WAYNE RILEY sat in the departure area of Lisbon airport yesterday morning with a silver replica of the Portuguese Open trophy and what he described, with typical Australian directness, as a "bloody big bottle of champagne". Some 20 miles away, Padraig Harrington was at Aroeira, the scene of Riley's triumph, getting in crucial practice on his short game.
Later in the day, Harrington set out on a journey 600 miles to the south, to join five Irish colleagues off the western coast of Africa. There, in a holiday setting of volcanic soil and warm temperatures, they will be competing in the Madeira Open, starting on Thursday.
Riley, meanwhile, was heading to more sober surroundings near his home in Surrey, where he will be competing today with his coach, Gary Smith, in the Sunningdale Foursomes. "I'm not too sure of what the handicap situation will be for two professionals playing together, but it could be an interesting week," said the 33 year old whose latest win has lifted him 11 places to 74th in the world rankings.
The arrival of Harrington's coach, Howard Bennett, at Aroeira last Sunday, provided the Staekstown player with the guidance he needed for some worth while practice. That evening, Bennett joined up with Irish women's international non playing captain, Claire Dowling, and the ILGU group of players who are there for squad training this week. And they were in action bright and early yesterday, having left their hotel for Aroeira before 7.30 am.
Relatively short by championship standards, Madeira's Santo da Serra course is an interesting challenge. Its designer, Robert Trent Jones, found ample compensation for lack of length in narrow, tree lined fairways, complemented by sloping greens and frighteningly deep ravines.
None of which will bother Jimmy Heggarty, who is simply happy to be in the field. Having missed the cut by a frustrating one stroke in the Portuguese Open, last Friday, he remained at Aroeira where he availed of the practice facilities. It was his third event of the year and he had also missed the previous two cuts in the Catalan Open and the Moroccan Open.
By finishing 35th in the Qualifying School at San Roque last November, he achieved appropriate status for a 21st year as a tournament professional. But not all of those years were spent on the European Tour he was forced out of action for the last three seasons, having failed to retain his card in 1992.
So, approaching his 40th birthday on May 22nd, what possessed him to give it one more shot? "It made sense," he said yesterday. "By finishing runner up in the Irish Order of Merit last year, I automatically qualified for three important tour events this season the Volvo PGA Championship, the Murphy's Irish Open and the Smurfit European Open. I reckoned that was a good base to build on.
He went on "With sponsorship from Spawell, I feel good about my chances, particularly the way I played in the second round of the Portuguese last Friday, when I shot a level par 71. I have no excuses about the Catalan and Morocco where I played badly."
After an impressive amateur career that included international status and victory in the North of Ireland championship, he joined the tour in 1976. But his best Order of Merit placing was 49th in 1981. And he admits the challenge is not getting any easier.
"The standard among the top 50 is more or less the same, but the bottom half is a lot tougher," he said. "There are now 150 verb good players on the tour which means that the cuts are getting lower each year. That's what makes it so difficult. But I'm here because I believe I never really did myself justice and I would like to rectify that before it's too late."
Heggarty's most impressive performances of recent years were a share of second place behind Paul Broadhurst in the 1989 Cannes Open and a six under par 64 in the 1990 European Open at Sunningdale. He will be joined in Madeira by Des Smyth, Harrington, David Higgins, Francis Howley and John McHenry. Eamonn Darcy, Christy O'Connor Jnr and Raymond Burns have withdrawn.
Meanwhile, the four Volvo sponsored events on this year's European Tour will be worth an impressive £3.9 million. In details announced yesterday, the prize money for the Volvo Masters at Valderrama on October 24th-27th is increased by £150,000 to £900,000, with the bonus pool for the top 15 players in the Order of Merit raised from £500,000 to £600,000.
Both the Scandinavian Masters (August 1st-4th) and German Open (August 22nd-25th) have increased prize funds of £700,000, while it had earlier been announced that the PGA Championship at Wentworth on May 24th-27th will be worth £1 million.
Against that background, it is interesting to note a two week spring break in the European Tour schedule. After the Madeira "Open this week, there will be no action until the Cannes Open on April 18th-21st. That has become the target of most of the leading players, including David Feherty, though Colin Montgomerie will be remaining in the US after the Masters to compete in the Heritage Classic.
Remarkable developments on the USPGA Tour have seen the third surprise winner in successive weeks, with Scott McCarron's victory in the McDermott Classic at New Orleans last Sunday. Following on the wins by Tim Herron in the Honda Classic and Paul Goydos at Bay Hill, McCarron has completed a run of three, first time winners. McCarron beat second placed Tom Watson by five strokes.
