LAURA DAVIES was over par yesterday for the first time in 11 tournament rounds in this country. But there was no hint of relinquishing the title lightly, as a 73 brought her to the halfway stage of the £110,000 Guardian Irish Open two strokes behind four joint leaders, including her foursomes partner Alison Nicholas.
Fresh winds and tricky greens made for a searching test at Citywest, where the players are coming to appreciate the design subtleties of Christy O'Connor Jnr. Indeed there were a few of the nightmares to which Davies alluded in her opening assessment of the layout.
Particularly notable was a wretched nine by Irish professional Tracy Eakin at the par four seventh. From a pushed drive, she made the mistake of assuming her ball was still in bounds "I thought the out of bounds area applied to the eighth." So she played the ball out onto the fairway.
Nagged by doubt, however, she called for a ruling and learned the worst. Then, under the impression that rules official Allan Hibbert had indicated she would be playing three off the tee, she was surprised to be told on finishing the hole that she had been penalised an additional two strokes.
He applied Decision 15-6 which states that a ball lying out of bounds is no longer in play and is a wrong ball. So, the standard penalty of stroke and distance was only part of her punishment. Effectively, it left her with no way back and, with a two round total of 160, she was some way outside of the cut of 153.
Fellow Irish professionals Maureen Madill (155) and Lynn McCool (161) also failed to survive, as did amateurs Yvonne Cassidy (159) and Denise McCarthy (161).
But amateurs Eileen Rose Power (148), Sinead Keane (152) and Suzanne Fanagan (153) got among the qualifiers, with the lone home professional, Aideen Rogers. As it happened, the 23 year old had a 77 which included a miserable, triple bogey seven at the 18th, where she was twice in water, off the tee and off a three wood approach.
Rogers would have been five strokes better off had she matched the scoring of Power over the two closing holes. For a second successive day, the three time Irish champion displayed splendid consistency, shooting another 74 which contained a birdie, birdie finish.
Sweden's Sofie Eriksson is one of the joint leaders. How did she feel about the possibility of playing in the last two ball tomorrow with Davies? "It would be very exciting," said this product of the American college system. "I have never played with Laura, though I have watched her playing in skins games in Sweden."
Scotland's Myra McKinlay, a Curtis Cup representative two years ago, was the only competitor to break 70, carding five birdies in a round of 68. Even Denmark's Karina Orum, with a 73, failed to get near that effort, despite an eagle two at the first where she holed a nine iron second shot of 110 yards.
Against that background, it was fascinating to note the reaction of Penny Grice Whittaker to her share of the lead after a fine round of 71. "The difference has been my putting," she said, by way of explaining a marked change of fortune from last season, when she struggled to a final Order of Merit position of 77.
With renewed confidence from a Callaway Tuttle putter, she had 28 putts on Thursday and 29 yesterday, compared with an average of 35 per round last season. And, of course, there was the additional boost of being cheered on by her son, Oliver.
Starting with the Ford Challenge at Woodbrook in October 1993, Davies' competitive rounds here were 66, 70, 72, 69, 71, 67, 66, 66 and 68, followed by 71 and 73 at Citywest. And she is looking to get back into the sixties again. "Two 68s would get be right back in the shake up," she said.
Unlike Grice Whittaker, she struggled on the greens, where she holed nothing longer than about three feet. And her cause wasn't helped by a lost ball off a pulled drive at the 14th, where she ran up a double bogey six. But she insisted "I'm still there . . . or thereabouts."
