So much for youth! In the midst of all the exotic sounding names - like Claverie, Scarpa, not the detective, Lara and Rorbaek - lay a constant, someone battle-hardened by almost 30 years on tour. A player with seven European Tour titles to his credit, something which many of those setting out on their careers can only dream enviously about.
His name? Des Smyth.
Undeterred by the emerging young whipper-snappers that this dual-badge tournament tends to attract, the 47-year-old yesterday jumped into the thick of things in the buzzgolf.com North West of Ireland Open. "Delighted," stated Smyth, after a first-round 67 that left him just one shot adrift of Spanish pace-setters, Luis Claverie and Jose Manuel Lara.
Smyth's bogey-free round was in some contrast to the trials and tribulations experienced by a number of his countrymen. Eamonn Darcy, who has soldiered on the circuit for even longer than Smyth, was forced to withdraw (after a 76) from the tournament due to recurring back problems, while former Ryder Cup player Philip Walton, also suffering "tweaks" in his back, signed for 77.
In fact, Gary Murphy, who had three birdies in his last four holes for 70, was the only other home player to beat par.
"This course just gets better and better every time I come back," remarked Smyth. His fondness for the course was reflected in his scoring - five birdies and 13 pars, and not a single blemish. "It's always nice when you manage a bogey-free round. I can think about winning this. If I play my golf and hole some putts, I will be in there with a chance," he insisted.
Strangely, Smyth managed to compile his score without recording a birdie on any of the par-fives. Generally, though, his play was solid: he hit a three-iron approach to four feet for birdie at the second to kickstart his round and holed a 12-footer for birdie at the eighth to turn in 34.
Then, he chipped in from 20 feet at the 10th, where he had signalled his intent by removing the flag, and recorded back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th. On the last, his 15-footer for birdie hit the cup, but spun out.
While Smyth has come into this £300,000 tournament with high expectations, the same could not be said for jointleader Claverie. Indeed, as second reserve, Claverie didn't think he would be playing here until he got a phone call on Monday afternoon, an hour before he was due to board a flight to Norway for a Challenge Tour event.
And, with seven missed cuts in 11 outings on the secondary tour so far this season, his record-breaking round, later equalled by Lara, came out of the blue. "I've been playing badly for the last couple of months, putting really badly," said Claverie. Yesterday, it all came right as he birdied five of the opening seven holes to turn in 31.
He added further birdies at the 13th and 15th before suffering a double-bogey at the 16th, where he pulled his seven-iron teeshot into heavy rough, and then holed a 15-footer for birdie on the 17th.
Lara, who lost to Sergio Garcia in the 1997 Spanish amateur final before embarking on a professional career, continued his fine form this season with a round that featured an eagle (at the 13th) and five birdies.
Having lost out on his main tour card last year by missing a six-foot putt on the last green in the last round of the final tournament of the season, Lara - with six top-10 finishes on the Challenge Tour so far this season - is hoping to book his tour card for 2001 here this week.
