There would be no television interview; no visit to the media centre. Philip Walton had experienced the pain of more than enough false dawns to tempt fate by talking publicly about a heartening 67 in the opening round of the £1 million Murphy's Irish Open here on the Old Course yesterday.
Though it left him three strokes behind joint-leaders Patrik Sjoland and the holder, Sergio Garcia, there was sufficient evidence to suggest that it could mark a long-awaited change of fortune. "I've been through a pretty bad time, but I feel my confidence is coming back," he said.
After all the dire predictions of the previous two days, remarkably good scoring which saw six players on 65 or better clearly required some explanation. The rumour mill talked of 10,000 gallons of water being poured on the links on Wednesday night and extensive trimming of the rough.
But European Tour officials scoffed at such talk. In their view, it could be attributed to nothing more sinister than an abatement of the wind from 15 mph on Wednesday to half that speed yesterday. And a change of direction from the south-east to the north-west meant it was now helping at such difficult holes as the second and sixth, while the long eighth and 11th were within reach with medium irons.
"It's as easy as you'll ever see it," said the wonderfully competitive Des Smyth, who belied his 47 years with a sparkling 65. And the links was rendered all the more benign by largely generous pin placements in the centre of the greens. Indeed, the only really difficult one was at the 14th where it was tucked in behind the left front bunker.
"We raised the cut of the greens by 0.2 millimetres, but even at that their speed increased marginally from Wednesday to 9.7 on the Stimpmeter," said tournament director David Probyn. They also changed from double to single cutting, but he denied suggestions from Garcia that the rough had been cut back. "It's all down to the wind," he said simply.
Earlier in the week, amid all the scare predictions, Paul McGinley had calmly suggested that however difficult conditions might be, he and his colleagues would find a way of adapting. One was reminded of the USPGA Tour slogan: "These guys are good." And McGinley himself was good enough to shoot a 67.
This was matched later in the day by Padraig Harrington, who overcame some decidedly wayward driving with brilliant iron play. Typically, he needed a fine, one-iron third shot to set up a par at the long 18th. "In the circumstances, it is better than a fair return," he said with his customary pragmatism.
His best shot of the day was a four iron to the 212-yard 10th, which he followed with a 10-foot putt for a birdie. In all, Harrington carded six birdies, but frailty off the tee made errors almost inevitable. And they duly materialised at the 12th and 15th which he bogeyed. Modern tournament professionals will extract the maximum possible return from top-quality greens. So it was that the Australian Lucas Parsons, winner of the Holden International last February, started the back nine with figures of 2, 3, 3, 3, 3 - birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie - for an inward 30 and a round of 65.
Then there was the Swede, Fredrik Lindgren, who had no cause to take his putter out of the bag at the 154-yard third, where he had a hole-in-one with an nine iron. But en route to a 75, Seve Ballesteros had sharply contrasting fortune over the opening three holes, which he covered in bogey, double-bogey, bogey, after a mad scramble by road to the course from his hotel in Tralee when his expected helicopter never arrived.
Fears about the well-being of Miguel Angel Jimenez proved to be well-founded when he succumbed after only five holes to incipient 'flu and withdrew from the tournament. But the Spanish banner was flown proudly by Garcia.
Did an eight-birdie performance remove Wednesday's misgivings about Ballybunion as a venue where, by choice, he would like to have defended his title? The boyish smile lit up the room. "If I could shoot three more 64s, I'd play here every year," he said. Then, fearing he might be getting ahead of himself, he added: "This is my best round on a links course, but there is a long way to go."
It was a day when a productive return had to be achieved from the par fives, which Garcia did with birdies on all four of them. And the round included a run of three birdies from the short seventh, culminating in what he conceded was a decidedly lucky birdie at the ninth, where he holed a 30-footer from the back of the green.
Walton, who lost and failed to regain his tour card at the end of last season, shot a 66 in the final round of the Brazil Rio de Janiero tournament in March. For the most part, however, the last few months have been fairly bleak. Typical was the Wales Open at Celtic Manor earlier this month, when, after gaining a place in the top 15 at the halfway stage, he proceeded to shoot a third round 80. He is currently 229th in the Order of Merit with extremely modest earnings of £4,847.
But he has always been a player to face problems his own way. Which explains why he absented himself from the practice ground here, opting instead for the Cashen Strand where he honed his iron play, just as Christy O'Connor did at Bundoran five decades ago. "I even putted down there on the firm stuff," he said.
It certainly worked in a round in which six straight pars were followed by a birdie at the short seventh where he hit a lovely five iron to four feet. Then came an eagle at the eighth which he reduced to a drive, seven iron and 20-foot putt.
"I've learned in this game that you've always got to look ahead," said the player who was beaten by Ian Woosnam in a play-off for the title in 1989. With that, he set about hitting lob wedges into a practice green last evening, a lone figure, but for his caddie Stephen Byrne.
