During truly horrific conditions in the Irish Close Championship last Tuesday, some of us old hands were comparing notes about the weather at Rosses Point. And former internationals Mark Gannon and Padraig Hogan agreed that one occasion stood apart from all others.

Predictably, it was in the West of Ireland Championship. And in the year in question, 1986, the final took place on April 1st. Gannon recalled how his contemporary, Liam MacNamara, hit no fewer than five, well-struck woods to the 503-yard third hole, while the flag-stick lay almost horizontal in a howling wind. And Hogan added that the Woodbrook player had calculated he was 23 over par when the second-round match against Colin Glasgow ended on the 21st.

But the greatest bad-weather round ever played in this country remains the 73 which Christy O'Connor Snr (right) shot in the 1965 Dunlop Masters at Portmarnock. Fellow competitor Tony Jacklin described it as "one of the greatest rounds in the game. And nothing in my experience since then has changed that view." The ultimate irony was that it didn't count: the day's play was scrapped.