Rafferty outguns the young guns

Former European No 1 Ronan Rafferty gave us some food for thought following his performance on the third tier Europro Tour this week.

The 45-year old from Warrenpoint hasn’t played a European Tour event since rounds of 83 and 89 left him propping up the field in the 2007 Volvo Masters.

The Partypoker.com International Open is not the Volvo Masters and Fairmont St Andrews is certainly no Valderrama.

But class is obviously permanent because Rafferty was the joint best Irishman alongside Cork’s Michael Collins in a share of ninth place on two over.

This begs the question: Are some of our young golfers dreaming the impossible dream?

Of the ten Irish players in action in Scotland this week, all bar Rafferty went to the first stage of the Q-School last month.

Of those, only Collins managed to make it to stage two. So what does the future hold for the rest? 

There is no doubt that they are all fine players but many have been labouring in the netherworld of the mini tours for too long now. 

Perhaps they would beat Rafferty week in and week out. But they didn't do it this week.