South of Ireland Championship: On a sun-kissed, ice cream sort of day in the sand dunes on the Old Course, it was appropriate that each of the quarter-finals in the 104th South of Ireland Amateur championship should be pretty much bloodless.
Three of the matches finished out in the country - where Darren Crowe, Pat Murray and Jim Carvill secured early wins - and only Brian O'Connor, the youngest of today's four semi-finalists, was required to get within sight of the clubhouse before booking his place.
In this day and age, where bright young things with trendy fashion tastes and booming drives dominate most of the domestic championships, it was refreshing that a mix of the young and the relatively old should negotiate a route into the deciding day's play of the McNamara Builders-sponsored event, where a first-time winner of the championship is guaranteed.
Of the quartet left standing, only Carvill, who earlier this year won the East of Ireland, has won a "major". However, on a day when a gentle breeze caressed the immaculate links, no one could dispute the all-round quality of golf from those left standing.
Crowe, a 24-year-old full-time amateur with professional aspirations, emerged a 4 and 3 winner of his match with Barrie Trainor to set up a semi-final encounter with 34-year-old Murray, a former Irish international, who was a 7 and 5 winner over Kenny McGarry.
In the other quarter-finals, Carvill, now 38 and a former South of Ireland finalist in a previous amateur existence, beat Athenry's Michael Mulryan 6 and 4, while 20-year-old O'Connor, who was runner-up in last month's Irish Youths' championship, showed considerable fortitude to fend off Aaron O'Callaghan to secure a 2 and 1 win.
Crowe showed little mercy in finishing off his match with Trainor with three successive birdies: from two feet on the 13th, from 25 feet on the 14th, and from 20 feet on the 15th. That set up a showdown with Murray, the general manager of Limerick Golf Club, who reached the semi-final here in 1995 only to lose to Jody Fanagan.
"I got out of the blocks well," conceded Murray, who birdied the first three holes and was firmly in control of the match at the turn where he was four-up. By the 13th, where Murray reached the short, 279-yard par four with a rescue club, the match was all but over. When Murray, who has played every South for the past 16 years, rolled his 12-foot eagle putt on to the lip of the hole for a tap-in birdie, it was over.
Carvill's victory was also impressive, although he confessed that he "didn't hit the ball as good as yesterday". Nevertheless, he overwhelmed Mulryan; he was three up by the turn, and cemented his victory with wins at the 10th, where he holed a 10-footer for par, and the 12th.
For the one-time tour professional, his appearances in the respective championships comes with a different mindset. "In the old days, there was a lot of rivalry and I'd be disgusted to lose a match. It's different now, I've a different approach and it wouldn't disgust me to lose," he said.
Deep down, though, that winning instinct is much in evidence, and he has progressed to the semi-final stages without the need to go past the 16th hole.
Ironically, O'Connor, who caddied for Stephen Browne at the tour school last year, harboured ambitions of his own to turn professional only for some poor championship performances - most notably at the West at Easter - to convince him he should return to studying for a different career.
However, since he enrolled to study auctioneering at Dun Laoghaire College, his game has returned and he was the essence of calmness in overcoming 19-year-old O'Callaghan. The decisive moment came when O'Connor made what he called a "miraculous" par on the 15th after pushing his fairway-wood approach into thick rough.
