to add to his first round 63 and move to nine under par. Fred Funk posted a 64, the day's best score.
Jobe made a name for himself in Japan in recent years, and now he's working on carving out his niche in North America. He finished third on the Japan Tour's final 1998 money list with $820,717.
