Bedtimes were missed and eardrums assaulted as the home crowd at Holywood Golf Club watched their boy
AUGUSTA WAS awful but Maryland was magic for the Holywood Golf Club supporters of Rory McIlroy. They roared their approval as they watched their hero play an almost faultless round of golf to take the US Open at the Congressional Country Club.
“C’mon Rory,” they roared at the large TV screen as he scored wonderful birdies or achieved difficult pars. “In the hole!” they shouted, followed by long exhalations of, “Yeeessss!” Later it was, “Here we go, here we go, here we go!” and when his dad Gerry McIlroy appeared on TV from the US it was, “Ger-ee, Ger-ee, Ger-ee!” As for his final shot, send in the ear doctor.
A happy night and early morning. The Masters was forgotten; thoughts turned to what else this 22-year-old might achieve. “Better than Tiger, maybe even than Jack Nicklaus,” they wondered.
It’s rather early to be getting carried away but you could forgive the excitement in his home club. They were reflecting a delight that was all over this island this morning and across the water too as headline writers decided whether he is Irish, Northern Irish, British or all three. No matter.
Holywood is a long way from Maryland but such was the enthusiasm and excitement that Rory must have felt the positive breeze from Co Down propelling him forward.
Young Fergus McIlroy was tearing into a takeaway pizza, as club members waited for his cousin to tee-off more than 3,000 miles away. “I suppose you’ll be sad to miss the final result as you’ll be home snug in your bed by the time Rory comes down the 18th,” this reporter suggested.
“Achh!” he snorted. He omitted the rest of the phrase – as in, “Your Granny!” – but it was clearly understood.
There was no going to bed – neither for 12-year-old Fergus, nor the boisterous crowd that thronged the bar of the golf club. Everyone was up for celebrating this wonderful first major for Rory McIlroy.
There was a little anxiety early on naturally, but when he fired the ball from the first tee with a ferocious whoosh the nerves began to settle. “He’s learned from the Masters,” observed young Fergus, a 20-handicapper who has hopes of emulating his cousin. Knows his stuff. When Rory birdied the first hole the locals cheered to him to the rafters.
Club president Derek Reade said he knew Rory since he was a child, burning up the fairways and astonishing his elders. “He was always so unassuming, he always enjoyed his golf,” he said.
Derek pointed to all the young people around the club including young Fergus. “He’s a great inspiration; Rory talks to them as if he was just one of the lads.” And he recalled too the great sacrifices his parents, Gerry and Josie, paid to ensure that Rory could realise his talent so he could trailblaze his way through the US Open. His father held four jobs, clocking up the occasional 100-hour working weeks, to pay for his golfing education – a commitment repaid many times over by the golfer in terms of finance, emotion and pride.
And as each hole was played last night the crowd in Holywood Golf Club spurred him on rapturously, and when he finished the 18th the cheering could surely be heard in Maryland.
Club professional Stephen Crooks said the manner in which he achieved glory was a portent of what was to come.
“This is the start of something special. He will be world Number One before you know it,” Stephen predicted. And Fergus McIlroy and everyone else in Holywood Golf Club early this morning were in full, happy and loud agreement.
