It's not easy to intimidate someone who stands 6 ft 4 in, even if they happen to be only in their teens. Walker Cup aspirant Noel Fox discovered this to his cost when losing to Ballyliffin's Philip McLaughlin in the second round of the Standard Life West of Ireland Championship at a typically windswept Rosses Point yesterday.
Though the sun shone for most of the day, a stiff north-westerly heightened the challenge of this celebrated links. Still, the weather was a lot more acceptable than Saturday's horror, when the qualifying stage was completed in driving rain.
In those circumstances, it was perhaps understandable that Tim Rice should have beaten a hasty retreat towards his home in Limerick, while Gary Cullen actually completed the journey to Dublin, when they hovered on 153. But they returned to the scene of the action on being informed by mobile phone that they were two of only three players to get through on that figure.
Rice had driven beyond Tuam, a round trip of 160 miles, when summoned back. And he had the satisfaction of winning both his matches, beating last year's semi-finalist Chris Moriarty in the afternoon to advance to the third round. "Based on the overall picture when I left Rosses Point, I couldn't believe I'd get among the qualifiers," he said.
As it happened, his international colleague, Cullen, got only a modest reward for doing almost double that mileage - a complete round trip to Dublin. After a morning win over Muskerry's Dave O'Donovan, he was beaten on the 19th in the afternoon by the redoubtable Ken Kearney, winner of this title in 1992.
It was a day rich with incident. In contrast to Fox's departure, there was the splendid progress of Tony Hayes, a 51-year-old member of the K Club who was making his 32nd successive appearance in the event. And Hayes proved that he possessed fitness to match enduring skills when beating Portmarnock's David Kelleher by 4 and 3 in the afternoon.
"Sure I can go on - no bother," he said. "I work out regularly and am well capable of doing two rounds per day." In this context, North of Ireland champion Michael Hoey took a short route to success. And he did it in style, being six under par for the 24 holes which were sufficient to deliver two resounding wins.
"I'm pretty pleased with my game," was the quietly confident assessment of a 22-year-old, who clearly showed the benefit of three winter months in Australia.
"It's nice to get two easy wins like this, but the real test of matchplay is to grind it out in a tight match. I think I'm only beginning to get to grips with that challenge." Crushed opponents would probably take the view that he is a fast learner.
McLaughlin, with rounds of 69 and 75 in the qualifying stage, displayed admirable course management, especially for an 18-yearold. So it was clear that there wouldn't be an easy route back to parity for Fox after the Ballyliffin player had gone two up by sinking a 15-footer on the seventh. Fox then lost the ninth, where he was bunkered, and the 10th, which McLaughlin birdied with an L-wedge to two feet to increase the gap to four holes. But even when the teenager relinquished the next two holes to pars, Fox was unable to achieve sufficient success on the greens to turn the match around.
In fact he was in trouble again at the short 13th, which he threeputted to lose. And given the chance of saving the match with a two-putt par on the 17th, the Portmarnock man proceeded to three-putt once again, missing from no more than three feet on a green which was especially unkind to him. "I was waiting for Philip to make mistakes but he gave very little away," said Fox. "I suppose I couldn't expect anything better the way I was putting."
For his part, McLaughlin took victory over the reigning Irish Open and East of Ireland champion in his stride. "It was just a match; I wasn't nervous because I had nothing to lose," he said.
Named last week on the Ireland quartet for the World Junior Team Championship in Japan in June, McLaughlin disqualified himself at the qualifying stage here last year for taking an illegal drop. He now faces another Donegal player, Seamus McMonagle of Dunfanaghy, in the third round this morning.
Bad-luck story of the day concerned Doneraile's Michael Collins in the opening round. Level with former international Pat Murray playing the 18th, Collins pulled his drive which bounced off an official GUI buggy, never to be seen again. Forced to re-load, Collins was forced effectively to concede defeat.
