In stroke-play qualifying, the name of the game is to survive. And, after the first round of the Lancome Irish Women's Amateur Close Championship at Carlow Golf Club yesterday, it was just as well that competitors accepted qualifying as a test that must be endured rather than enjoyed as a stiff wind proved troublesome and caused some scores to rocket into the high 90s.
Not for Eileen Rose Power, though. The former Curtis Cup player, a three-time winner of the Irish championship, came closest to breaking par on the Deerpark course that played every one of its 6,001 yards for the women. Given that her competitive appearances have been infrequent since the birth of her son seven months ago, Power's level-par 75 was all the more commendable.
Indeed, the day that was in it deserved some fruitful golf. The Carlow club was founded 100 years ago to the day (a special council meeting was held last night to honour their predecessors) and, generally, class came to the fore in the first round of 36 holes stroke-play qualifying. The leading qualifier after today's second round will receive the Leitrim Cup and the top 32 players will progress to the match-play phase. The next 16, if there are sufficient takers, will compete in the plate for the Ita Wallace Trophy.
Disappointingly, further late defections reduced the field to just 54 players . . . and, with less pressure than there might otherwise have been to make the match-play stages, none of the big names appear in any danger of failing to advance. Power, who won the Cork Scratch Cup recently, may have led the way with 75, but Killarney's Brigid Gleeson-Healy rowed in with a 76 (helped by two birdies in the last three holes) and defending champion Lillian Behan was joined on the 77 mark by girls' international Claire Coughlan. In all, just 10 players managed to break 80, a measure of the tough scoring conditions.
Even the likes of internationals Alison Coffey, Hazel Kavanagh and Oonagh Purfield, last year's beaten finalist, all of whom shot 81s, look set for a comfortable route into the match-play. Irish stroke-play champion Suzanne O'Brien, a member of the LGU elite panel, is similarly poised after an opening 80.
"I thought the greens were terrific," remarked Power, a not unsurprising comment given that she managed to sink four birdie putts in her round. The only real blemish came at the 173-yard par three sixth where she missed the green left and shot over the back with her recovery chip on the way to a double bogey five. By a strange coincidence, Behan also took a five at that hole and, like Power, reached the turn in level par.
Yvonne Cassidy proved that the front nine was very playable by reaching the turn in one-under-par, but, like so many others, she found the homeward journey a tougher proposition and eventually signed for a 79. "The wind made it extremely difficult," she said. In fact, local observers agreed that the wind had veered from its prevailing direction to play across many holes and add to the difficulty factor.
In a season which has seen youth have its fling, exemplified by teenager Jenny Gannon's win in the Leinster championship, there was further evidence of young golfing talent yesterday. Gannon had a tricky time midway through her round and finished with an 83, which places her closer to the borderline than any of the other fancied players, but Claire Coughlan, a four-handicapper in Little Island, shot a 77 that included four birdies. Another emerging talent Maura Morrin, the beaten Leinster finalist, had a 78 to join international Michelle McGreevy on that mark.
