GOLF/ European Youths Team Championship: On a calm summer's day when most of the Irish squad would normally cruise round The Island in par figures or better, the pressure of playing at home weighed heavily on young shoulders in the first qualifying round of the European Amateur Youths' Team Championship.
The top eight nations after the first two rounds of strokeplay qualifying today will make the top flight and battle it out in matchplay combat for the silverware from tomorrow.
But worryingly for Irish team captain Michael Burns, Ireland ended the opening day in ninth place, three shots behind Belgium and 11 adrift of leaders England.
Despite relatively benign conditions, the needle on the Irish temperature gauge edged into the red on several occasions, and only Dunmurry's Stephen Crowe managed to break par as he signed for a one-under 70.
Crowe hit the opening drive of the championship and played some wonderfully controlled golf to finish with two birdies and just one bogey on his card.
But unfortunately for Ireland, that was as good as it got, and while the remaining five members of the side battled valiantly to limit the damage, Muskerry's Niall Turner was the next best of the Irish with a two-over-par 73.
Holywood's Harry Diamond never recovered from a double bogey seven at the 10th, his opening hole, and eventually signed for an 80 which was the home side's discarded score.
Tramore's Clancy Bowe admitted to making twice as many errors as usual in a seven-over-par 78.
The Curragh's Paul O'Hanlon, who had a hole-in-one ohis last visit to The Island, yesterday failed to make even one birdie in his 76, while Westport's Cathal O'Malley was paddling a leaky canoe after he ran up a triple bogey seven at the first and did well to card a 75.
The added responsibility of playing for the team, rather than individually, was Ireland's cross yesterday.
"You are always on the defensive," O'Hanlon explained, "trying to avoid the big mistake and hurting the team, rather than attacking the course, and that is not really a good way to play golf."
Burns was disappointed, but he believes his side will fight back to take one of the eight places available in the top flight.
"It was a disappointing finish," he said. "We frittered away a few shots to go back into the pack. We had it under control and it's a shame really. We are putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure for tomorrow.
"But I think we'll be there. We'll fight back."
Liverpool's Paul Waring, who grew up playing links golf at Hoylake, shot a two-under-par 69 to help his side to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the day. His score was bettered only by a 67 from Germany's Florian Fritsch and a 68 by the Belgian Hugues Joannes.
DAY ONE
(* is discard)
361 - England (P Waring 69, J Moul 70, J Heath 73, M Richardson 73, M Skelton 76, L Dodd 76*).
363 - Denmark (P Baunsoe 71, P Meldgaard 71, M Haastrup 72, C Christiansen 74, P Jacobsen 75, LJ Johanson 78*).
365 - Scotland (L Saltman 70, K McAlpine 71, G Murray 71, R Ramsay 76, S Jamieson 77, W Booth 78*), Germany (F Fritsch 67, M Kramer 71, M Kaymer 73, N Meitinger 76, P Niederdrenk 78, A Hurter 81*).
367 - Spain (A Quiros 72, P Martin 73, A Canizares 73, R Cabrera 74, P Bech 75, J Garcia 76*).
369 - Sweden (N Lemke 72, O Floren 73, O Henningsson 73, J Blixt 74, D Palm 75, R Karlberg 76*), France (J Millet 72, J Fourquet 73, J Guerrier 74, J Duclos-Grenet 75, A Snobeck 75, B Coathalem 77*), Belgium (H Joannes 68, P Thomas 74, P Hanauer 75, Q de Valensart 76, P Relecom 76, G Watremez 81*).
372 - IRELAND (Stephen Crowe 70, Niall Turner 73, Cathal O'Malley 75, Paul O'Hanlon 76, Clancy Bowe 78, Harry Diamond 80*), Wales (R Davies 69, M Laskey 70, B Briscoe 77, T Hayward 78, L Matthews, 78 C Cousins 83*).
376 - Italy, Netherlands.
378 - Portugal.
380 - Switzerland.
384 - Finland.
390 - Iceland.
396 - Czech Republic.
