Enjoying the moment key to Smyth's success

HE'S 49-years-old, is heading rapidly towards life on the senior's tour, suffers from a sore back, still insists he's here simply to make the cut, yet Des Smyth is just one stroke off the lead after the first round of the 131st Open Championship.

The three other Irish golfers in the field may have been a little miffed that a man several years their senior and supposedly past his best had upstaged them but Padraig Harrington on 69, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke, both on 72, were united in their delight at what Smyth had achieved in what is likely to be his last Open.

“Fantastic” was just one of the adjectives they used to describe their admiration for an outstanding golfer and one of the game’s great gentlemen. Smyth made light of a bogey at the first to go on and shoot 68 and finish just one stroke off the lead held by Swede Carl Petterson and two Americans, reigning US PGA champion David Toms and Duffy Waldorf.