Davies has lash at course

Struggling professionals are known to instinctively castigate the playing conditions as a defence mechanism against losing confidence. In which case Laura Davies built up quite a reserve by her stormy reaction to a dispiriting 77 in the opening round of the £100,000 Donegal Irish Women's Open at Letterkenny yesterday.

"It's the worst course I've ever played," said the former world number one in measured tones. "Three of the best in Europe (herself, Trish Johnson and Raquel Carriedo) have been made to look like muppets."

She later rephrased that to "made to look like rubbish." Either way, we got the message.

As it happened, Kirsty Taylor and Sandrine Mendiburu managed to return level-par scores of 71, having been in action at around the same morning time as Davies, when conditions were at their most difficult. But it was significant that tournament leader, Wendy Dicks, shot a 70 in the last three-ball of the day, by which time the wind had eased significantly.

The outburst from the tournament favourite had to be seen in the context of an eighth successive week on tour. And it came in the wake of additional strain imposed by her own tournament which finished at Brocket Hall last Monday. So, local officials would be well advised to hold fire before bringing in the bulldozers.

Recent rain rendered the low-lying first 11 holes decidedly heavy, while the challenge was heightened by fresh morning winds sweeping in from Lough Swilly. It meant that the course played considerably longer than its 5,955 yards, to the extent that players were using woods and long irons into several par fours.

As an ordinary members' course, Letterkenny is tricky and undoubtedly difficult, but all are agreed that the greens are generally of an admirably high quality. So, the challenge was probably placed in the most appropriate context by Alison Nicholas, who captured this title at CityWest in 1996. "In my view, you've got no choice but to take things as they are and play the best you can," said the 1997 US Women's Open champion after a fine 72.

"Everybody put an awful lot of effort into staging this event and if there are problems, the time to raise them is when it's all over."

Compatriot Taylor, one of four players to shoot a level par 71, put it more bluntly, saying: "You go out there and you get on with it."

Mentally, Davies was ill-prepared for the tournament insofar as she had decided on Wednesday that the course didn't suit her game. Dicks, on the other hand, saw the set-up as very much to her advantage.

"I tend to keep the ball straight and my game was very tidy for most of the round," said the 29-year-old Londoner who turned professional in 1992 after a modest amateur career. And as a late starter, she studiously avoided looking at any of the early scores, though she admitted: "I didn't see many red (sub-par) figures anywhere."

As the only player destined to break par, she got off to a wonderful start of three successive birdies, holing a 15-foot putt at the first, chipping to two feet at the long second and sinking a 10-footer at the third. From then on, all she needed to do for a productive round was to mind her work. And she succeeded for the most part.

Her only serious slip came at the 375-yard seventh where she ran up a double-bogey six after driving into the right rough and being still in rough in two. But she covered the remaining holes in level par, when a birdie at the short 13th (30-foot putt) was offset by a bogey at the short 16th, where she missed the green right.

Of those in close pursuit, Nicholas poses the greatest threat at this stage. Indicative of her fighting spirit is that she recovered from an outward 39 - three over par - to shoot an inward 33 after birdies at the 10th (eight-foot putt) and at the 12th, where a 12 footer found the target.

Taylor, who will be recalled as a member of the 1994 Curtis Cup team, experienced considerable difficulty with the rough. "A lot of us haven't got the strength to get out of it," she said. "And the course is playing far longer than its yardage."

But there were bonuses. Like a chip-in birdie from off the left side of the 10th green where she would initially have been delighted to settle for a par. And she and Nicholas shared the distinction of being the only two players to shoot 33 for the more difficult back nine.

Meanwhile, Irish challengers were largely overcome by the challenge and Lynn McCool had the especially painful experience of carding a 13 at the seventh, where her problems started with two lost balls off the tee. But Barbara Hackett showed a welcome return to form on the way to a 76.

Like Nicholas, she had to fight for it. After the dismal start of bogey, double-bogey, she sank deeper into trouble with another seven at the long sixth where she drove out of bounds. She was later rewarded, however, with back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th.

But Aideen Rogers, who was fourth in this event at Ballyliffin last year, couldn't find a way of repairing the damage of the first 11 holes which she covered in seven over. Typical of her day was that birdies at the 12th and 14th were more than offset by three further bogeys.