What started as a father-son weekend away ended with the stuff of dreams for one golf-mad Cork boy who found himself signing autographs for the World No 1 Rory McIlroy.

From winning smiles to anger management, Rory McIlroy’s amazing run of form hit a speed bump at Wentworth yesterday, but not so bad as to send his BMW PGA Championship title defence off course.

PANIC set in at the back of the hastily-arranged press conference on the ground floor of Niketown.