Golf: So, who do you think is the biggest draw in golf? Tiger Woods? Not here, not in Portmarnock Links and Hotel where the sun is shining - "you could be in Spain, it's beautiful," says Jim Doherty who is caddying for his son Oliver - and a links with a reputation akin to that of a fearsome beast is being well and truly tamed.
It's true, you know. Take what happened on the 14th hole yesterday, a short par 4 of 314 yards. Oliver - nobody uses his surname, a sure sign he has arrived as one of the stars of the show - stood on the tee and his dad threw out the pre-ordained game plan of using an iron for safety and instead handed him a three-wood.
Oliver never flinched at the change in strategy. He took the club from his father-cum-caddy and proceeded to hit his shot all of 315 yards, a yard past the flagstick, into a greenside bunker. No problem.
In he stepped, splashed out to eight-feet and sank the birdie putt. Roars and applause and general agreement all round from those watching that here, indeed, was a rather special talent.
This guy is good. Today, Oliver - a 27-year-old from Buncrana, a nine-hole course overlooking Lough Swilly - takes a nine-stroke lead over Britain's Mark Merrett into the fourth and final round of the 72- hole tournament. Oliver plays off a club handicap of seven (he once was as low as three) but here, in this competition, the elite players are off scratch and he is proving to be the best of the lot.
"I'm his coach," says Philip Patterson, "but, at the end of the day, he can teach me golf. He has no weak link, really. Sometimes his putting can go if he loses his concentration but you've got to realise this is the World Games, it has taken him two years to get here and it would be a marvellous achievement if he were to go on and win."
But it's not only about winning. One of Oliver's playing partners for the past two days has been Ragnar Olafsson of Iceland. When asked if he could teach some of the volunteers to say hello in Icelandic, Ragnar replied: "Well, you can simply say hello or, even simpler, just hi."
Other players have also proved to be extremely popular, none more than Carlos Mujica of Venezuela and American Lara Hahn who have been high-fiving their way around the course, and the relationship established between players and caddies has been, as Michael Forde, the sports commissioner for golf, put it, "incredible. The rapport is incredible. They're more than just bag-carriers."
In general, there has been a great camaraderie established between golfers, caddies and volunteers.
Even the weather has been benign - although a stiff wind yesterday put a greater onus on shaping shots - which is always a help on a course as tough as Portmarnock links.
"There was a certain fear and trepidation that the course might be too severe," admits Forde, the former managing director of Shell Ireland. "But all the remarks from the various coaches and players are that the course is tough, but very fair. The conditions have been excellent."
Still, aware of the propensity for the disastrous consequence of losing golf balls in the tiger rough, no fewer than eight spotters are position on each hole and, in all, there are 275 volunteers at the golf tournaments in Portmarnock and Elmgreen.
Some of them have gone beyond the call of duty, among them Hilary Coffey, a scorekeeper for Mark Merrett and who makes home-made sandwiches for the Englishman, Oliver's closest pursuer in the men's singles level 5 competition.
The volunteers have come from far and wide, including Colin William - who used to be a bar tender in the East Sussex Golf Club where the European Open was once held.
He has come over from England and is crashing on a friend's sofa in Ballsbridge.
A doctor by profession and now working in the pharmaceutical industry, he's been looking after guests visiting the golf competition.
One of those paying a visit yesterday was Special Olympics CEO Mary Davis who put her name in the guest book alongside Seve Ballesteros and Sandy Lyle who were here earlier in the week.
For Oliver Doherty, one of his proudest moments came on Monday when he was introduced to Ballesteros on the first tee.
"When I started playing golf [as an 11-year-old\], Seve was my hero . . . and he still is." Now that he has met Seve, who is next on his must-meet list? "I'd love to meet Tiger Woods," he says.
If that meeting should come about, Mr Woods could be the one more impressed.
