Many had a tale to tell of a particularly unforgiving bunker, of waist-high rough that made finding, let alone playing, their ball impossible. Nevertheless, this baptism of fire put pressure on players to settle down and find their rhythm. There were stories of balls bouncing off walls, golf trolleys falling into bunkers, balls being fired into bracken directly in front of the tee….But there were some great shots as well. Or, given the calibre of golfers entering this year's event, we must at least assume there were.

"I could have done without the wind on the first round. The rough was really unfair as well, far too long and wet. The rain didn't help either. The second course really didn't favour my game, and some of the greens weren't cut right and didn't run true. And the three lost balls were just unlucky shots. They shouldn't place golf courses so close to beaches…seagulls are not good for the concentration. I could have done much better on the Sunday if I'd had a chance to walk the course first. The tees were too far back, sometimes you couldn't even see the flag over the rise of a hill. The handicaps were unfair as well. I'll be back next year, but only if they sort all this out. It's not like a real tournament if decent players don't stand a chance". (Name withheld)

At the lunch break the clubhouse was tense with excitement as the leader board gradually took shape. Scores at the top were quite tight, but the old hands were still surprised to find the leader was the newcomer Maclean, who had valiantly fought off a fuzzy head from a alcoholic binge with his sports psychologist the previous evening to steady his pre-match nerves, and managed to stage a tremendous debut performance.

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