VICTORIES don't happen on opening day. Still, it seemed to merit some kind of celebration when rain held off for much of yesterday's first round in the Pounds 750,000 Murphy's Irish Open at Druids Glen. Lee Westwood, the leader after a course record 65, was certainly long gone before the elements turned sour once more, with a brief, evening drizzle.
In the circumstances, target-like conditions might have been expected to produce a veritable spate of low scoring, except for the weather-beaten greens. Which explained why no more than seven players joined the holder, Colin Montgomerie, on 68 or better.
Westwood, who has been described by Montgomerie as "the best player under-30 in Europe", finished the day one stroke ahead of Thomas Bjorn, who became the only player to shoot a bogey-free round. By his own admission, however, the noble Dane is discovering more each week about the pressure of making the Ryder Cup team.
And on a particularly grim day for the Irish, their standard-bearer was the veteran Eamonn Darcy, on 70.
Then there was the infamous 13th, which had a suitably turbulent birth, when 60,000 cubic yards of the best Wicklow granite were hacked away, at a cost of Pounds 250,000, during its construction, to achieve its dog-leg configuration. Crucially, the extensive quarrying also made way for the picturesque 12th, a drop par-three at the Druid's altar.
In the event, the big Scot, who appeared to be the source of all knowledge, reckoned it to be the most difficult par-four on the European Tour. And he had the good grace to smile while protesting that there was never any serious danger of a three-wood second shot of 230 yards finishing anywhere other than the putting surface, after it took a deflection off a tree left of the green.
"I shot 7, 5, 4, 4 there last year - and won," he said. "So I can only imagine what the other guys were doing." The truth is they were engaged in the sort of poor decision-making which led to a wretched eight from Spain's Carl Suneson on this occasion.
Meanwhile, for 10 others, including recent tournament winners Retief Goosen and Richard Green, the seven deadly sins gained a new dimension. Indeed, the average score for the hole was 4.91, making it more like a difficult par five.
"It's a hell of a hole, as tough as anything I've experienced anywhere in the US," said Nick Faldo, who was careful enough to be short right - well away from the beckoning water - with a three-iron second shot. He then pitched and sank a 12-foot putt for a par, on the way to a solid 69.
Extreme contrasts in scoring both illustrated the testing nature of the course overall and embellished the quality of Westwood's effort. The 24- year-old Englishman was tied seventh here last year, and his splendid progress since then reflects an admirable capacity to learn.
Ask him about such legends as Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan, and he will be keenly aware of their unique contributions to the game. And in a practical sense, he will eagerly soak up knowledge from his contemporaries.
"I played a practice round with Nick Faldo before the US Open at Congressional and it was very revealing," he said. "He was like a snooker player, thinking three shots ahead. For instance, he deliberately came up short right of the 17th green, just in case he needed a safe finish if he was going for the title."
Understandably lacking in such guile, Westwood has a considerable advantage over his compatriot, however, in terms of distance. Indeed his power was on display at an early stage when, after starting on the 10th, he covered his first five holes in five under par - birdie, eagle, birdie, par, birdie.
In the process, he reduced the 522-yard 11th to a drive of 294 yards and a four-iron second shot of 228. His round contained a total of five birdies, an eagle, 11 pars and a lone bogey - at the short, 203-yard 17th where a "smooth five-iron" was almost plugged in a greenside trap.
With a 46 1/2-inch shaft on his titanium/graphite driver, Westwood scoffed at the notion put about by the US Golf Association that space-age metals have made very little difference to the distance the ball is now travelling. "It's obviously rubbish to deny the improvement in club technology: I've put 20 yards onto my drives," he said.
Indeed suggestions from competitors that its damp, lush nature made Druids Glen a long, demanding test, were difficult to sustain as Mark Roe, not a particularly long hitter, had an eight-iron second shot of 134 yards to the 435-yard 18th, uphill. Yet Faldo appeared somewhat surprised that he should have needed a two-iron second shot to the 476-yard sixth and another long iron to the 13th.
Astonishingly, Steven Richardson, three-times a tournament winner and a Ryder Cup player in 1991, last week made his first cut in 16 tournaments this season. And there is a splendid chance he will do it again this evening, given a fine effort of 67, which contained a run of four birdies from the second.
"Playing four rounds in the French Open last week, gave me the confidence to go on," he said afterwards. "For a welcome change, I am beginning to take what I have been doing on the practice ground onto the course. This is cheering me up. You play for the present and the future, not the past."
As it happened, Richardson was the same age as Westwood is now, when a glowing career seemed to stretch out before him. Given Westwood's pragmatic nature, however, one suspects that he needs no reminding of the game's potential pitfalls.
Meanwhile, Montgomerie is clearly determined to make a stout defence of the title. His round contained four birdies and a lone bogey, at the 15th, which he three-putted. And though he didn't complain about the length of the sixth and 13th, they were more than offset for him by the ease with which he reached the long fifth and 11th in two.
"The greens were definitely more difficult this afternoon when they spiked up quite badly," he said. "But with overnight rain, they'll get softer and better." He went on: "Having seen six-under leading and Nick Faldo on two under, I was aiming to get somewhere in between. So I'm happy."
Montgomerie then explained his play of the 13th. "It's a drive you want to be rid of but we had a long wait on the tee, about 20 minutes," he said. "I hit my three-wood tee-shot into the rough and with 210 yards to the pin and 230 yards to the back, I was thinking about a five iron."
He went on: "But the shape of the Callaway three-wood is quite good at cutting through rough - better than an iron. The ball came out a bit left and just hit a branch of the tree, but it was never going into the water."
As if feeling the need to convince himself, he repeated: "I believe the ball would not have gone into the water." A more accurate assessment of the situation, however, would have been that fortune had favoured the brave.
Indeed that was the nature of yesterday's challenge. It was an occasion for the golfing connoisseur, when a quality course delivered a quality leaderboard. Not that the company should have been beyond the scope of the Irish challengers: but through erratic, indifferent play, they made it so.
