Golf West of Ireland amateur championship: If not quite a changing of the guard, the list of potential winners - down to four - has as fresh an appearance as the breeze that caressed the links at Rosses Point for much of yesterday.
Of the quartet surviving into today's semi-final stage of the Standard Life-sponsored West of Ireland amateur championship at Co Sligo Golf Club, not one has previously won any of the major championships, and only one is into his 30s. To be sure, a new generation has arrived.
There's also a discernible confidence to be found among the four survivors. There's the quiet assurance of Brian McElhinney, the youngest of them at 20; the obvious intent of Mark Ryan, now 23, and a former Irish youths champion who has swapped the desk life - albeit temporarily - of a stockbroker for one on the fairways; the desire of Alan Dowling, the so-called "old man" of the group at 32 but determined to make the most of his best ever run in a championship; and the positive tones of Darren Crowe, an Irish international, who celebrated his 22nd birthday a week ago.
So, in bookmaker's jargon, it is anyone's title; and the only certainty is that there will be a new name engraved on the trophy.
Yet, there was much to admire in the way that the respective winners negotiated a route into the semi-finals, where McElhinney - the winner of last week's Connacht Youths title - is scheduled to meet Ryan in the first match while Dowling takes on Crowe in the second encounter.
Of them all, Crowe, in his final year of studying finance at Queens University Belfast, had to show the most courage. In his third round yesterday morning, the Dunmurry golfer was two down with two holes to play against the highly rated Swede Steven Jeppesen.
The response to such dire circumstances was to contrive to win the 17th, one of the most difficult par fours in golf, with a par after Jeppesen's drive finished in the ditch, and then to square matters on the 18th with a birdie, hitting his approach to two feet. And he took his place in the quarter-finals with a sudden-death win in par on the first hole.
After such dramatics, the quarter-final was almost an anti-climax; but Crowe nevertheless kept his cool to claim a 4 and 3 win over Mullingar's Des Morgan.
In many ways, Crowe coasted to his afternoon victory, winning the first hole to establish a lead he was never to relinquish. By the time he reached the turn, he was five up - and the swing changes he has conducted over the winter under the tuition of Ulster coach Michael Magee, changing from a cut shot to a straight-to-draw, are feeling ever more comfortable.
Dowling progressed to the semi-final by claiming two big scalps, firstly beating former international John Morris and then dispatching the promising teenager Robert McCarthy. The Hermitage golfer has been on the fringes of the amateur big time - winning the Midlands Scratch Cup in Carlow and even venturing abroad to win the Luxembourg Championship - but after achieving his aim of reaching the last 16 and "earning some Willie Gill Award points", he developed a new confidence.
In achieving a 4 and 3 win over McCarthy, Dowling made the most of any breaks that came his way. On the third, he was simply attempting to "hack out" of mild rough with his second shot but managed to get it to 20 feet from the hole and rolled in the eagle putt for good measure.
On the seventh, he skied his second shot, which fortunately managed to come up short of the ditch, and he then proceeded to pitch and putt for his par. For good measure, he rolled in a 70-footer for birdie on the 11th. In short, it was his day and he made the most of it.
Ryan, the Irish youths champion in 2001 and a semi-finalist in last year's South of Ireland, was working in Goodbody stockbrokers until last month, when he decided that the appeal of a season playing on the golf circuit was too much to resist.
He was recently on the Irish squad that benefited from a week's coaching with Howard Bennett in Portugal - where he worked on his short game - but it was his long game that was most impressive yesterday as he took a 3 and 2 win over Trevor Spence. On the 15th, where he set up his match-winning birdie, he drove the ball in excess of 350 yards.
"Once I made the cut, my intention was to go on and win," insisted Ryan, who faces McElhinney.
For his part, McElhinney was always in control of his quarter-final joust with Frank O'Donoghue, winning the first two holes and turning two up.
That dominance was improved with a hat-trick of wins from the 10th, including reaching the par-five 12th in two - hitting a four-iron approach - and taking his two putts from 30 feet for a birdie that put him five up and effectively out of reach.
THIRD ROUND
F O'Donoghue (Belvoir Park) bt J Foster (Ballyclare) 3 and 2; B McElhinney (North West) bt J Harding (City of Derry) 4 and 3; M Ryan (Grange) bt J Moore (L&B) 1 hole; T Spence (Clandeboye) bt M McTernan (Co Sligo) 2 holes; A Dowling (Hermitage) bt J Morris (Mullingar) 5 and 4; R McCarthy (The Island) bt S Moloney (Castletroy) 2 and 1; D Morgan (Mullingar) bt M McDermott (Stackstown) 2 holes; D Crowe (Dunmurry) bt S Jeppesen (Sweden) at 19th.
Quarter-finals - McElhinney bt O'Donoghue 5 and 4; Ryan bt Spence 3 and 2; Dowling bt McCarthy 4 and 3; Crowe bt Morgan 4 and 3.
Today: Semi-finals: 8.00 - McElhinney v Ryan. 8.20 - Dowling v Crowe.
Final at 1.00.
