The druids may bestow new blessing

Monty's playground has been opened up to all-comers, to the extent that competitors actually like the way Druids Glen will be presented for the £1.2 million Murphy's Irish Open, starting this morning. It is a development certain to find special favour with John Daly, who is returning to the championship after a lapse of five years.

And Colin Montgomerie, who was triumphant here in 1996 and 1997 before losing a play-off to David Carter 12 months ago, refused to see any compensations. On being asked yesterday if he was disappointed the field might not be as strong as usual, with the withdrawal of Jose-Maria Olazabal among others, the Scot replied: "I'm disappointed it's as strong as it is."

During the Scot's dominance of Ireland's premier golfing event, the half-way cut varied from four over par to six over. And it was five over last year. But conditions are now decidedly benign, with the rough reduced by a few inches, making recovery shots possible with a seven iron, as opposed to a hack with a wedge.

"It was thick last year; really thick," said Sergio Garcia, who is making a return to European golf having shared 19th place in the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth last month. "Now it is a little better and the winning score will probably be better than the six-under last year."

The 19-year-old Spaniard could secure a European Tour card, depending on his performance this weekend. Which means he is close to being qualified on both sides of the Atlantic, so presenting him with his next important career decision.

In the regrettable absence of Darren Clarke, the Irish challenge is headed by Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, his Dunhill Cup colleagues of recent years. But it is an opportunity for Philip Walton to gain badly-needed cash in his scramble to avoid the embarrassment of losing his tour card at the end of the season.

The prospect of a first Irish victory since John O'Leary's triumph of 1982, however, was placed in perspective by Harrington when he admitted: "At my level, I would expect to create only one or possibly two realistic winning chances each season. And while I am not attempting to make any excuses, there are always a lot of distractions for the home players during Irish Open week."

Indeed there are. But it is to be hoped that the necessary focus to mount a worthwhile challenge can still be achieved. Without wishing to draw unfair comparisons with times past, one can't help recalling the way Christy O'Connor, as a club professional, overcame every conceivable distraction from would-be well-wishers, to gain remarkable dominance at venues such as Woodbrook and Royal Dublin.

Either way, it could be a critical tournament in the Ryder Cup aspirations of Harrington, who is currently 15th in the points table, three places ahead of McGinley. And by way of comparison, the Stackstown player was 18th in the Ryder Cup at this time two years ago, when he eventually missed selection as 12th-man in the final standings.

On a broader level, Daly's presence is sure to generate tremendous interest. Indeed when playing the course for the first time in yesterday's pro-am, he had pulses racing by driving within 20 yards of the green at the 399-yard 14th, albeit while cutting the dogleg.

Meanwhile, this could be a crucial week in the life of the actual tournament itself, certainly under the current sponsors. With Daly acknowledged as an exception, Murphy's have decided they will no longer be paying appearance money, which is clearly a gamble if they hope to maintain the tournament's status above the run-of-the-mill.

Already this year, Jarrod Moseley, Gerry Norquist, Van Phillips, Jeff Ramsey, Dean Robertson and, most recently, David Park have had debut European Tour victories. It represents a dramatic change from the old order, when one automatically pencilled in Seve Ballesteros as favourite every time he played, and then looked around for worthy challengers.

"It's a shame for Murphy's that some of the top players aren't here," said Montgomerie. "But whoever they are, the top players can't play every week, although the sponsors would obviously like that. For my part, I try to pick the courses I do well on. They're usually the tougher courses."

As Europe's leading money winner for the last six years, Montgomerie is clearly a step above the rest. And as a player not especially noted for stressing himself on the practice ground, he seemed to have found an appropriate start to the week when the television caught him yawning at Wimbledon. But he protested: "For 99.9 per cent of the time I was fine and then I had a yawn and they got me."

He also thought it unfortunate having to turn down invitations to the opening of the Scottish Parliament and the premiere of the new Sean Connery movie Entrapment, due to his involvement here. Then he added: "In view of my past performances, expectations are high when I come here. They will also be high at Loch Lomond and at the (British) Open, but I have learned to live with that."

In one of his more expansive disclosures, Daly suggested he would be happy to play skins games every day, rather than four, disciplined tournament rounds. Yet it is worth noting that he shot rounds of 70,68,73 and then a course-record equalling 65 for a 12-under-par aggregate of 276 at Mount Juliet in 1994.

His performances this year, however, have been woefully erratic. For instance, he has completed only nine out of 17 tournaments and has had five rounds in the 80s. So, the organisers could be forgiven a certain apprehension regarding his prospects of making the cut tomorrow night.

The hope is that he can recapture his form of January last, when in three successive tournaments - the Hawaiian Open, the Bob Hope Classic and the Phoenix Open - he carded a total of six rounds in the 60s, while amassing prize money in excess of $92,000.

But even with the druids bestowing unexpected blessings, it is difficult to look beyond Montgomerie and Garcia as leading challengers for the top prize of £200,000.