GOLF WEST OF IRELAND CHAMPIONSHIP:JUDGING BY the odds Paddy Power is giving for this year's Radisson-Blu West of Ireland championship, youth might be set to win out over experience in Rosses Point this weekend. But if the wind blows as it has been over the past week, it might be more of an occasion for cool heads, temperament and experience.

Rory Leonard is certainly hoping as much. The Banbridge player, who beat an impressive field to win the Lee Valley Scratch Cup last weekend, enjoyed a practice fourball yesterday with his clubmate Conor Doran and two experienced local players, David Dunne and Seryth Heavey.

“It helps that the younger guys mightn’t have played in such bad weather,” Leonard said ahead of the championship, which begins this morning in County Sligo Golf Club. “Those of us who’ve played here over the years would be well used to the rough stuff.

“But it doesn’t appear to be too bad at the moment, I was very surprised; I drove here from up north and there’s quite a bit of snow so I didn’t know what to expect. But it’s lovely here at the moment thankfully – you wouldn’t mind the wind too much.”

Portstewart’s Paul Cutler, the current East of Ireland champion, has been installed as the favourite for the championship at 8 to 1, while Greystones teenager Paul Dunne and Rathmore’s Alan Dunbar are also expected to lead the Irish charge.

However, the build-up to this year’s event is remarkably similar to that of two years ago, when wind speeds reached unplayable levels and the championship started and ended a day later than usual. A number of unlikely challengers emerged, none more so than Mullingar’s Dessie Morgan, who just lost out in the final to Shane Lowry. While a delay like that is unlikely this time out, the conditions will certainly be trying.

Banbridge’s Doran is among those who will be hoping for the weather to throw a few spanners in the works, something that would level the playing field between the younger players, the most elite of whom would have spent the winter in warm-weather training, and the more seasoned bunch, of which the 27-year-old now considers himself a member.

“At this stage of the season we wouldn’t get as much golf,” Doran said. “The full-timers would be out at warm-weather training in sunshine, while we’d be concentrating on staying standing and keeping the ball low – so that could nearly be a disadvantage for them.

“You need to get used to it over here. It’ll definitely blow the cobwebs out,” he continued.

“This is my 10th West, and I played in the Irish Close and an Interprovincial Championship, so I’d know it quite well.”

Englishman Jonathan Hurst is playing in his fourth West of Ireland and heads a strong English challenge that includes the lowest-handicapped player in the field in Jack Senior.

Present among the cohort of current national champions will be North of Ireland winner Wayne Telford, Irish Close champion Pat Murray and South of Ireland champion Robbie Cannon.