Trio have work to do

Winning any golf tournament is primarily about attitude and momentum given you are a player of McIlroy, Clarke or McGinley’s calibre.

The three have notched numerous victories but all would dearly love to add their first Irish Open title to that tally. So the priority yesterday for all of them was to start fast, to quickly eliminate any possibilities of missing the cut and to build a score good enough to compete for the title over the weekend.

The weather early in the morning suggested this was indeed possible and, encouragingly, they all got good starts, all at least a couple under for their rounds over the opening holes. The cut it seemed was no longer an issue and more importantly they all had built up a head of steam.

Yet that low score never materialised for any of them, much to the frustration of their many fans both on and off the course — 69s and a 70, of course, are good scores any day but in terms of keeping them in contention the scores were at least a couple of shots too high.

That might sound harsh, but the reality is that unless there is a significant change in the weather conditions over the coming days, all of them will now need to shoot one or even two exceptionally good rounds in order to win. That won’t happen unless they take their games to a new level.

So, what can they do to ignite their challenge? First and foremost they will need to putt exceptionally well. That may well mean taking less borrow on some of their lines and putting more aggressively. They will need to prepare themselves mentally to hole out anything running past the hole.

In terms of the course itself, they are all very fortunate they know the course inside out from their amateur days. They need to maximise that knowledge now by dominating the par fives and making the most of the short approach shots on the par fours. Too often yesterday, all three were guilty of not taking on approach shots that were required to get the ball close to the hole.

For example, on several occasions we watched McIlroy hit hard wedge shots into par fours when in fact a more controlled trajectory with another club would probably have yielded better results.

The same can be said of McGinley, who will probably readily admit to his own stupidity in dropping a shot on his last hole when he should have been giving himself a very short birdie opportunity.

Contrast that then with the effort of Pádraig Harrington, who played quite sublimely. Here was a man slowly climbing his way back to his very best form. Yesterday was his opportunity to further build on his solid start on Thursday. That was accomplished in some style but it was the way in which it was achieved that was most impressive.

From the start he meticulously plotted his way around the course with a level of brilliance I have not seen from him for some time, executing the right shots at the right time.

As a result he gave himself an abundance of birdie opportunities. Should he maintain this form over the next couple of days then I can only see one winner of this event.

You just have to admire Graeme McDowell’s mental fortitude. Despite a poor start which left him in serious danger of missing the cut, it was quite apparent he was in no mood to miss out on the weekend’s festivities. He may not be playing at his very best but he embraces every challenge thrown against him.

For the tournament’s sake it’s great that all four of our Major champions have made the cut. Hopefully, all the home contingent will excel over the weekend.

An Irish winner would be the icing on the cake, but either way we will have a party.