Walton takes softly, softly approach

WHILE walking with Philip Walton away from the 18th green at Dubai last weekend, I suddenly became aware of something strange: the bould Philip's shoes were making no noise. There we were, on a cement path and not a sound from the ground. And he wouldn't have had time to change from spiked-shoes.

Being in one of my more forthright moods, I wanted to know why this was so. "Very simple," replied Walton. "I'm wearing Softspikes - and I can't believe how good they are."

The discovery was particularly interesting for the fact that only a few days previously, also in Dubai, I had been discussing Softspikes with Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley. Both had used them during non-tournament visits to Valderrama, where they are mandatory.

McGinley brought home a supply from a trip to the US two months ago, when he used them while practising at the Big Horn course in Palm Springs. "I have 10 sets which I intend to use during the summer," he said. But when asked about using them in competition, as Walton is doing, he replied that he wasn't quite ready for that level of change just yet.

My discoveries in the Persian Gulf were especially timely insofar as Softspikes are to become available in professional shops throughout this country within the next few weeks. The Irish agent is Reggie Eyres of Warrenpoint, who acquired the concession in fascinating circumstances.

Eyres, a member of Warrenpoint GC, was in Valderrama last October for the Volvo Masters. While there, he met a representative of the Softspikes company and, following a demonstration, expressed considerable interest in the product. He then plucked up the courage ask: "Do you have an Irish agent?" "No," came the reply. "Can I have it? I'm sure we can do business." And so they did.

They are the inventors of a product which is aimed largely at protecting greens from "spiking", while providing appropriate traction. While agreeing that it met more of those criteria, Walton says: "The greatest benefit I find is that they're so easy on the feet. We pros spend a lot of time standing around and these things (Softspikes) don't have the lumpy effect of metal spikes."

In use in American country clubs for some time now, they have been twice modified to achieve the maximum traction. The latest ones, which I have samples of are the XP (extra performance) and consist of a wholly plastic, screw-in disc with eight spikes around the perimeter.

Eyres is your man. And he's contactable at: phone/fax - 0801693-752934.

While his Irish colleagues were competing in Dubai last weekend, Eoghan O'Connell was productively employed 7,000 miles away. With a two-under-par 70 at Palm Aire Pines, O'Connell took top prize of $1,000 after a play-off in the one-day South Florida Golf Tour event.

IT is not uncommon these days for an Irish national champion to be unable to defend the title. As we have seen with Darren Clarke in 1991, David Higgins (1,995) and Padraig Harrington (1996), it is a natural consequence of the increasing appeal of the professional game.

I am not aware, however, that the reigning champion, Peter Lawrie, has any immediate plans to turn professional. Yet his chances of defending the title at Westport in August are becoming increasingly slim - simply because of his undoubted talent.

Let me explain. The situation first arose in 1989 when Garth McGimpsey was due to defend the Irish Close title which he won at Royal Portrush. As it happened, he couldn't do so because he was picked as a member of the Walker Cup team to play the US at Peachtree. And in their wisdom, the GUI had scheduled the Irish Close to clash with the Walker Cup.

McGimpsey went to Peachtree where he shared in the first victory on US soil. And Lawrie looks destined to finish up in the same boat, given that this year's Close at Westport (August 9th to 13th) clashes with the Walker Cup at Quaker Ridge, New York (August 9th and 10th), for which he is a leading candidate.

Why don't the English Scottish and Welsh champions have the same problem? Because their championships are fixed for the same week in late July/early August, when the South of Ireland is scheduled. Make any sense? Of course not, But then it didn't make and sense in 1989 either.

AT A time when the morale of Ryder Cup skipper Seve Ballesteros is at a low ebb, I feel we should remind ourselves of his immense contribution to the biennial clash with the US. Apart from match-winning efforts, he was responsible for a shot that is largely forgotten, yet remains one of the greatest in the history of the competition.

It happened in 1983 at Palm Beach Gardens where Europe's current ascendancy in the event was effectively born. On the final day, Ballesteros, playing at number one against Fuzzy Zoeller, lost four holes in a row but rallied to reach the 18th all square.

There, however, things looked bleak once more when he hooked his drive into a steeply-banked bunker, 250 yards from the hole. To everyone's astonishment, Ballesteros took out a three-wood and somehow managed to land the ball on the green to secure a halved match.

Dave Marr, a former US Ryder Cup captain turned television commentator, remarked: "There was no way he could make that shot. It was the finest shot I've seen in Ryder Cup competition ..."

REFERRING to Riviera Country Club where he won the Los Angeles Open last Sunday, Nick Faldo said: "That's the style of course that really should suit me." Even at this stage, one suspects that Faldo could be saying the same thing about Druids Glen, when he returns to the Murphy's Irish Open there in July.

Indeed the success of left-to-right hitting Colin Montgomerie last year should have been fairly predictable. An analysis of the strongest par fours on the course reveals that they give a definite edge to a natural fader of the ball. Holes like the first, fourth, sixth, 13th and 14th. Then there is the long 11th, which also moves left to right.

Meanwhile, Riviera was meant to produce quality winners, such as Ben Hogan and Faldo. When completed in 1927, it had cost $675,000, making it the world's most expensive course at the time. That, despite the fact that the architect, George Thomas, never charged for his work.

Interestingly, it was there that 22-year-old Jack Nicklaus, on a sponsor's invitation, earned $33.33, his first cheque as a professional, in 1962. Thirty years Inter, a promising, 16-year-old by the name of Tiger Woods carded rounds of 72 and 75 there to miss the cut in his first USPGA tournament.

Prior to last weekend's success, Faldo had a keen awareness of the association between Riviera and the exploits of Hogan. Indeed one of his proudest possessions is a photograph of the great man competing there.

All of which seemed to inspire him. Indeed he admitted, as much earlier this week when he said: "Hogan's mental approach was phenomenal and I suppose I would have the same attitude to the work ethic. Like him, I'm prepared to hit balls all day in hope of becoming a better player.

IN BRIEF: A blue cedar tree has been planted at Stepaside Public Golf Course in memory of its designer, Eddie Hackett, who died recently .... Jose-Maria Olazabal and Eamonn Darcy claim to have found the Nutron Diet beneficial to their golf game. That sparked my interest when informed by Kathryn Dillon of the official opening of the Nutron Weight and Health Clinic on Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin, on Monday .... Mairin Byrne reminds supporters of the Central Remedial Clinic that their annual Golf Classic will take place at Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links on June 27th .... Friends of Joe Parker, who sustained serious rugby injuries 15 months ago, are to stage a Golf Classic at Hermitage GC on April 18th .. .. Regional finals of this year's Ford Ladies Strokeplay Championship will be held at Newlands, Muskerry and Glasson from where qualifiers will go through to the national final at Druids Glen in September.

TEASER: In strokeplay, A discovers during play of the eighth hole that he has 15 clubs in his bag and thus has incurred a penalty of four strokes under Rule 4-4a. How should the four-stroke penalty be applied?

Answer: A must add penalties of two strokes to his score for the first and second holes. In fourball strokeplay, both A and his partner would add penalties of two strokes to their scores for the first and second holes.