O’Sullivan in positive frame of mind for Irish Seniors

GIVEN the extremely poor record of the home players in the Irish Open on the regular tour, one might have thought our contingent on the seniors circuit would be similarly pressurised when it came to their own national championship.

However, Denis O'Sullivan, one of the leading contenders for the 330,000 AIB Irish Seniors Open beginning today at the magnificent Adare Hotel and Golf Resort in Co Limerick, doesn't see things in that light.

O'Sullivan has taken to life as a professional like a duck to water over the past five years during which he has accumulated 560,000 in prize money and won five tournaments.

"Naturally, I would love to win an Irish Seniors Open but to me, it's just another tournament," he insists. "I don't think there will be more pressure than in any other event. But of course it's one I'm really looking forward to and enjoying. You don't find too many places like this on tour. Adare is by far the best golf course we will play this year and the best conditioned. All the guys were elated when they heard we were coming back."

Many an eyebrow was raised when O'Sullivan took the plunge and joined the professional ranks on passing his 50th birthday back in 1997. But he put the Doubting Thomases firmly in their box by finishing ninth on the money list in '98. He slipped to 33rd in his second season but then hit the high spots towards the end of 2000 when he captured the Senior Tournament of Champions and the Seniors Tour Championship in successive weeks to come home 3rd in the money list. He went on to claim the Palmerston Trophy and the Scandinavian International in 2001 (12th on the order of merit) and the Tunisian Open in 2002, when he finished 9th on tour.

"The pros used to call me the amateur at the start but when I won, that was the end of that," he says with apparent satisfaction.

"It's like a club, really, and winning makes it easier. You know you've won and know that you can win again. I don't worry about it. I go out and I play and if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. I've always been inclined to change things but particularly this year I've been trying to get my takeaway a little better."

Denis continues to work with Monkstown professional Batt Murphy while pointing out he also hits a huge number of balls on his own. He is proud to be tournament professional at the Ring of Kerry club while his contract with Ping means he is playing with the very best equipment.

I know of few guys who love their golf more and there is no doubt his burning desire to play as well as he can combined with high fitness levels and a keen competitive edge are among the reasons why he is able to look some of Europe's greatest of the 60s, 70s and 80s straight in the eye. Even he admits, though, he tires a little of all the travel involved on a tour that started the year in the Caribbean, is now in Ireland and will continue on through places like Belgium, Jersey, Switzerland, Monte Carlo, Tunisia, Portugal and, of course, England, Scotland and Wales.

"Travelling and staying in hotels is tough," he agrees. "Everybody thinks you're having a ball but it's a job and you have to work at it. But I just love competitive golf, I love practice and I love trying to get better and if the day ever came and I got REALLY good, I'm not sure I'd like that. I feel I'm improving a lot; my striking is definitely getting better, I can hit golf shots better than I ever could before and I've just got to translate that into score."

He manages to do so on a regular basis and if his current form is a reliable yardstick, great things are just around the corner.

Denis shot 66 in Wednesday's pro-am at Adare and was so at ease in himself he described it as "a walk in the park.

"That's the way you should be. It's what Pádraig Harrington is trying to achieve. I sat down and talked to him in Barbados a few weeks back. Guys were asking what he was thinking when he stood on the tee. But he said, I don't want to think, I just want to swing the club.

"The attitude I had in the pro-am is the attitude I would like to have in the real thing that it doesn't really matter a huge amount, that you just go out and do it," he said.

O'Sullivan's self belief is another factor contributing handsomely to his success. "I don't have any doubt that I'm going to win a few times this year. I'm playing well enough."