Walton out to make impact

PHILIP Walton sits in his Jaguar - parked outside the K Club - and studies a colour snapshot which has just been handed to him. Twelve months on from the Ryder Cup and the hero of Oak Hill may have returned to earth, but he discovers himself loitering in a rather lowly 81st position in the Volvo Ranking, the European Tour's Order of Merit.

"Look at that picture and tell me what is wrong," he says.

The photograph was taken at the English Open in June and portrays Walton hitting an iron off a fairway just at the moment of impact. Yet, the Dubliner's eyes aren't focused on the ball - they have strayed further afield to God knows where. "If my eyes have moved so far, just think how much my head is moving," he suggests. "Maybe this is the little thing I need to adjust in my game."

Such food for thought is like a meal in a barren enough season. Last year, apart from his Ryder Cup exploits, Walton claimed the Catalan Open and the English Open titles in an extremely fruitful campaign. When he arrived in Straffan this time last year in the afterglow of the Ryder Cup, everyone wanted a piece of him. He knew more than anyone how Michelle Smith felt after her Olympic homecoming!

"I was up in the clouds last year, but at least I have come back down now." So, Walton finds himself in a more pragmatic frame of mind as he prepares to augment the Irish contingent in the Smurfit European Open which commences at the Arnold Palmer-designed course tomorrow.

The European Open is his penultimate tournament of 1996 (followed by next week's German Masters) with no Alfred Dunhill Cups or World Cups or, indeed, Ryder Cups to occupy his mind. The end of season showcase, the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, is confined to the top 50 in the rankings and won't concern him unless he manages something rather exceptional either this week or next.

Indeed, fate hasn't exactly sided with him in recent weeks. At the European Masters in Switzerland earlier this month, Walton had to withdraw due to a neck strain - "I think I picked it up from a draught, an open window or something like that, but it was like being hit by a sledge-hammer" - and, in the Pro-Am in Loch Lomond last week, he was hit on the shoulder by a golf ball when someone snap-hooked. The multi-coloured bruise was still visible yesterday.

Still, playing again on Irish soil in a European Tour event is the best possible medicine. "It isn't such a nice feeling if you are playing badly," he admits. "But you really enjoy it if things are going well. The crowd get behind you and that is a good feeling.

"The course has come on so much inside the past 12 months and, with the wind picking up, it is going to be a tough few days. I reckon a figure of four or five under par won't be too far away at the end of the day."

As if to emphasise the point, Walton - who played in the Charity Classic yesterday where Muscular Dystrophy benefitted from any eagles or birdies recorded - played a drive, five iron and a nine iron to reach the par five seventh hole, arguably the showpiece hole on the course. "There are so many holes out there that will find you out if you are not playing well," he says.

"However, I think this is the sort of course which would be the ideal host for a Ryder Cup - it may be Americanised, but in these conditions it would frighten them," he adds.

For the rest of the week, though, Walton's mind won't be on team events. Instead, his aim will be to make a real impact on the tournament and buck the trend of what has been a poor September for him. Maybe that photograph handed to him in the Straffan car-park yesterday will help to fill another piece of the jigsaw in his efforts to rediscover last season's form.