Wellock's World

The holder of the top spot varies between Muirfield or St Andrews, depending on which rankings you consult, but for my money County Down beats them both into a cocked hat.

Never mind that on the first of the two days we had booked to play it the rain came down in stair-rods from well before dawn and the course remained closed, or that on the second day it blew a gale until shortly before we completed our round.

Never mind either that our errant strokes were blown deep into the scrub, the fact that the acres of gorse were in full bloom at this time of year had to be seen as a prickly bonus.

Even with the famed backdrop of the Mountains of Mourne largely obscured, the course is visually stunning, packed with stimulating holes and provides a tough but fair challenge. Ignore the rumours that it's simply too tough for all but category one golfers - there were no such complaints from any of our mixed bag of enthusiasts.

The rainy day gave me the opportunity to do dome research into England's World Cup qualifying opponents tomorrow, courtesy of the Belfast Telegraph. Monday's main back page headline read: "Stu have been warned, Eriksson."

No doubt Sven will be quaking in his boots at the prospect of taming Stuart Elliott, a former east Belfast window cleaner who has scored 25 League One goals for Hull City this season.

There was also a scoreline reading England 6 Northern Ireland 7, which turned out to be the number of goals scored last weekend by players from the respective sides. England's six all came in the Premiership, while for tomorrow's Old Trafford visitors Elliott bagged two, Warren Feeney hit a hat-trick for Stockport, Andy Kirk scored for Northampton and Keith Gillespie smashed in a stunner for Leicester.

As Newcastle (United) fans will remember, Gillespie stunners come along about once a blue moon, so England will be more concerned about getting past current United star Aaron Hughes, who could have Sunderland's Jeff Whitley alongside him

For those of us amazed that he was retained by Mick McCarthy after his attempt to be clever bamboozled even himself in last season's play-off penalty shoot-out, the prospect of Whitley being involved seems to suggest England should win 6-0, never mind lose 7-6.

CONTINUING the Irish theme, it was quite a weekend for their golfers, although Paul McGinley was mentioned only in the Belfast paper's results service for forcing a play-off with Paul Casey in the European Tour event in China. I guess he must be from the Republic.

The man who was given really big licks was Ulsterman Graeme McDowell, who finished joint second with Vijay Singh in the Bay Hill event in America and qualified for the Masters.

Colin Montgomerie, meanwhile, needs to win in Thailand this weekend to get into the Masters, and while it would be nice to see him there the fact that his challenge faded in China suggests we shouldn't shed too many tears if he doesn't make it.

I hope I'm wrong, but I fear he has as much chance of winning a Major as Tim Henman has of winning Wimbledon.

THEN there was the Irish rugby boys' failure to slay the Welsh dragon, accompanied by the usual injury lament. But it was generally acknowledged that youth and flair had triumphed over an ageing side who remained too conservative.

Wales' improvement throughout the championship was staggering because in their narrow opening win against England there was little to applaud from either side. But by the end the snappy handling at pace by the forwards was almost as admirable as the backs' fluency.

Many of the Welsh team are now candidates for the Lions tour, including flanker Martyn Williams, who would probably have started as understudy to Newcastle's Colin Charvis had the frizzy one been fit.

I was delighted with the hat-trick of another Falcons player, Jamie Noon, for England but I doubt whether it will have done much for his Lions chances as Scotland's tackling was again absolutely woeful.

Published: ??/??/2004