Back in 1983, Des Smyth broke from a practice round at Royal Birkdale to welcome Philip Walton into professional ranks and sympathise for his failure to get into the British Open field. Fifteen years on, both players will be among seven Irish challengers when the championship gets underway on Thursday.
Five of them - Smyth, Walton, Paul McGinley, Francis Howley and Graham Spring - got through the Final Qualifying competitions which were completed on four windswept Lancashire courses yesterday. And they were joined by the Yorkshire-born Robert Giles, an assistant at Warrenpoint.
It was a particularly notable exercise for Smyth, who collected £500 as joint leader on 144 - level par - at West Lancs with Scotland's Paul Lawrie. And he earned it, given that he had to complete three holes of a suspended first round at 7.15 a.m. before securing his place with an admirable 71.
"It's great to be back in the Open again," he said. "I'm in danger of losing my card this year and after missing the cut in the Irish Open and Loch Lomond, this week could be a real boost." His finish was especially impressive, insofar as he got up and down from a bunker to save par on the 17th and sank a 30-footer for a birdie at the last.
Based on Smyth's fine performance, McGinley feared he might be involved in a play-off at the same venue, after a second round of 75 left him on 149. But he was a stroke inside the mark, as was Woodstock's Graham Spring, who makes his Open debut this week.
Spring, who came through Regional Qualifying at Co Louth, played so badly in the corresponding event at Cox Moor last year that he couldn't remember his score. The basis of yesterday's 76 was laid in a one-under-par front nine of 35, which included birdies at the long fifth, where he chipped to 20 feet and the short sixth, where he holed an eight-footer.
Howley is also set to make his Open debut. He got through on the limit at Southport and Ainsdale where the number of qualifiers was increased to 14, due to the withdrawal of the exempted American, John Cook. "I'm really delighted about this," said the 29year-old, "particularly after missing out on two previous occasions."
Though McGinley was naturally pleased and relieved to have qualified, it will make for a busy week. He heads for London today to close the deal on a new house he has bought close to Darren Clarke at Sunningdale. "We're moving in on Friday, but obviously I can't be there," he said.
The Irish representation is up by two on last year when there were five challengers - Clarke, Padraig Harrington, McGinley, Gary Murphy and Brendan McGovern - at Royal Troon. While Clarke and Harrington were exempt from qualifying, Murphy and McGovern failed to get through on this occasion.
Meanwhile, civil unrest in Northern Ireland created problems for Clarke yesterday in his efforts to get here from his home in Portrush. A bomb-scare caused him to miss a flight to Liverpool but he arrived in Manchester in the afternoon and will practise early today.
He is currently living in Portrush so that his wife Heather, who is expecting their first child next month, can be close to her family. Either way, he had a headstart on familiarising himself with Birkdale, given that he played the course with soccer pundit Alan Hansen last Friday for BBC Television's Open preview, which is being transmitted tomorrow night.
