AMATEUR SCENE/South of Ireland Championship: The entrance to the golf club at Lahinch has no pretensions; and it certainly doesn't flag any warnings to champions, or to those with an international cap. Perhaps, in future, it should.
Yesterday, as the South of Ireland Amateur Championship over this wonderful old links continued its progression to wheedle out 16 survivors into today's fifth round, a number of notables were added to a casualty list that so far has shown no respect for reputations.
Among those to exit the Irish Shell-sponsored championship on a grey, overcast day in Co Clare yesterday were Brian McElhinney, the current Irish Close and European Strokeplay champion, and Mervyn Owens, last year's winner of the South. Yet, as if to provide hope for the future, one of the most engaging fourth round tussles involved two current boys' internationals, each of whom has collected a provincial title inside the past fortnight.
Two weeks ago, Aaron O'Callaghan of Douglas edged out Limerick's Cian McNamara to win the Munster boys' title. Last week, with O'Callaghan taking a week's break, it was McNamara's turn to triumph, this time in the Leinster boys'. Yesterday, though, McNamara - an 18-year-old former World Junior Open champion who is destined to start a scholarship to East Tennessee in September - beat his friend to move on to a last-16 encounter with youths' international Paul O'Hanlon of The Curragh.
In fact, McNamara and O'Callaghan were rooming together so, either way, the outcome was going to leave a spare bed in the room.
McNamara possesses an inner steel and was able to put friendship to one side to record a 3 and 2 win, getting off to a flying start and establishing a four-hole advantage by the turn.
"I'd been struggling with my putter recently, in the European Boys' Championship and even in the Munster and Leinster championships," remarked McNamara.
However, some advice from Munster coach Fred Twomey on Sunday did the trick. "It was a simple drill to help me. I hadn't been releasing the club and my confidence with the putter was quite low," explained McNamara.
While some of their international colleagues fell by the wayside, former champions Mark Campbell - the current East of Ireland champion and winner here in 1999 - and Johnny Foster, who preceded him as South champion, progressed. Campbell's fourth round win over Portmarnock's Aengus McAllister typified what matchplay is all about. A nip and tuck affair, it also featured a couple of eventful chip-ins from McAllister.
Campbell had actually got off to a storming start, winning the first two holes. But McAllister won the fourth - the Klondyke - and then, when his tee-shot to the fifth - the famous Dell - finished on the green, he was faced with an impossible putt over a knoll.
Instead of putting, McAllister chipped . . . and the ball promptly finished up in the hole for a birdie two. On the sixth, McAllister again chipped-in, except this time it was merely to halve the hole. Still level at the turn, Campbell regained the initiative by winning the 10th and 11th and eventually secured a 2 and 1 win.
"You can't lose your focus at all on this course," remarked Campbell, "it's such a tough course. Every hole is a real test, but the back nine is brutally tough."
Meanwhile, McElhinney's interest in the championship was ended yesterday morning by Grange's Mark Ryan, last year's West of Ireland champion, who was subsequently beaten in the afternoon by Pat Lyons, while Owens' reign was ended by Michael Horan, a 35-year-old plus-one handicapper from Birr who is marrying his fiancée Debra Carroll next Saturday.
Horan attributed his improved form to a combination of factors, including working with professional Brendan McDaid, switching to the long putter and using a local caddie to help him with the lines on the greens. But for a man competing in his 15th South of Ireland, he was aware that taking the scalp of the holder was no guarantee of future glory. "I'm too long around to get carried away, this is a tough championship on a difficult course," he stated.
