Delaney confirms her rich potential

Over the past few years the seascape in Irish women's golf has changed, with a gradual passing of the baton from one generation to another.

Yesterday, in the first round of strokeplay qualifying in the Lancome Irish Close Championship at The Island Golf Club in north county Dublin, the shift in power was more evident than ever as 18-year-old Tara Delaney - taking a respite from studying for her Leaving Certificate - further confirmed her rich potential.

On a near-perfect day for links golf, with overcast skies and just a gentle breeze coming in off the Irish Sea, Delaney shot an opening round of five-under-par 70, three strokes better than anyone else.

The Carlow teenager, who intends to follow her older sister, Karen, on a golfing scholarship to Kent State University in Ohio later this year, isn't the demonstrative type, but nevertheless she could admit afterwards to being "quite satisfied" with her day's work.

While some players in the field struggled with scores in the 80s, and even into the 90s, Delaney's one regret from her round was that she three-putted the par five 18th for par which prevented her from breaking into the 60s.

Still, it was a promising start to the national championship from a player with an array of girls' titles in her junior curriculum vitae, although some of the championship's other main contenders also produced solid rounds in taking a step towards qualifying for the matchplay phase, which starts tomorrow.

Among those in the group of five players on 73 chasing Delaney were defending champion Martina Gillen, playing just hours after stepping off a transatlantic flight from Cleveland, and Curtis Cup debutant Claire Coughlan, who struggled just a little on the greens and accumulated 31 putts in her round.

"My putting let me down," conceded Coughlan, although the real damage was inflicted on the eighth. There, her tee-shot found the left rough and she could only hack out on to the fairway, failed to reach the green with her approach and then took a further three shots to find the hole for a double bogey six.

Tricia Mangan, a reserve for that Curtis Cup match, also opened with a two-under 73, as did Sue Phillips, Deirdre Walsh and Gillen. And, of them all, Gillen's round was especially commendable given the roundabout route that the player took to ensure she could make a defence of her title.

The 22-year-old competed for Kent State in the women's NCAA qualifying in Illinois on Saturday before undergoing an near-eight-hour drive back to her college, before starting the journey home via Newark, New Jersey, only to discover her luggage was missing at Dublin Airport when she arrived in yesterday morning.

Still, the Beaverstown player - "I'd have been disappointed if I couldn't defend here, since it is so close to my home course," she said - put the jet lag behind her to shoot a 73, even though her "legs started to go over the closing holes".

Gillen nevertheless had a birdie-eagle finish, hitting a four-iron approach into 12 feet on the last and rolling in the putt.

"The object of the strokeplay stage is to qualify," she said, adding: "You don't win the championship in qualifying."

Others to eke out solid first rounds included Maria Dunne, the 20-year-old from Skerries who was beaten by Gillen in last year's final, and former Curtis Cup player Eileen Rose Power, the winner of this championship when it was last staged here in 1990, who both shot 76s.

But several fancied players have work to do today if they are to make the 32 qualifiers for the matchplay. Former European Tour player Tracy Eakin and former Leinster champion Jenny Gannon, who helped Co Louth to Senior Cup success last weekend, opened with 82s, while international Sinead Keane of the Curragh signed for an 83.

Yet, the player leading the way is someone who epitomises the emergence of a new generation of young and talented golfers in the women's sphere.

Delaney's start couldn't have been much better, opening with an eagle on the 422-yard par five first hole, where she hit a five-iron approach to 15 feet and sank the putt.

Then, on the third, another par five of 413 yards, she again found the putting surface in two, and two-putted for birdie.

Three-under after three, her only blip of the round was to come on the ninth where she pushed her tee-shot into a greenside bunker and failed to get up and down.

Her play of the inward journey was error-free, and highlighted by a birdie on the 12th - where her five-iron approach kicked in off the bank and the ball rolled up to 12 inches from the hole - and an eagle on the 13th, a par four just 210 yards. There, she hit a four-wood to five feet and holed the putt.

Indeed, she attributed her good scoring to a new comfort level with the putter than she traced back to a week spent at Faldo Junior Series camp in Lake Nona, Florida, earlier this year.

"You had to work hard, it was good," she remarked of the time spent with Nick Faldo and his coaching team.

Next week, Delaney heads over to Sweden - along with Heather Nolan, who was alongside fellow internationals Maura Morrin and Helen Jones on 78 - to play in the Swede Bank Open.

Before then, though, there is the important quest for a national title; and, on the evidence of yesterday, it will be a title hard won.