West of Ireland Championship: For sure, this was not target golf. Yesterday, as the wind blew in from the North Atlantic, those with survivors' instincts in the West of Ireland Amateur Championship at Co Sligo Golf Club relied on crafting their shots rather than on yardage books. This was a day for imagination, a day for punching and shaping shots and of holing putts when the hard questions were asked.

And nobody exemplified that fortitude better in this Radisson SAS Hotel, Sligo-sponsored championship than Rory McIlroy, the 16-year-old defending champion. He is like a magnet, with the line of parked cars stretching down the hill to the shore road and the crowds following his every move over the sand hills at Rosses Point, testifying to his appeal.

As the first two rounds of matchplay dragged on from dawn to dusk, McIlroy didn't disappoint. But he required real resilience to retain a grip, for now, on his title. In the morning's first round, McIlroy was required to birdie the second tie hole to defeat Ryan Boal at the 20th, while in the afternoon he advanced with a 2 and 1 win over Sean Doherty.

"The putts sort of saved me," remarked McIlroy of his day's work. "It's difficult to keep your focus all the way round, on every shot."

Still, he has advanced to the last 16, and the match with Boal - a tough competitor - could yet stand to him. Three-up at the turn, at which stage he was five-under, McIlroy lost the 10th, 11th and 12th and went one down when losing the 15th, where he was bunkered.

In such times, a player's true character emerges. On the 17th, one of the great holes in matchplay golf, the Holywood teenager rolled in an 18-footer for par to go all square. Then, on the 18th, Boal's majestic approach to six inches was conceded, which left McIlroy with a 10-footer for birdie to stay alive. With all the steeliness of youth, he holed it. And then went on to win at the 20th, thanks to a four-foot birdie putt.

The second round match with Doherty lacked such drama. McIlroy was three-up after 10 holes, only losing the 14th when he put his drive into the ditch down the left of the fairway. McIlroy's tee-shot to the 16th finished in a greenside bunker, but his recovery from the sand finished 10 feet from the hole.

Again, McIlroy's putter stayed hot. He finished the match with a par on the 17th to book a third-round encounter with Thomas O'Neill.

O'Neill, a 21-year-old who works in the golf shop at Rathsallagh and who is coached by Brendan McDaid, described himself as "gritty" after a one hole win over Irish international Mark Campbell in the second round.

To make the matchplay phase, O'Neill finished birdie-par-birdie in Saturday's second round of strokeplay to scrape in, and then outlasted local player Gary McDermott yesterday morning, winning by one hole.

In taking Campbell's scalp, O'Neill again showed resilience. He was three-up after 13 holes, but lost three holes in a row, only to halt Campbell's momentum by holing a six-footer for a winning par on the 17th to regain the advantage. A good up-and-down for par on the last ensured O'Neill's advancement.

Greg Bowden, an Irish international, was forced to go to the 21st in his second-round match with Stephen Moloney to set up a third-round encounter with the impressive Séamus Power, the current Irish Youths' champion.

English County Champions' winner David Horsey progressed with a comfortable 5 and 4 win over Johnny Harding.