McElhinney well beaten in day of upsets

IT isn't easy for players or spectators when the weather is as unwelcoming as it has been at Lahinch over the past few days.

Fortunately, amateur golf is an activity where little or nothing dampens the enthusiasm of those involved and so it has proved as the Irish Shell sponsored South of Ireland reached the last 16 stage last night.

As always, shocks and surprises were the order of the day with current European and Irish Close champion Brian McElhinney falling in the morning by a whopping 5 and 4 to Mark Ryan, who himself won the West of Ireland title in 2003. As if to demonstrate more than a little forcibly that nothing can be taken for granted in this, the oldest of the provincial championships, Ryan was then himself comprehensively removed by Pat Lyons of Cork, a native of Ennis and a man with an intimate knowledge of the great West Clare links.