A round of two halves as squalls sweep in

Irish Amateur Open Championship: In a previous incarnation the nines at the Royal Dublin Golf Club posed diametrically different demands, the front played downwind for the most part, while the return journey guaranteed a buffeting from the elements with little respite.

Martin Hawtree's redesign, unveiled a year ago last week, ensured that the routing was less one-dimensional, but in yesterday's opening round of the AIB Irish Amateur Open Championship, the traditional values of the north Dublin links were once again in evidence in terms of the scoring.

The morning conditions were relatively benign, before a squall and a freshening wind descended, underlining the necessity of making birdies on the outward half. Ireland's Rory McIlroy offered a classic case study, en route to a one-over-par 73.

The world number six, who celebrated his 18th birthday last Friday, enjoyed a blistering start, getting four under the card after six holes. But he found the back nine a different prospect: his halves of 31 and 42 are a graphic illustration.

"I played the front nine in four under when it was nice and calm. On the back nine it got a little tougher and I lost my momentum, and hit a couple of loose shots. I paid the price for them, but overall 73 is a pretty good score."

The teenager insisted that he hadn't a score in his mind, but simply focused on each shot. "No I just took it one hole at a time because the wind got up. The back nine was straight into the wind. I wasn't thinking about my score. I knew anything around level par would be good today."

His fast start began at the first, where he struck a sandwedge to three feet, holing for birdie, and on the second, hit his seven-iron second shot on the part five to 15 feet and rolled in the putt for eagle. His three-wood second shot to the par five sixth caught the left-hand bunker 70 yards from the green, but he played a superb escape from the sand to eight feet and again single putted for birdie.

Taking four to get down from 30 yards short of the green on 11, resulting in a bogey, checked his momentum, and he leaked three more shots in the next two holes. On the par three 12th, he turned over his three-iron a little too much and failed to get up and down, while on 13 he found the drain from the tee and, despite being able to play from the stones, ended up with a double bogey.

On the 16th, he thought he holed his birdie putt, but having slid by the hole the return from three feet went straight left on contact, leading to another bogey. "I haven't played myself out of it. There are a lot of high scores; (I'll) probably be in the top five at the end of the day. It's been an okay first day but hopefully I can improve on it tomorrow."

It was a pretty accurate assessment in that he is two shots behind Marek Novy (Czech Republic), and one adrift of four players, Scottish duo Keir McNicholl and Lloyd Saltman, Rhys Enoch of Wales and Joonas Granberg of Finland. John Morris (Rosslare) also shot 73 to join McIlroy as the leading Irish challenger.

The high quality and cosmopolitan nature of Ireland's premier amateur strokeplay tournament is reflected in the presence of 13 Walker Cup panellists and 84 overseas players from 13 countries. Novy, a 22-year-old student from Pilsen, was the only player to break par, producing a superb 71.

Playing in the fourth-last group out, he modestly admitted: "We were lucky on the back nine that the wind was coming across us rather than into us."

He had three birdies and two bogeys, in only his third game of golf on a links course.

Saltman is certainly a player in form: the 2005 silver medal winner for leading amateur at the British Open won the Lytham Trophy last week.

The Scot, one of the quartet who shot level par, admitted: "It was tough today. It was just one of the those days when you try and get it round. It is a really fantastic course but that back nine is quite long and it was brutal in that wind. I hit it quite nicely on the way out, and then on that back nine you are just trying to miss it in the right spot."