They put to sea like intrepid adventurers, creating their own piece of sporting history. These were the competitors in the inaugural Great North Links Challenge, the first Irish golf event to be played on a combination of courses from both sides of the border.

Granted, the seafaring element was a modest one in that it involved only the short crossing of Lough Foyle from Greencastle to Magilligan Point. Yet it added significantly to the pioneering feel of an exercise that embraced Ballyliffin, Portstewart and Royal Portrush golf clubs.

Held last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, it was the brainchild of John Farren, the secretary/manager of Ballyliffin, who received enthusiastic support from his counterparts in the other two clubs when he floated the idea only six months ago. For their first effort, they attracted no fewer than 78 teams of four players, making 312 in all. And they came from all parts of these islands.

Before boarding the ferry, Jim McClenaghan, head of the operating company, was more than happy to dispense some local knowledge. The current service began as recently as 2002 through the co-operation of Donegal County Council and Limavady Borough Council, but McClenaghan, a big, jolly man, remembered earlier cross-border excursions on this stretch of water, only a quarter of a mile from open sea.

"They did it in rowing boats before my time," he said. "Then came open fishing boats, loaded down with all kinds of stuff. There was some desperate smuggling in these parts -- both ways. With the ferry," he added, "we can do the one-mile crossing in 12 minutes which saves about 40 minutes by road through Derry, and in the seven years up to now, 1.97 million people have used the ferry, many of them golfers."

Typically resourceful, golfers were quick to absorb the crossing schedules from either side, though a couple of Dubliners got caught on Thursday evening when they discovered at Portstewart that the last ferry to Donegal had left at 6.15. The non-drinking driver had done his bit, but separating his passengers from that extra pint for the road, became a challenge too far.

On Wednesday at Ballyliffin, where competitors faced a searching examination on the splendid Glashedy Links, I met with a team of four English challengers from the Purley Downs club in south London. Maurice Friel, the Ballyliffin captain of two years ago, had been a member of Purley Downs for 20 years before returning to Donegal. And he told former clubmates about the event.

"This is great value," said nine-handicapper Peter Blok of the entrance fee of €150 per player. "You'd pay more than £100 at the leading Lancashire courses like Birkdale, Hillside or Formby. And it's a wonderful opportunity for us to play outstanding links courses that we haven't seen before."

Farren was sure he had a good product and was understandably pleased at the response. "Links courses are at their peak right now and I felt it was a good way to stimulate some profitable, end-of-season activity," he said.

Ballyliffin's green fee income is down 30 per cent while the Northern Ireland clubs suffered less severely with a 20 per cent drop at Portrush and 15 per cent at Portstewart. "I look on our three clubs as the roof of Ireland and we're delighted to do business together," said Michael Moss, the long-time secretary/manager of Portstewart where a new clubhouse of 26,500 square feet, was opened last April at a cost of £4m. Portrush, for their part, have invested £3m in upgrading their course over the last few years and can now boast an overall yardage of 7,143 off the back tees. All of which indicated admirable optimism in these grim, straitened times. "It's a straight, three-way split between the three clubs," said Farren, who is looking to a bigger tournament next year, with a target of more than 100 teams.

Meanwhile, the golfers were revelling in the challenge. On Wednesday evening, I watched the team of Alan Creighton and Alan Whyte of Naas GC, Marty Healy from Ardglass and Conor Swail from Roganstown complete their opening day on Glashedy's 18th. Whyte, a six-handicapper, had reason to be very pleased with 39 points -- three-over par gross -- despite a double-bogey six on the 12th, while Healy had 40 points off 15.

Under the team format of the best three cards out of four, they took the first day's prize comfortably on 113, helped by a 34 from Creighton. "It's amazing the way golfers get together," said Swail, an international show-jumper who competed in the Aga Khan Trophy two years ago. "Marty's a long-time friend of mine and the Naas connection comes from Alan (Creighton) whom I know through the bloodstock industry."

Others had much closer ties. Like Padraig Duffy and his three sons, Feighlim, Bevan and Eoghan, and Danny O'Brien and his sons, Michael, Diarmuid and Shane.

Out on Ballyliffin on Thursday morning, with Binnion headland, Glashedy Rock and Malin Head dominating the view, I came across the most elite fourball in the tournament. East of Ireland champion Paul Cutler, off plus 3, headed a quartet which also included fellow international Alan Dunbar (plus 3), Kenny McGarry (plus 2) and four-handicapper Gary McGrotty of Bandon. With the irreverence of youth, they wore black woolly hats embroidered with a legend which rhymed with bankers on tour.

"Off my handicap, this format is very difficult, so we're treating it as a bit of fun," said Cutler. When I told him that Pádraig Harrington had never won a net prize at Stackstown, he recalled winning one at Portstewart, his home club, about five years ago. Though he couldn't match the hole-in-one by Ossie Colhoun of Newtownstewart on the short 14th, Cutler did enough to take the gross prize for Thursday at Ballyliffin with 35 points -- one-over par. I didn't dare remind him that the Glashedy course-record was a 66 by Andrew Coltart in the North West of Ireland Open in 2002.

Soon it was time to head for the ferry, but not before a trip to the mysteriously-named Five-Finger Strand and Doagh Island, which is actually a promontory. There, I had a tour of the deeply evocative Famine Village, established in 1997 to mark the 150th anniversary of the disaster. They had 40,000 visitors last summer and Majella Doherty, the owner's sister, talked about having lived in one of the display thatched cottages until 1983.

Later, on arrival at Magilligan, we drove past the prison with its bleak, forbidding facade. As if reading my thoughts, Farren lightened the mood by remarking: "The real pity of the place is that it stands on wonderful linksland."

At Portrush, there were many chastened souls licking their wounds after an unavailing battle with its notorious rough. Among them was a group from Ballybunion led by Mike Moriarty, who is also a member of Ballyliffin. As keen students of links terrain, Mike and his friends talked of the different texture of the Portrush grasses. And how much they admired the variety of the holes. Then there was the contrast of the shallow duneland of Ballyliffin with the towering dunes of Portstewart, with Portrush offering a mixture of both in terms of changes in elevation.

By late afternoon, we had progressed to Portstewart, which celebrated the rebirth of its course in 1992, when Gary Murphy captured the Irish Close Championship there. Moss explained that the stunning clubhouse was actually serving the local community for functions, in the absence of hotels in the area.

As I was leaving, I met Alan Whyte looking somewhat downcast. Later I was to learn that the Ballyliffin team of Alan Hunter (42 off 13), George Fleming (40 off 12) and Hugh Hunter (39 off 13), had just returned the staggering score of 121 at Portstewart.

Yet they lacked the consistency for overall victory which went after a wet and wild Friday to the Portsalon quartet of Johnny Shields (2), Hugh Coll (15), Paul McGinley (17) and Patrick Crerand (19) on 311 points, an average of 34.6 for the nine scoring cards. As it happened, Whyte's team finished third and the leading individual was John McCaughan of Ballybofey with 105 points.

On to the ferry back to Greencastle, I was invited onto the bridge by skipper Tony Coyle, Jim McClenaghan's son-in-law. Close by him was Dan Brown's latest offering, The Last Symbol. What did he think of it? "I'm three-quarters way through and it's very predictable," he replied. And I thought of The Great North challengers who would have dearly wished that golf could be that way.

Sunday Independent