SENIOR IRISH OPEN:BALLYBUNION LOOKED like something out of a classic John Hinde postcard yesterday as a gentle breeze caressed the famous Old Course ahead of the €350,000 Irish Seniors Open.
But the cream of the European Seniors Tour has not been fooled, and the 75-man field is bracing itself for a serious test on a course where deep rough, firm greens and a potential change in the scorching summer temperatures could see it transformed into a terrible beauty over the weekend.
When the Irish Open was played here in 2000, the lack of wind and generous course set-up allowed two players to shoot 63, including the eventual champion Patrik Sjoland, who waltzed home with two strokes to spare on 14 under par. But that’s unlikely to happen this year.
“It is a tougher course than in 2000,” said Eamonn Darcy, who has had eight runner-up finishes since he joined the senior ranks in 2002.
“I have played two-and-half rounds in different winds and it is tricky out there. There are crosswinds to deal with and some very heavy rough around the greens, so you can be really unlucky. If the wind blows, it will be really tough. There will be a lot of heads coming off out there.”
Darcy is without a tour win anywhere since he lifted the Dubai Desert Classic in 1990, and while he was beaten in a play-off for the Mallorca Senior Open just two weeks ago – his third sudden death defeat on the European Seniors Tour – he points to Des Smyth as the man to beat.
But Smyth is still searching for the kind of form that made him such a force on the US Champions Tour, and he’s just hoping that the “automatic pilot” that switches on in a player’s head when he moves from parkland to links terrain will be fully operational.
“It is not easy to make the adjustment sometimes,” said Smyth, who was runner-up to Spain’s Juan Quiros in dreadful conditions in Ballyliffin last year.
“But it’s a great golf course and the scoring will depend on the wind. You saw that at County Louth a few weeks ago. When the wind blew they were struggling to shoot 72 and when the wind died they were shooting 65. That’s links golf.”
Bar the fifth hole, the seniors will play the course off the back stakes, and, with heavy rough surrounding the small greens, Cork’s Denis O’Sullivan believes that a short-game specialist will triumph over the 6,506 yard, par-71 challenge.
“The rough is so bad that it is a chore to find it and a chore to get it out,” said O’Sullivan, who reached the semi-finals of the Irish Close here in 1991. “It’s going to suit somebody with a good short game, someone like Carl Mason or Woosie.”
Struggling with his back, Ian Woosnam was busy tweaking a set of hire clubs to suit his swing as his clubs failed to arrive yesterday.
If he fails to click, links specialist and 2006 champion Sam Torrance must be fancied.
English rookie Roger Chapman will certainly not be short of help, having recruited his old caddie, Darren Reynolds, for the week, following the Dubliner’s split from Paul McGinley after six years last weekend.
