LOUGH ERNE CHALLENGE:NO ARGUING, right? It's official now; well, sort of. The 'Duel on the Lough' brought us the major champion and the young pretender and, as we found out at the British Open, the old guys just don't have the legs to last these days.

So, did new kid on the block Rory McIlroy, at 20, have the bragging rights now on 37-year-old Pádraig Harrington after out-duelling his opponent – 70 strokes to 68 – to mark the official opening of The Faldo Course – designed by Nick of course – at the five-star Lough Erne Resort outside Enniskillen? “Not really,” replied McIlroy. “I don’t have three majors. I’m nowhere near his league.”

The finger pointing started on the first tee.

“Who’s that with Rory and Pádraig?” wondered one woman.

“Ah, sure that’s yer mon off the telly . . . what’s his name? You know. Funny mon. He was in, what’s its name?”

James Nesbitt, funny man star of Cold Feet and Murphy’s Law, performed the master of ceremony honours for the duel between Ireland’s top two golfers, which offered €140,00 to the winner and a €70,000 consolation to the vanquished. And, as we know, whenever money is involved for a professional golfer, it’s not all fun and games. The greenbacks gave the duel a serious edge.

Indeed, the traffic jams into Enniskillen in the hours leading up to the duel provided the first hints that the big two of Irish golf had star appeal of their own.

Nesbitt’s wisecracking on the tees was the bonus. A crowd of 4,000 had been touted; more than 7,000 turned up, as if to show that the recession hasn’t infiltrated all areas of society.

The course that Faldo designed works its way around the shores of the lower lough, and the water provided an early welcome to Harrington on the first tee shot when he pushed his drive into the lake.

It was to be one of three visits on the day for Harrington into water hazards, while McIlroy’s local knowledge – he is the touring professional for the resort – saw him complete a bogey-free round that was an impressive exhibition of his skills. It also constituted a course record.

By the time the two players reached the fifth tee, a par three 197 yards, Harrington – who’d dropped two shots on that first hole, his bogey to McIlroy’s birdie – had drawn the match all square again with birdies on the second and the fourth.

The fifth hole had an added attraction, with local charities to benefit to the tune of €700,000 if either player managed a hole-in-one there. For good measure, the two hot-shots had six shots each (with the first ball counting as the match ball).

Nesbitt obviously felt that the crowd weren’t rowdy enough for his liking. “Just because I’m . . . er, they’re, superstars doesn’t mean you can’t shout for them. Give the ball a bit of an old holler along the way,” encouraged Nesbitt.

Which, of course, brought roars of, “get in the hole” and other Americanisms not heard in these parts since the American army was based here during the second World War. In fact, some 70,000 cubic metres of earth was moved during the course’s construction, during which an old US army bomb was unearthed and made safe before any golfers hit metal with metal.

Unfortunately, neither managed to secure a hole-in-one, their efforts on the difficult hole compounded by the untimely arrival of a squall.

Nobody was in any danger from McIlroy’s drives yesterday, as the 20-year-old Ulsterman found the vast majority of the pristine fairways and, more often than not, followed up by finding greens in regulation too.

After 11 holes, it looked as if it would be a bit of drubbing for Harrington who found water on the 10th and then overshot the 11th green into yet more water on the way to a double-bogey six. At that juncture, McIlroy was three-under-par on his card and five strokes clear of Harrington.

It got more interesting after that, which ensured that the attention of the spectators wasn’t distracted to the bevy of speedboats doing their thing on the lough.

Harrington birdied four of the next six holes, while McIlroy’s solitary birdie on the way in came on the 15th. But the Dubliner’s impressive fightback came up short and McIlroy could bask in the two-stroke winning margin.

“I was keen to make a few birdies coming home. Five shots behind (after 11), I wasn’t too happy about the situation. There’s a bit of pride involved. Two shots I can live with,” observed Harrington, who added: “This course is well good enough to host a tournament (on the European Tour).

“You couldn’t ask for more, for the conditioning or the style of the course. It doesn’t just have a great course, it has fantastic facilities with the hotel. It’s ideal.”

McIlroy, of course, knows the place like the back of his hand. He even has a house on the resort. And the ever-present smile spoke volumes for how much he had enjoyed the experience.

“It’s my first time to play golf in Northern Ireland as a professional and it was great to see so many people from the first tee to the 18th green. Last week was such a demanding week, it was great to play semi-relaxed but trying to beat one another.”

And, at the end, there was a poignant moment on the 18th green when Harrington and McIlroy were introduced to wheelchair-bound Charlie Gannon, as part of the ‘Make a Wish Foundation’. The 12-year-old was a very promising golfer until struck by meningitis last Christmas and his introduction brought tears to the eyes of the three-time major champion, confirming to Harrington that any problems he has in getting his swing right are minute in the great scheme of things.