By the halfway stage, it had the potential to become the best Irish Open for home challengers since Philip Walton lost a playoff to Ian Woosnam in 1989. But the traditional pressures remained inescapable, even in what was tantamount to a Mardis Gras atmosphere in the north Kerry holiday resort.
"However much you may try to convince yourself otherwise, it is still your national open," said Padraig Harrington, who had a closing 71 for a three-under-par aggregate of 281. "It's the sort of pressure that Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods are under every week and which I obviously have not yet learned to handle."
Harrington pointed to the fact that, at least, he had made the cut this year, which was an improvement on his performance at Druids Glen. But even from his perspective, one could readily recognise it as no more than an interesting aside.
"I was focusing on winning as opposed to just trying to do my best and I'm afraid my game simply wasn't up to it," he added. As a consequence, the Dubliner has decided to fly his coach, Bob Torrance, over from Scotland today for remedial treatment. "I don't want to find out that I'm doing something wrong when it comes to the British Open in two weeks. I want to tackle it now."
He has also decided against staying at home while competing in this week's Smurfit European Open, despite the fact that The K Club is only about 20 miles away. "I'm staying at the course so as to try and create a normal, tournament atmosphere for myself," he said.
As the decision to bring the country's premier golfing event to Ballybunion, he had no doubt that it was the correct one. "It was well worth doing," said Harrington, who was experiencing the celebrated links for the first time. "It's a fabulous course which could easily have been set up for a level-par winning aggregate. The fact that the scoring has been really hot doesn't diminish it in any way."
Padraig Liston, managing director of the sponsoring company, pronounced the event an unqualified success. "The first 25 years of my life were spent in Ballybunion and during that time I never witnessed an atmosphere of such warmth and enjoyment as we've had this weekend," he said.
Liston went on: "The event has exceeded all my expectations, even if it might be said that course probably gave itself up to the pros. It showed Ireland as a magical golfing destination to viewers all over the world, which has to be a considerable bonus to the tourist industry."
Ballybunion officials were of similar mind. "We would anticipate a significant increase in our green-fee revenue, arising from this weekend," said the honorary secretary Didgie O'Connor. "But the important thing is that we can look back with pride on having got it right. We're very happy about that."
