Trip to US event provides the spur

The hardship of enduring five matchplay encounters - and, possibly, six, should the eventual champion happen to emerge from the first round, confined to the 128 higher handicapped entrants, which starts today - has been eased slightly by the carrot of a trip to play in a US PGA Tour event next season to the winner of the Irish Shell-sponsored South of Ireland amateur open championship at Lahinch, Co Clare.

Although not an all-expenses-paid trip (due to the restraints of the USGA, who govern amateur golf in the US) the winner of this year's South will be invited to compete in the Houston Open next year.

All of which provides the perfect bait to potential winners of a title which, in the past decade, has elicited a mix of winners who have gone on to considerable success in the professional ranks - among them Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley - and those to espouse the Corinthian spirit, like former Walker Cup player Jody Fanagan.

The timing couldn't be better in terms of competitive preparation for the six-strong Irish selection - Eamonn Brady, Noel Fox, Michael Hoey, Andrew McCormick, Graeme McDowell and Ciaran McMonagle - for next weekend's European Individual Championship in Murhof, Austria.

In terms of course management, few courses are as demanding as Lahinch and contestants - all 192 of them - will be forced to cope with a links that is playing firm and fast. Today's first round throws the 128 higher handicapped players into the fray before they are joined in tomorrow's second round by the so-called "big guns".

An indication of the standard of the field, however, can be gauged from the entry which includes over 50 players of scratch or better while Jason Semelsberger, a student from Los Angeles, heads a small number of foreign visitors. Semelsberger, in fact, reached the quarter-finals of the South last year and three years ago, he qualified for the US Open at Congressional, where he missed the cut.

There were a number of defections yesterday with Ryan Boal, John Hutchinson, Gerard O'Sullivan and Philip Collier all withdrawing which allowed Peter Wallace (Mullingar), Gary Bray (Co Louth), Daragh Loughnane (Galway) and Jimmy Mooney (Laytown) to come into today's first round draw as replacements.

One suspects, however, that the player most likely to take the title won't make an appearance until tomorrow's second round (the top 64 players are seeded through) with Irish international Mark Campbell, of UCD and Stackstown, attempting to retain a championship he won last year when defeating Peter Martin at the 21st hole.