GOLF: The little boy in the grandstand by the 18th green didn't know what to do. Every time the golfer threw the ball up to him, it bounced back down the steps.

Finally, it dawned on the youngster that the player actually wanted him to keep the ball; and, when the realisation hit home, the ball was gratefully pocketed and the boy had his first souvenir of the Murphy's Irish Open at Fota Island, the last time the national championship will be sponsored by the brewing company.

If it ever entered Richie Coughlan's mind that the lowest ebb a professional golfer can encounter is when the offering of a ball is rejected, even innocently, he didn't show it. Coughlan, who made his bed on the US Tour, only to discover it contains as many thorns as rose petals, is working with a sports psychologist and his mindset these days is all about the power of positive thinking.

For a player who has endured his share of bad luck, that is no bad thing. When he lost his US Tour card in 1998, it was effectively by one putt - on the final green of the final tournament that he played. When he lost his US Tour card last year, it was after missing much of the season through a rib injury sustained in a freakish manner when he stooped to pick up his luggage bag from an elevator.

So it is that the former Walker Cup player from Birr is trying to rid himself of all negative vibes.

"I think now I have to be so supremely positive about every single shot I play," remarked Coughlan, who is working with Bob Winters, one of the mind gurus who frequent tournaments. "I've got to play every shot with total confidence and be ready to play, not to be thinking about the next hole or about what shot you played back there."

Coughlan is here at Fota Island on a sponsor's invitation, and was one of the first players to check in. Yesterday, he played a full practice round with Damien Mooney and saw considerable improvements to the course since the last occasion he played it, in the Irish amateur strokeplay in 1996.

"I'm delighted to be home. I have worked hard on my game, so I am ready. The course is as fair as you can possibly make it. It's perfect, and every one of the greens has exactly the same consistency."

The invitation to play this week is one that Coughlan - who insists the grant aid from Team Ireland, through the Irish Sports Council, has been of major assistance to him in keeping his professional aspirations alive - is determined to put to good use, especially as it gives him the chance to show his true capabilities on home terrain in his own championship. "Growing up, playing in the Irish Open was what any young player dreamed of," he said.

This season, Coughlan's outings have been mainly on the Buy.Com Tour, the secondary tour in the United States. He got a medical exemption to play in five tournaments on what he calls "the big tour", but so far has only played four. However, a technicality means that he is entitled to play on the Buy.Com circuit until he is given his fifth and final exemption. "If you put two and two together, you can see that I am basically leaving my very last one on tour until the end," he remarked.

When you ask Coughlan about his current form, he admits to being "frustrated". On his last outing, in the Canada PGA championship, he had 12 birdies in 34 holes. The other two holes, though, contributed a seven and a nine on par fours.

"It was probably a mixture of bad decision and getting some really bad luck. When I took nine, I just felt like this game is torture - but I know that you have to put such things out of your mind."

He added: "I think sometimes I try too hard and expect too much. I guess that, lately, I have been leaving a golf course, no matter what I shoot, whether I am under par or even or whatever, and I am always disappointed. I feel that I have thrown away two or three shots instead of getting the absolute maximum out of myself.

"But that is just the way the year has been going. I have actually played a lot of good golf. I am staying fit, running and doing gym work, and am just trying to get something going. I have to play one shot which turns into a round which turns into a tournament which turns into a season."

Back in the autumn of 1997, when Coughlan succeeded in winning his tour cards in both Europe and the United States for 1998, but choose to put all his eggs into the American basket, he was confident and ambitious.

"I would never ever knock the Europe Tour, because I think it is a great tour, but I had a chance to play on the best tour in the world I suppose, the US Tour, and I would never take it back." As the song goes, he has no regrets.

"I still think I am a better player now that I was back then. Of course, there's been a few knocks along the way. But, if I can just believe again that I can compete, and just go out there and just do it, rather than keeping myself in a corner and wondering what's going to happen, then I know what I can do."

Coughlan prepared for his first Irish Open in three years by returning home from the US last week and spending a couple of days at Lahinch and some time practising in Birr. "I have got the invite, and I am very grateful to Murphy's for it, now it is a matter of doing the best that I can," he said.