Crouched beside the 18th green at Mount Juliet in 1993 was Joe Carr, a veteran of countless head-to-head battles. "This fellow holes these, you know," he whispered, as Nick Faldo stood over a 12-foot putt. And when the putt dropped, as somehow we sensed it would, Faldo had overcome Jose-Maria Olazabal in a play-off and captured a third successive Irish Open title.
It was a unique achievement for the Irish Open and a rare occurrence in any important professional event. For instance, nobody has ever done it in the British Masters, the US Masters, the European Masters, the European Open or the Volvo PGA Championship. Nor has it been done in the French, German, Italian, Dutch or Spanish Opens in the last 50 years.
Later this week, Colin Montgomerie will be attempting to equal the feat of his one-time mentor, the player he looked to for guidance when they became Ryder Cup partners at The Belfry in 1993. Which is richly ironic, considering that the big Scot was close to destroying Faldo's winning sequence before it even started.
That was in Killarney in 1991, when the Irish Open left the environs of Dublin for the first time since its revival at Woodbrook in 1975. It was a time when Montgomerie, with a lone tournament victory to his credit in 1989, was in contention from the outset, matching Faldo's opening round of 68 for joint leadership.
After a bleak, rainswept Saturday, the sun returned to a scene of breathtaking beauty for the final day. Faldo set off three strokes clear of the field on 213 - three under par - while Montgomerie was on 216 with Frank Nobilo and the defending champion, Olazabal.
With a birdie on the long 11th, Montgomerie got within a stroke of the leader but, by his own admission, was never a serious challenger for the title. "The day favoured Faldo and all I was trying to do was break clear of those who shared second place with me," he said afterwards. "Of course, I was pleased to get close, but I was aware that he still had the 11th to play. After that, I was hanging on for dear life."
In fact he hung on successfully enough to claim second place on his own for a prize of £40,640. Six weeks later, he won the inaugural Scandinavian Masters and ended the season at fourth in the Order of Merit. Montgomerie's rise to dominance in Europe was under way.
Meanwhile, success was long overdue for Faldo who was, and remains, one of the most loyal supporters on the country's premier tournament. It was his 14th appearance in the Irish Open in which he had first played in 1976 after leading the pre-qualifiers at Portmarnock in his first season as a professional.
In fact, the only stagings he missed were in 1989, when he had a prior commitment to the Canadian Open and in 1990 when he was unable to return to the event because of a damaged wrist.
His successful defence of the title at Killarney the following year was significant from another standpoint. Three months previously he had relinquished the world number one position to Fred Couples, the newly-crowned US Masters champion. With another victory in the Irish Open, however, followed by his third British Open triumph at Muirfield six weeks later, Faldo regained the number one position which he would hold until February 1994.
Indeed, this was a vintage year for him. He came to Killarney with the sparkling statistic of being 83 under par in tournament play so far that season - a figure which caused Irish bookmakers to make him a seemingly outrageous 2 to 5 favourite for the title.
Their assessment was apparently justified, however, when Faldo stood on 13-under-par at the halfway stage, five strokes clear of his closest challenger. But Bernhard Langer urged caution. "You never know," he said. "Strange things can happen in golf. Nick may look like a winner now, but the game is never as simple as that."
No indeed. Only 48 hours later, Faldo was embroiled in a desperate, sudden-death play-off with South Africa's Wayne Westner. Montgomerie was tied fourth.
The champion's lead had remained a formidable four strokes going into the final round. Then, astonishingly, his game fell apart, to the extent that he eventually needed to birdie the 18th for a closing 75 to force a play-off with the South African.
While waiting for Faldo to finish, Westner was on the telephone to his wife in Johannesburg, telling her he was about way to gain his first European triumph. An hour later, he was on the phone to her again, this time with tears in his eyes.
Against the odds, Faldo had sunk a nine-foot putt to tie. And the end came at the fourth play-off hole, the infamous par-four 17th, known locally as Dr Billy O's Folly. When it really mattered, Faldo got safely on the green in two whereas the South African hit a few duff approaches before reaching the putting surface in four.
Westner then conceded. And one instantly remembered Faldo's assessment of a highly-controversial hole the previous year. "It's scary, but it's playable: what's wrong with that?" he had said.
Faldo hasn't had much reason to smile in recent months. But his mood was very different in 1993, when the Irish Open went to Mount Juliet for the first time. "There is something about this country - nobody dies of ulcers here," he suggested with a grin.
He also spoke highly of the challenge of playing in Ireland: "I think my success here has a lot to do with the quality of the Irish Open courses. They are more difficult than many of those we play on the European Tour and that tends to give me an edge."
Indeed it was an edge Montgomerie would also be grateful for when new sponsors, Murphy's, moved the event on to Druids Glen, where the finishing holes could hardly be more demanding.
Four strokes behind joint leaders Olazabal and Ireland's John McHenry on the Saturday night at Mount Juliet, Faldo had a clear picture of what he might need in the final round. "Somebody suggested to me this morning that 67 would be enough," he said in his moment of victory. "But I replied that 65 was the figure. That was my target."
And he was right. On the way to a unique achievement, Faldo shot a course-record 65, reviving memories of a similar surge at Augusta National in 1989. On that occasion, from a position five strokes behind the leader, Ben Crenshaw, after 54 holes, Faldo shot a remarkable 65 to force a play-off with Scott Hoch before beating him for the US Masters title.
It took two holes to decide that particular battle. At Mount Juliet, however, one was sufficient. Down the 18th for a fifth time that weekend, Faldo hit a two-iron second shot which overshot the target to finish in deep rough behind the green. But Olazabal was also in trouble, in a greenside bunker.
The Spaniard's recovery finished six feet from the hole; Faldo's 12 feet away. After the Englishman's putt had been despatched to excited gasps from the crowd, the six-footer that Olazabal had expected to have for the title, was now for survival. And he missed, as so often seemed to happen to opponents when Faldo was at the peak of his powers.
Montgomerie was in a share of 23rd place with Seve Ballesteros.
A decade earlier, Ballesteros had seemed the most likely candidate to set this particular Irish Open target. In nine appearances up to 1986 at Portmarnock, he had no fewer than eight, top-six finishes, the only exception being 1979 when he was tied 17th behind Mark James.
During that period, the Spaniard won the title three times and at two different venues, just as Faldo would do. But between his victories at Royal Dublin in 1983 and 1985 and another triumph in 1986, the sequence was broken by his arch-rival of the time, Langer.
It seems richly ironic that Ballesteros should have been as high as fifth in his first Irish Open appearance in 1976, whereas Faldo missed the cut that year, just as Montgomerie would do on his debut 12 years later.
Meanwhile, after gaining the first of his three wins at Killarney in 1991, Faldo took the trophy home in the mistaken belief that it was his to keep. "Next thing I knew, there was a phone call asking for it back," he said. Two years later, he took it home again, this time as his own property.
The one-time dominance of Ballesteros and later of Faldo has since been achieved by Montgomerie on the European stage. Now, at Druids Glen next weekend, the Scot has the chance to surpass one and emulate the other by transporting a coveted trophy across the Irish sea. One way.
