Gary Silcock packed a sense of humour and six golf balls into his golf bag yesterday prior to the second round of the Irish PGA Championship yesterday.
It was a close run thing to discern which might go first, his ability to smile or the two sleeves.
Not alone is the Scot director of golf at this week's PGA National tournament venue, Palmerstown Stud, but he is also a professional golfer and competing in the event. There would have been a certain amount of pressure laced with pride in his efforts to acquit himself capably or face a ribbing.
An opening 80 would have been disappointing but when he stepped off the ninth green during yesterday's second round having taken 50 shots (14 over the card) to the turn he might have been seriously miffed. The situation was compounded on the 13th hole when he ran up another treble bogey, losing a ball in the process. It was the fifth gobbled up by the course.
The dynamics were simple: five holes to play one golf ball left in the bag, risk having the initials DQ as an addendum to his name on the scoreboard.
Now that's pressure. Not content to nurse it home, Silcock went for the par five, 14th, in two shots, hitting the green with a five-iron and holing the putt for eagle. A six-foot putt on the home green for par, allowed him to break 90 by a single stroke.
"I didn't really have a swing thought for the past two days but when I got down to the last ball it gave me a real focus," he smiled. "I'd normally only use one ball in a round, two if I scuffed one of them."
At the other end of the leaderboard joint overnight leader Padraig Harrington continued his measured progress in the tournament with a 70, for a three-under total and the outright lead or the tournament. Keen to hone his competitive instincts the Dubliner conceded that he was "still looking for a clear mind".
"(I'm) thinking too much over the shot, too many thoughts. That's a question of focus. It's only when you play competitive (golf) that you can see where problems are and resolve them."
He's reasonably happy with his game and that was evident in the more favourable conditions - a light breeze and mottled blue sky - that enveloped the Christy O'Connor Jnr-designed PGA National course. He hit several exquisite iron shots and his short game wasn't too shabby either as he demonstrated when chipping in on the 16th.
Cathal Barry, who had shared the overnight lead, managed a 75, to drop to two over for the tournament. There were several familiar faces as Harrington's closest pursuers, notably European Tour players Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie. McGrane shot a superb blemish-free, four-under 68, the best round of the tournament to date.
Birdies at the eighth, the 10th (he holed a bunker shot from 15 yards), 14th and 17th saw him move to two under for the tournament. He appeared to suffer a poor contact on his second shot to the 18th from the middle of the fairway - arguably hampered by an outside agency on or near the ball - that ended up in a greenside bunker. His sand shot came to rest two feet from pin and he duly holed out.
He's looking forward to squaring off against Harrington, although he did add the rider that he'd be concentrating on mastering what is a difficult golf course rather than being overly focused on his playing partner. Lawrie carded a 71, former tour player Stephen Hamill an excellent 69 and Francis Howley 70 to share the level par mark of 144, and lie three shots off the lead.
The 39-year-old Hamill was a runner-up in this tournament in 1997 to Paul McGinley when the tournament was staged at Fota Island. The main casualty in terms of the cut was the man who finished second to Harrington last year, Philip Walton, who suffered undue misfortune to accompany a few wayward shots.
