Darcy leads the home challenge

LIKE the squire of a sprawling country estate, Eamonn Darcy - who rode horses as a youngster on this same land when it was formerly known as Woodstock - seemed very much at home as he led the domestic challenge in the Murphy's Irish Open at Druids Glen yesterday.

"Solid enough golf," agreed Darcy, even if he was a touch low-key about his one-under-par 70 actually being the best score that any Irish player could muster in the first round. "But you've got to remember that one round doesn't make a tournament. I'm pretty sure that one of our young guys will come through. Darren Clarke, for instance, has been up there all season and he'll be there at the end of this week too." Encouraging, positive talk from Druids Glen's touring professional.

Still, there was a general air of disappointment among the home contingent. Of 29 Irish players in the field - reduced by one for today's second round when club professional Kevin Morris retired after an opening 83 - Darcy alone managed to beat par, while Eoghan O'Connell and Padraig Harrington finished on level par.

"It doesn't exactly set the world alight, does it?" queried Paul McGinley after shooting a 72, a mark later equalled by Clarke. Indeed, the most incisive challenge from an Irish player had actually come from Eoghan O'Connell, who at one stage got to four under par, before requiring a 25- foot birdie on the last to salvage a 71.

O'Connell, in fact, reached the turn in four-under-par 31, the best front nine of the day. "I was playing well and in a very good position. Before going out, I would have accepted a level par round. After nine holes, I wouldn't have, but, after 13 holes, I would have taken it again," he explained.

The 29-year-old had included five birdies, the longest from a mere eight feet at the seventh, and a bogey, at the sixth, in that stretch which had him rubbing shoulders again with the leaders. However, a disastrous double- bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey spell from the 10th wiped out all his good work and he needed that final hole birdie to put a smile back on his face.

There were few enough smiles elsewhere.

"I just need to click," admitted Harrington, who had two birdies and two bogeys and plenty of chances in his round. "I needed to make a few putts to turn it into a very good round, but they didn't come," he added. The Dubliner bogeyed the 13th, where he put a two iron approach into the rough right of the green, but failed to get up and down, then birdied the 17th after a five iron approach to 10 feet. He got to one under with a birdie at the third but, then, missed the green right at the sixth to drop a shot.

Clarke, who carried so many home hopes, refused to accept the fans' expectations had affected him. "If anything, I'm the one putting pressure on myself because I want to do well," he said. "I think a 72 was about what I deserved, although I had a couple of chances to rescue a better score."

Indeed, that appeared to be the story of the day for the home contingent as they struggled to repel the foreign invasion, at least on the opening day. Darcy's solid effort - which comprised three birdies (successive 10 footers at the fourth and fifth, and a 15 footer at the eighth) and two bogeys (both three putts, at the third and 13th) - was backed up with 71s from O'Connell and Harrington and 72s from Francis Howley, Ronan Rafferty, McGinley and Clarke, while Wexford club professional Damien McGrane and Des Smyth shot 735.

However, it wasn't particularly a day to remember for the amateur quartet: Adrian Morrow had a 76 (although he was level with three holes to play), while Walker Cup player Jody Fanagan also had a 76. But East of Ireland champion Sean Quinlivan had a 79, and Bryan Omelia struggled to an 81.