Philip Walton drove into a petrol station just outside Dublin last Saturday and, in the course of filling up, was approached by a stranger who inquired how he was faring this season.
"Terrible. I just cannot sink a putt," groaned the golfer.
"Try my putter," said the sympathetic motorist, opening the boot of his car and extracting a broomhandle club similar to the one Walton has been using for the past five years.
Walton put it in his bag for this week's Dutch Open and is now ready to transform his miserable 1999 campaign after yesterday adding a 66 to his opening 69. He shares the halfway lead at seven under par, alongside Argentina's Eduardo Romero, one ahead of England's John Bickerton and Jonathan Lomas and Scotland's Gary Orr.
But Walton was not the only Irishman to make his move yesterday. Darren Clarke fired a superb, six-under-par 65 to move to 137, two shots off the lead. Paul McGinley fired a 69 to join him at five-under, and Eamonn Darcy is just a further shot back after a fine 67.
Walton had only 24 putts with his windfall club yesterday, compared to a previous average of more than 30 in his slide to 172nd place in the order of merit. "I think there is a bit of magic in this putter," exclaimed the Dubliner, who has already acquired nine birdies.
"It is an old Peter Senior brand, one of the first ever made, and it immediately felt good in my hands. I was even more surprised to find out the fellow who gave it to me turned out to be the son-in-law of my gardener.
"I actually played some superb golf in the Irish Open at Druid's Glen but missed the cut by five or six shots, that's how bad I was putting," he added.
"It's unbelievably hard. You have to keep your chin up and keep going, I have no exemption left to play on the tour and will have to earn my card."
Along with the new putter comes a new mental approach courtesy of more orthodox means, with Walton working with Belgian sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout, who lists South African Retief Goosen, second on the Order of Merit, among his growing list of clients.
"I've been working with Jos for the first time over the last two days," Walton added. "He's done wonders for Retief Goosen. Actually you're nearly afraid if you don't do well. He'll thump you."
Clarke came home in 30 for his 65, the joint best round of the tournament.
"I'm not quite playing as well as when I won the English Open, but I'm starting to get it back together again," said Clarke who will play the Ryder Cup course at Brookline in a fortnight time ahead of the USPGA.
"In order to contend we all have to hole some putts and I've not been holing many for the past three or four weeks. I hope I can hole some more now.
"I got off to a really bad start yesterday - bogey, bogey, bogey - but I hung in there and if you keep it straight on this course it will give you opportunities."
Romero recently took his total of wins in South America to 83 after recovering from the gallstone problem that forced him out of the Irish Open in early July.
A poor drive at the 18th cost him a closing six and the outright lead, but after signing for 68 he declared: "I am healthy again and I am waiting for my week."
Bickerton, who finished in style with an eagle on the last in his 67, is 19th in the Ryder Cup points table and is one of a handful of players all grouped closely together who could make significant ground towards the top 10 this week with the top prize of £133,000.
"You try not to think too much about the Ryder Cup," said Bickerton, "but it's always there in the back of your mind. Three missed cuts doesn't help but two more good rounds here could put all that right. It's all very tight."
