Dwyer leads Irish pack

They can tweak it and extend it; add a bunker here, build a new tee-box there, make the greens devilishly fast, and turn it into a monster of a course.

But professional golfers will still find a way to beat it. Colin Montgomerie observed yesterday that "this has become one of the toughest courses we play all year on tour," and yet - despite an average score of 73.96 - some players must have felt like giant-slayers after the first round of the Smurfit European Open.

John Dwyer was among them. He didn't lead after round one - that honour fell to South African Darren Fichardt, one of those beaten in a play-off on Sunday for the Irish Open, and Australia's Jarrod Moseley - but Dwyer, a 28-year-old from Ashbourne, had reason to walk taller than anyone.

There is a tendency for the club professional who gets in to one of the European Tour's flagship tournaments to be overawed by it all. Time was when Dwyer was that man. Yesterday, ignoring the rain and ignoring the big names and major winners all around him, he was the last player to make the walk to the recorder's tent where he signed for a three-under-par 69, putting him two shots off the pace.

Not only was the score sufficiently good to put him into tied-sixth overnight, but it was the manner in which it was carved that was impressive. Of the 156 players in the field, only two, Paul Lawrie and Jorge Berendt, had managed to stave off any dropped shots. For 15 holes, Dwyer, playing in much the worst weather of the day, managed that feat. And, when he did finally drop a shot, his response was to birdie the next two holes.

On a grey day that gave little cheer to the Irish contingent, Dwyer was a rare bright spark. He comes from a famous sporting hosuehold. His brother, Mark, a jockey, who nowadays trades in bloodstock, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Forgive and Forget in 1985, but John's leaning was towards a life on the fairways.

Yesterday, he got to taste what it could be like on a good day on the tour, but refused to get carried away. "My target is still to make the cut, it is what I came in to do. I'll play the shots the way I normally do and, hopefully, it will all add up to the right number," said Dwyer, last year's winner of the Irish PGA order of merit and cast, for the time being, in the role of leading home challenger.

Such a level-headed approach indicates the mind of someone who works with a sports psychologist. Dwyer's mind guru is Harry Wallace, and the player insisted: "That's been the big difference for me. I've felt that I have raised my game to a new level over the last three years. I wouldn't put it down to improving my golf swing, I'd put it down to a better attitude."

There was a time when Dwyer dreamed of going on the tour, but, despite trying, he never got to the qualifying school. "When you shoot a round like this you think, yeah, you should be going to the tour school. I asked myself at the start of the year, 'do I want to go?'. My heart tells me I don't want to go, my head tells me I should go. So, I said I might go if I had an exceptionally good year. But it is not really a big priority. I enjoy my life as a club professional."

Ironically enough, one of the co-leaders, Moseley, proved there is a way to break onto the European Tour without the travails of a visit to the tour school. Back in 1999, just 18 months after turning professional and playing events mainly on the Asian and Australian circuits, he got a sponsor's invite into the Heineken Classic in his home city of Perth. He won, and it proved a life-changing victory.

Moseley's mental approach is also a cool one. The Australian hasn't won on tour since that breakthrough victory, but there is no evidence that he is running out of patience. "I am not pushing for a win. If you do that, it just gets further and further away," he said.

On a course as difficult as this one, Moseley's is a wise outlook. Moseley and Fichardt - he benefited from a pre-round chat on the range with former US Open winner Retief Goosen, who told him to put his play-off defeat to the back of his mind and to effectively "get straight back on the horse,"- may hold a one stroke lead over a trio of pursuers that features Joakim Haeggman, Jorge Berendt and Michael Campbell, but there are some other serious players well within striking distance.

And there is also the potential for disaster. The two most difficult holes on the course, both par fours, came back to back: the fifth, ranked second hardest, had an average of 4.37 and the sixth an average of 4.41. In the circumstances, it was probably just as well that another par four on that inward stretch was reduced in length with a decision to move the ninth tee forward 40 yards. Indeed, only 35 players dipped under par.

For Ireland's big two, it was a day of what might have been. "I'm just not firing on all cylinders," remarked Padraig Harrington, after a 72 that promised more. "I had a hell of a lot of chances on the back nine, but I am not really trusting my reading of the putts. Every time I was reading a putt, I was wondering if I had the right line."

Similarly, Darren Clarke's 74 was laborious. "I played very average, and putted even worse," he said, "just like last week."

In fact, Clarke had even greater torment on the greens, requiring 31 putts. If either is to win, it will be in a game of catch-up; but on a course with the capacity to bite hard and often, nothing can be taken for granted. Leaders, take note.