"I can't believe these guys," said the spectator, speaking to his friend by the side of the 13th fairway. "Not only do they swing the club so slowly, but they all seem to be six feet nine inches tall and weigh about eight stone."

Just then Christy O'Connor Jnr walked down the fairway and provided the perfect contradiction. He ain't no Michael Jordan, that's for sure, but, as he proved yesterday, O'Connor - battle-hardened by 30 years on the European Tour and sharpened by a lucrative spell on the US Seniors circuit this past couple of years - can still play a bit.

Yesterday, the man was inspired. On Wednesday evening, he perched on the slope in front of the R & A clubhouse to get a bird's eye view of the Past Champions match and watched as Sam Snead warmed up by bending over and touching his toes three times. "If I tried that, I'd keel over," said O'Connor, adding: "but that exhibition really touched me. All those Open champions, one after another. I felt I was in heaven.

"Anyone who comes here, in the year 2000 to play a British Open at St Andrews, is extremely lucky. What more is there in golf? I'm not a traditionalist by any means, but it means so much to me to be playing in this tournament this week."

Unlike some of the participants in that exhibition of past champions, O'Connor is here for the serious business of competing. He played his first British Open here in 1970 (when he missed the cut after rounds of 76 and 79) and, 30 years on, it was as if he had matured with age such was the sweetness with which he struck the ball.

"It's the first time in my life I actually enjoyed a game of golf," he insisted. "You always hear people saying, `enjoy yourself and you'll play well', but I could never understand that statement. To me, it's bloody hard work, always has been. Every time, my whole life. But today it was just great. I tried to keep my ears closed and to focus but I could hear Irish accents, even Galway accents, all the way around. Ah, it was just great."

It wasn't just the shouts of support, but the fact that he was playing darn good golf too that uplifted O'Connor. And, although he had four birdies, it was a rescue shot out of the notorious Hell bunker on the 14th that probably gave him most pleasure.

The 14th is a 581-yard par five and O'Connor hit his drive down the middle. On any other day, he'd have asked his son Nigel - acting as caddie - for a three-wood for his next shot. But the current British Seniors champion has opted to leave such a club out of his bag this week due to the tightness of the fairways. Instead, he decided to go with a five-wood and, faced with a carry of 218 yards to clear Hell, he needed to hit it properly. He thinned it, and cries of "fly" went unanswered, and the ball finished up in the trap less than three yards from the massive face.

"I had two options," he admitted afterwards, "either to play out sideways into the rough, or to go for it." He went for it, splashing a lob wedge recovery to the front of the green. "It was risky, a real gamble, and if it didn't come off I'd still be there." He escaped with a par five, a result he called "a magnificent par".

Although he dropped a shot on the Road Hole - the 17th - after his five-iron approach stopped short of the green and he failed to get up and down, O'Connor was "thrilled" with his opening round 69. "Some people claim that we're only playing pitch and putt courses on the Seniors Tour, but we're not. And playing in the States has definitely sharpened my game and made me more competitive.

"Now, if I can just go out tomorrow and shoot a 65 and blow everyone away . . .!"