Thomas is born again

ON Wednesday, Thomas Bjorn talked about getting back on the horse as quickly as possible after his fall at the 16th in the final round of the British Open.

He claimed it didn’t matter what he scored in the Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock, the important thing was to get back into action as soon as possible.

Yesterday, he did so in a manner better than either he or anybody else had good reason to expect. The Dane romped in with an almost effortless eight under par 64, a new mark for the altered course and proof, if such were needed, that his game remains in great condition. Ironically, Bjorn completely dominated the Portmarnock bunkers, getting up and down for par from three of the four he visited and holing out from twenty yards at the other!

“As I walked off that green, I said to my partners Michael [Campbell] and Pádraig [Harrington], if ever there was a shot that came five days too late, that was it,” Bjorn said with a rueful smile. “I am a strong believer in myself as a bunker player and those things happen in majors. That’s why it’s tough to win them. I had another think about 16 at Royal St Georges last night and it’s not the bunker shots that bothered me too much, it’s that I was in there in the first place. If you hit a good shot, you shouldn’t be there. I hit a decent shot but not a great shot.”

Bjorn goes into his second round this afternoon two ahead of Campbell and three better off than former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst, now showing a welcome return to form after a long period in the wilderness. Pádraig Harrington remains Ireland’s best bet to keep the title at home for the first time in 21 years after an encouraging opening round of 69 but what most will hope for is a distinct improvement in the weather.

It was quite good when Bjorn and company were out yesterday morning but torrential rain fell for much of the afternoon and evening, something the decent first day crowds could well have done without. And while the players who had to battle with the discomfort would probably take some convincing of this, the fact is that the course will almost certainly play even easier through the week-end as a consequence.

Much of the fire will have been drawn from the fairways and the greens will be unusually receptive. If the wind drops, Portmarnock could be at the mercy of the pros and most especially the bang-in-form Bjorn.

“I probably haven’t walked off the golf course ever in my life feeling as happy as I am today,” he glowed. “I am proud of what I did out there. A lot of credit to both Michael and Pádraig for being supportive and also doing everything with a smile. That’s probably what I needed. I holed a putt on the first green and was back in the swing of things. I’ve had a lot of support from my caddy Billy Foster, my sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout and my coach Bob Torrance over the past few days and that’s meant a lot to me.

“I got a lot of support out there. I am playing this week with New Zealand’s finest player and definitely the best player to come out of Ireland for a very long time. He’s going to get more support than anybody else but the crowds were very fair to me, very supportive and that’s what you need. In this country, they know too much about the game to have a dig at you.

“This is my first time to play Portmarnock. We talked about it on the course today and are conscious that we play on British Open courses that are some of the finest links in the world. I can see only one that is up with this one and that’s Birkdale. This is the fairest links I’ve ever played. You can’t create trouble on this course unless you are looking for it. In the pro-am yesterday, I thought anybody breaking 75 would be doing tremendously well and you come out today and it’s not playing very long, the conditions are good and the scoring goes low. It played short today but it was brutal yesterday. Golfing wise, it wasn’t the finest round I’ve played but it’s one of those rounds that’s going to mean the most to me.”

There was a nice touch of irony in the fact that Michael Campbell knows more than a little about being in position to win an Open Championship and not taking the chance. He led by one going into the final round at St Andrews in 1995 but fell away over the closing eighteen.

“I didn’t have a three shot lead like Thomas but he could see we were on the same wavelength,” said the New Zealander who now seems to be finding some decent form having had a very poor season to date, most notably in the US.

“I think that helped a little. I had great sympathy for him on Sunday. He holed a bunker shot today and if that had happened at the 16th, he was home and hosed. We spoke about it during the round and it is not the end of his life. It’s only a game.”

Campbell, of course, knows what it is to win in Ireland after limping home in last year’s European Open, thanks largely to a last hole blunder by Harrington. “I don’t know what it is about Ireland that brings out the best in me, perhaps it’s all the Guinness,” he quipped. “Today was a prime example that my game is coming back.

“This was fairer than last week. The landing areas are flat and it was nice to shoot a good score before the wind blew. I was being towed in Thomas’s slipstream. I’m not surprised he played so well. When you are riding on the crest of a wave of confidence, you ride it for a while before you drop down.”

Harrington, for his part, could only look on in admiration while also putting together a decent round. He ‘thanked’ his partners for ‘making him look so bad’ but in truth they all played well. 64, 66, 69 represents 17 under par in the one match. It certainly bodes well for the next three days.