McGinley equals course record to share lead

PAUL McGINLEY revived memories of sparkling Irish achievements when he equalled the course record to claim the halfway lead in the 125th British Open here yesterday. In one sense, his eight under par total of 134, brought us back to heady days at Lytham during the 1950s, when Fred Daly and Christy O'Connor Snr had been outright leaders after two rounds.

But there were resonances too of 1985 at Royal St George's when another O'Connor, Christy Jnr, had faced the challenge of breaking a celebrated course record. Though he failed to emulate the achievement of O'Connor Jnr, McGinley performed spectacularly by carding a hole in one - on the way to a 65. He was later joined at the top of the leaderboard by Tom Lehman, who will be with him in the last pairing today.

A splendid Irish story was enhanced when Padraig Harrington, who lives only a mile from the McGinley family home in Rathfarnham, completed a second successive 68 for a six under par total of 136. Darren Clarke also got through yesterday after a fine 68 and Ireland's qualifiers were increased to four when Eamonn Darcy succeeded where he had failed at this venue in 1988. In the last three ball of the day, Darcy carded five birdies, the last of the at the 16th, in a courageous 69 to get through on 142, a stroke inside the limit.

In a way, McGinley deserved greater credit than his predecessors insofar as he had never previously qualified for all four rounds of the championship. "It's a tremendous honour to see your name up there in the Open something you dream about," he said afterwards.

It came at about 11.40am when, by way of emphasising the extent of his achievement, the illustrious name of Jack Nicklaus was below him, in a share of second place, still with five holes to play. "Yes, that's really special," agreed the Dubliner.

"Jack Nicklaus is the greatest player who ever lived and to be up there with him is fantastic."

When the championship was staged at Lythamin 1952, rounds of 67 and 69 gave Daly a four stroke lead at the halfway stage, but he went on to finish third behind Bobby Locke. Then, six years later, O'Connor Snr led by one stroke after two rounds, but was eventually one stroke outside a play off in which Peter Thomson beat Dave Thomas.

Up at 5.30 a.m. and at the practice ground by 6.30, McGinley suspected he might be running into a bit of form: "Something clicked on the practice ground earlier in the day," he said. "And when I got going out there today, I was trying to shoot 62. I was looking for a really low score, lower than the 63 which I knew was the best in an Open."

As it happened, he was well on his way toward that target when reaching the turn in 29, so equalling the best opening nine at Lytham shot by Thomson, Tom Haliburton, Bill Longmuir and David J Russell. And, of course, it was climaxed by an ace - the sixth of his career and fourth as a professional. Indeed he holed in one at the seventh at Muirfield in the second round of the 1992 Open.

On this occasion it was the product of a smooth seven iron, drawn towards the pin. When it pitched to the right of a line to the hole, the side spin moved it across to where it eventually lodged between the pin and the cup. He had gone 4,3,1 - birdie, birdie, hole in one.

There were a total of six birdies in the round, two of them on the homeward journey. After a huge drive down the 445 yard 14th, he needed no more than a pitching wedge to leave the ball three feet from the pin. When the putt went down, he had got to seven under par for the round and needed a par finish to break the course record.

A misjudged approach at the 5th, where he cut a six iron instead of a five, cost him a shot. And the record seemed to have eluded him when he failed to hole a six foot birdie effort at the next. But he got the stroke back at the 17th after his best shot of the round, a four iron of 189 yards, finished 15 feet behind the pin, from where he rolled in the putt.

Now to the 18th. There, a safe drive up the right, ended in fluffy rough. The challenge was in gauging the extent the ball would fly out of the lie. In the event, McGinley misjudged the nine iron and the ball pitched through the back left of the green. Though he played an excellent chip and run recovery to four feet left of the flag, the left to right putt rattled against the right edge and stayed out. The record had survived.