GOLF:LET'S NOT reminisce any more, or believe that it was all so much better in the old days. It couldn't get much better than this; a glorious, sun-kissed, ice-cream sort of day at Adare Manor with an exotic, eclectic band of players providing a feast of birdies, a few rare eagles and sufficient bogeys - and worse - to make for an exhilarating, if long, first round of the Irish Open.
On a day heaven sent, this tough layout by the river Maigue, exposed to all of its 7,453 yards, deserved all the mainly positive plaudits it received, although there were a few brickbats - or, if you prefer, constructive criticism - thrown in by late-finishing players as the course played to an average of 74.77, scoring more in keeping with what you'd find at a major.
And, when the last putt of a long day (with rounds taking over five hours to complete) was holed and the sun finally set, India's Jeev Milkha Singh and Australian left-hander Richard Green sat atop the leaderboard after opening efforts of 66, six under, which left many others - among them defending champion Pádraig Harrington - aware that a tough chase is in prospect.
Singh, from a famed Indian sporting family, and Green, who has slipped out of the world's top-50 in recent months and returned to the European Tour rather than play on the US Tour in an attempt to reverse that slide, finished the opening day's play two strokes clear of a quartet of players that featured Bradley Dredge, Johan Edfors, Michael Lorenzo-Vera and Marcel Siem.
This is what a really good course does. It asks questions, ensuring that there is an answer, and the playability was emphasised by the fact that 29 players shot sub-par rounds and 43 finished up at par or better. Yet, for those who dithered or failed the test, the penalty was great as demonstrated by the tribulations of players at the wrong end of affairs some of whom ran up triple and quadruple bogeys in the blink of an eye.
Darren Clarke, though, did have some complaints about the pin placements which he described as "ridiculously difficult" in the afternoon, as the greens firmed up. He said: "It's disappointing to have such a good golf course play in that sort of fashion . . . it takes all the fun away, and it takes the ability to shoot a good score away."
Indeed, that assessment was backed-up by his Ryder Cup colleague, Paul McGinley. "It's a hell of a tough golf course. I think they've overdone the new tee boxes. It has become a monster of a course."
In the main, however, the course proved to be tough but generally fair. As Dredge, who lost out to Harrington in last year's play-off, put it: "I thought the course was pretty spot on. I don't think there's a hole out there which you can say is too long or too difficult."
As far as the home brigade was concerned, the opening round proved to be a mixed bag. Only two players - Rory McIlroy (70) and Peter Lawrie (71) - managed to finish under par, whilst Harrington, Clarke and Colm Moriarty all signed for level-par 72s. Of the other tour-card carrying Irish players, Paul McGinley had a 73; Graeme McDowell and Gary Murphy had 74s, and Damien McGrane carded a 76.
Harrington's round promised more than it delivered, the Dubliner moving to two-under after eight holes only to hit a rocky patch mid-round with a run of three bogeys in five holes. "I just lost my way for a few holes, made a few mental errors, and it cost me," he lamented, adding: "There's a lot of golf to be played. I know a 72 means I've a lot of work to do, but I am not out of the tournament."
Having started on the 10th, Harrington was two-under for his day's work as he stood on the 18th. There, it all went horribly wrong. He pulled his tee-shot into the water - "I like the 18th, it's just an awkward angle for me" - to make a bogey.
Although he bounced back with a birdie on the first, further trouble lay ahead as he ran up back-to-back bogeys on the third and fourth before stringing together five pars to finish.
Whilst McIlroy headed the home challenge, Lawrie - who completed a hat-trick of Irish wins in successive weeks when he recently won the Spanish Open - showed his current levels of confidence when birdieing four of his last six holes for a 71. "It's a tough course. If you start missing fairways by a foot or literally by a couple of inches, it is very difficult to get the ball close. You just have to stay patient," said Lawrie.
As things stand, the men setting the pace will know there is a long way to the finish. Singh, certainly, only had to look back on his remarkable par on the ninth, his finishing hole, to know that potential disaster lurks everywhere.
There, Singh's approach flew the green into bushes; but, undeterred, he waded in - ensuring tournament director David Probyn was on hand to observe that he didn't breach any rule - and even went to the extreme of putting his right hand in his pocket so that he couldn't touch any branches. Then, he played a miraculous shot on to the green, from where he holed a par-saving putt of 40 feet. It was the least he deserved, and that audacious putt allowed him to join Green in a share of the first-round lead.
