Everybody should have a 50th birthday like Christy O'Connor Jnr enjoyed yesterday. Even non-golfers would have been happy to trudge around the 7,179 yards of The K Club for the reward that awaited at the end of the journey.

After walking off the 18th green with his pro-am partners from Bord Failte, European Tour official Tony Gray handed O'Connor a ring of suspiciously new keys and then guided him towards a particular area of the car park. There, to his obvious delight, the Galwayman came upon a birthday gift from his wife Ann.

It was a new "hell red" BMW Z3 Roadster which, to you and me, is a smashing little drop-dead sports car. And for fear of any confusion, special number plates at the front and rear proclaimed it as belonging to "Christy Jnr."

"Fantastic - I couldn't believe it," said O'Connor. And his reaction was e-mailed to his wife and family at their home at Clarinbridge, Co Galway. Then, while lunching in the clubhouse, staff produced a birthday cake replete with 50 lighted candles.