Mooney competes with the big guys

Irish Open News: Damian Mooney is one of 19 Irish professionals who will tee it up in the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House. Yesterday, he was one of just three players occupying turf on the range that by Thursday will be more crowded than Moore Street on a brisk trading morning.

Beside him was Sweden's Patrik Sjoland, a former champion. Further down was David Mortimer. Not a sign of a golfing superstar on this Monday afternoon.

As Mooney powerfully struck one ball after another way beyond the 250-metre target, the lone spectator, a watching security man, was probably unaware that this 37-year-old had just returned home having claimed the Europro Tour's Verde Golf Azores Championship on Saturday. A week previously, the northerner had lost in a play-off in the season-opening International Open at Wensum Valley in England. He is currently top of the money list on the satellite tour, and obviously a man in form. Now, he gets to play with the big guys on tour.

Only admitting to being "very disappointed" to have been passed over by the Golf Ireland Team Trust for grant aid earlier this year, Mooney - who gave up his job as a teaching professional two years ago so that he could concentrate fully on playing - is currently letting his actions do the talking. He may have been a late starter to golf, only taking up the sport as a 16-year-old, and an even later starter in the quest to pursue a life on tour, but there is a new hunger and vigour to his aims to achieve that goal.

"My ambition is to get on tour," remarked Mooney, who has been a regular, if unsuccessful visitor, to the European Tour qualifying school since a first visit in 1993.

With a win and a runner-up finish on the satellite Europro Tour (where the top four players at the end of the season receive cards onto the Challenge Tour, the secondary circuit on the PGA European Tour), Mooney - who has earned his place in the field for the Irish Open off the Irish Region PGA order of merit - remarked: "I'm here to compete and see how it goes. I worked hard on my fitness and practised hard over the winter.

"I'm more focused this year. I was disappointed in myself last season. I had a hard think about it over the winter and worked hard at it. The last two years have been a great revelation to me.

"I have nothing to lose this week and I like the golf course. For me it is set-up that suits, where I can get pass the trouble. I hit the ball long, it's the first step to the other bit, the putting and the pitching. I'm happy and confident with my game."

While Mooney is one member of the 19-strong contingent of Irish players competing in this week's tournament, which has a record purse of €2.2 million and €366,660 on offer to the winner, the strong field - which includes US Open champion Michael Campbell and the top-two on the Order of Merit in David Howell and Henrik Stenson - will face a course that is likely to be less penal than a year ago when Stephen Dodd triumphed.

The landing areas six holes - the first, fourth, sixth, 10th, 11th, and 16th - have been widened this time round and the fescue rough is not as dense as it was year ago. All of this was the result of forward planning, but the heavy thunderstorms that struck the area last Friday, when 27mm of rain fell in an hour, with further deluges overnight on Saturday, led to some intense work for the greenkeeping staff over the weekend in order to restore the course to tip-top conditioning.

With 129 bunkers on the Montgomerie Course, it required 40 greenkeepers working intensively over the weekend to restore order in the traps. As John Plummer, the golf resort superintendent, explained: "The problem is that many of the bunkers filled up to the rim and we had to pump the water out . . . what happened doesn't alter the tournament conditions of the bunkers.

"The base of the bunkers are in good condition and the problem was that layers of silt formed and we had to remove that, then reuse the sand, build the bunkers back up and probe it all again to make sure it was all in place."

Thankfully, the intensive remedial work has succeeded in returning the course to pristine condition for its second successive staging of the Irish Open.

Irish positions on PGA European Tour Order of Merit: 20th, Padraig Harrington (5) a352,036; 42nd, Darren Clarke (5) a203,721; 61st, Peter Lawrie (13) a143,269; 67th, Damien McGrane (16) a129,237; 79th, Graeme McDowell (3) a116,332; 98th, Paul McGinley (6) a92,935; 119th, David Higgins (13) a62,787; 139th, Gary Murphy (11) a50,692; 188th, Stephen Browne (8) a18,645; 230th, Michael Hoey (11) a9,172.