GOLF/Irish Open: They can tweak it, and extend it; and they can add a hidden pot bunker to torment the mind, while building a new tee as far back as nature will allow in the dunes in order to test the player's brawn.
If they wish, the PGA European Tour can turn any course into a brute and make it the longest ever on the circuit, as they have done for the Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock . . . but, inevitably, professional golfers will find a way to tame it.
Which was what happened yesterday. The surprise, perhaps, was that Thomas Bjorn emerged as the master of this seaside terrain, just days after he handed the British Open title on a plate to the American Ben Curtis. Rather than a broken man appearing on the first tee, someone wracked with nerves, up stepped a Dane of such inner strength he contrived to produce a round of eight-under-par 64, a course record on a links stretched to 7,363 yards.
As rehabilitation for stress went, this stroll on the links - accompanied, coincidentally, by two of his closer acquaintances on tour, Padraig Harrington and Michael Campbell - was the perfect cure for any soul-searching undertaken by Bjorn.
"He looks unbeatable at the moment, he's playing magnificent golf," remarked Harrington. "His head is in the right place, his putting is on form and there doesn't look like there is a weakness. Thomas looks like the complete article."
On a day that started dry with just a breeze to accentuate the challenge of the links, but which deteriorated in the afternoon to leave players confronting rain and wind gusting to 30 m.p.h, Bjorn made the most of the early start. When the battle-weary late starters found the sanctuary of the locker-room in the evening, tired and wet, Bjorn had long since departed after a day's work that left him two shots clear of Campbell (66), with former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst three adrift after a 67.
On Sunday Bjorn held a three-stroke lead entering the final four-hole stretch at Sandwich only to go bogey-double bogey-bogey from the 15th, his fate being sealed by his play in a greenside bunker on the 16th where he took three attempts to extricate the ball from the sand. How ironic, then, that the highlight of his 64 yesterday should be a bunker shot. On the second hole, his 11th, Bjorn holed out with his bunker recovery from 20 yards.
The moment was acknowledged by all those watching. As he walked to retrieve the ball from the cup, Bjorn looked up and caught the glint in the eyes of his playing partners. "If ever there was a bunker shot that came four days too late, that was it," said Bjorn. And Harrington and Campbell could only laugh at the craziness of this game that consumes so much of their life.
"I probably haven't walked off the golf course ever in my life feeling as happy as I did today," said Bjorn some time after finishing. "Golfing wise, it is not the finest round I've ever had. But it is one of those rounds that's going to mean the most to me."
The worried frowns that had creased his forehead four days previously had disappeared, and he admitted his support team - caddie Billy Foster, coach Bob Torrance and psychologist Jos Vanstiphout - had played crucial roles in lifting his spirits. And a round that contained nine birdies and a solitary bogey was testimony to that recovery.
"This was all about coming out and playing golf and facing everything," said Bjorn of his decision to get straight back into competition rather than miserably attempting to comprehend what might have been. In that regard, playing Portmarnock has proven to be a wise decision for Bjorn.
"This is right up there with the finest, finest links courses in the world. It's the most fair links course I've ever played. You know what you are going to get here, the odd bounce here or there, but you don't create trouble on this course unless you go looking for it," said Bjorn, obviously converted to the charms of an Irish seaside course.
Yesterday, Bjorn found four bunkers. On three occasions, he managed to get up and down and on the other he holed out.
"I'm a strong believer in myself as a bunker player . . . (but) there is one thing about the bunkers on this course, the walls are only half as steep as they are at Royal St George's. I can guarantee that if the British Open was on a course like this, the R & A would come here and dig them twice as steep and make the walls a lot steeper. That's what the British Open is all about - to stay out of the bunkers. We say it every year before the tournament starts."
Nobody needs to convert Harrington to the charms of links golf. He is a preacher on the matter of Irish courses. "Very unsporting of them, wasn't it?" he said of the fact he was outscored by Bjorn and Campbell. Still, Harrington's round of 69 put him into the mix, which is what playing in the first round is all about.
"That was just reward for how I played. I didn't deserve any better, or any worse. I'm much happier with my game."
Harrington and Headfort club professional Brendan McGovern head the Irish challenge, which has failed to claim this title since John O'Leary in 1982, but generally the visitors were more content with how the round materialised. Of the 55 players to break par, only four Irishmen - Peter Lawrie and Damian Mooney were the others - managed to do so. Like everyone, they are playing a game of pursuit on the Dane. Bjorn, though, will be more aware than anyone it is a long way to being finished.
