Trio take birdie chances

The shenanigans were of the strange but true kind. Swallows, seeking respite from the weather, dived and flew dangerously low to the ground behind the 10th green, while even rarer birds - those of the one-shot eagle variety - appeared on two occasions in the Waterford Crystal Irish Women's +Open at Faithlegg yesterday, where a cosmopolitan trio assumed the first round lead.

Germany's Elisabeth Esterl, Australian Karen Lunn and Spaniard Ana Belen Sanchez all contrived to shoot six-under-par rounds of 66, on a day when fog halted early-morning play and rain later disrupted it, but the biggest smile of all probably belonged on the face of former world number one Laura Davies.

On the 135-yards ninth hole, Davies, who had been struggling to get some momentum going, launched an eight-iron tee-shot that landed two feet short of the hole, bounced past it but spun back into the cup for a hole-in-one.

"Always nice and exciting to get one," remarked Davies, who shot an opening round 70 and her eighth-career ace.

Earlier, Scotland's Julie Forbes had put considerably more energy into smashing a five-wood tee-shot to the 178 yards sixth hole for her first ever hole-in-one on the Women's European Tour. "I absolutely pured it, but the first I knew about the ball going in was that someone was jumping up and down at the green. It was the quietest hole-in-one ever, I think," remarked Forbes.

None of the three overnight leaders, however, managed such one-shot dramatics, preferring instead to slowly accumulate a succession of birdies.

Esterl was the long-time clubhouse leader on her own, her round kick-started by a hat-trick of birdies from the first where she hit a lob wedge approach to 18 inches, then hit another lob wedge to eight feet on the second before rounding off her birdie streak with an eight- iron approach to 18 feet on the third. Her only bogey came at the sixth but another hat-trick of birdies, from the 14th, propelled her to the head of affairs.

"I come out here each week aiming to win, and I know you can't win in one round, but I have given myself a pretty good chance with that start. If the putter doesn't cool down, I should be okay," insisted Esterl, in her fifth season on tour but without a victory yet.

At 35-years-old, Lunn is one of the older players on the circuit - but she covered the front nine in a mere 31 strokes, and had a bogey- free run home to join Esterl.

"It's nice to see that some of us old hacks can still play," she said, adding: "I mean, it is very good to see the young girls coming through. They are super-talented and super-confident and they take a lot of beating."

Sanchez, one of that younger generation, later made it a three-way tie for the lead - "I've been working hard on my mental game, trying to focus better," she explained - but, with 34 players dipping under par in the first round, there are quite a number of players eyeing the crystal trophy on the first tee.

South Africa's Laurette Maritz also had a front nine of 31 on her way to a 67, one stroke off the lead, while Order of Merit leader Raquel Carriedo, Solheim Cup player Trish Johnson, of England, and France's Virginie Auffret opened with 68s to be in the thick of the hunt, and defending champion Sophie Gustafson had a 69.

The Irish challenge, as anticipated, was led by Aideen Rogers, the country's only full-time touring professional, and former Curtis Cup player Suzanne O'Brien, making her professional debut. Both players signed for 73s, requiring some unfinished work to survive the 36-holes cut, but there was also a feeling that some shots had been left out on the course.

O'Brien felt that her lack of competitive sharpness, particularly with the putter, contributed to a series of missed birdie chances in a round that included one birdie and two bogeys. "It's strange for me because, normally at this time of the year, I'm coming to the end of the amateur season, but here I'm playing my first real competitive golf this year. I'd have probably set my sights a bit higher otherwise, but my goal is to make the cut," she said.