Course on top as only Coffey matches par

Appearances can be so deceptive, and the hypnotic view from the first tee box down to the azure waters of Belfast Lough lulled some competitors in the Irish Women's Amateur Close Championship, sponsored by Lancome, into a false sense of serenity at Clandeboye yesterday. So much so, in fact, that nobody managed to break par on the first day of strokeplay qualifying, proof (if it were needed) that the immaculate course has the bite of a tiger.

Indeed, Warrenpoint's Alison Coffey, who has already collected the Leinster and Ulster titles this season, recorded the best round of the day with a level par 73, leaving her one clear of defending champion Suzie Fanagan-O'Brien, Helen Jones and Deirdre Smith. However, with 32 players progressing to the matchplay stages after today's second round, none of the top players are in any danger; even Lillian Behan, who struggled to an untypical 81, yet remains well placed to survive.

Survival, in fact, is the aim from the 36 holes of strokeplay and, generally, the course, with fast greens and an emphasis on correct placement off the tee, enabled the cream to rise towards the top. "It's important to think your way around, to know exactly where you're going to hit it," admitted Barbara Hackett, the champion of two years ago.

As such, Coffey's play of the course was mightily impressive. The 25-year-old Belfast-based engineer played consistently: she had three birdies and two bogeys to be out in a best-of-the-day 35, suffered her only hiccup on the 10th where she had a double bogey, then reeled off seven straight pars before finishing with a birdie at the last. "A good day's work," she proffered, "I just played very consistently and tried to keep the ball on the fairway."

Coffey grabbed her first birdie at the second, hitting a six-iron tee-shot to 30 feet, bogeyed the next after putting her approach over the back, and then sank a 20footer for a birdie at the third. She pitched to four feet for another birdie at the eighth, but a poor drive at the ninth left her with a difficult second which she put into a bunker and failed to get up and down.

The double-bogey six at the 10th wasn't typical of her round. Her drive finished in ground under repair and, after getting a free drop, her approach missed the green and she took four to get down, although she got back to level par for the round with the almost regulation birdie on the 18th, a hole which featured more birdies than any other yesterday.

Others fell victim to the opening hole, though. Oonagh Purfield had a triple-bogey seven there, although she said: "I didn't do anything wrong." She recovered, however, to shoot a highly-respectable 77.

Fanagan-O'Brien, in contrast, chipped in with her third shot at the 366-yard opening hole for a birdie and, no doubt, wondered what all the horror score stories there were about. The holder of the championship didn't show any sign of rustiness, despite this being her first competitive outing of the season, and played very solidly to lie just a shot adrift of Coffey.

Ulster interprovincials Jones and Smith, finished alongside Fanagan-O'Brien on 74