Galleries get glimpse of bright future among stars
Basking in glorious sunshine, the central characters of yesterday’s play, the Irish players, lined up to a man to perform in front of an appreciative audience. Some like McIlroy, McDowell, Harrington and Clarke were superstars while others were unheralded amateurs, simply trying to make a name for themselves.
The beauty of golf is that there is no script, and never was that more obvious than yesterday. You see everyone anticipated McIlroy being in the shake-up, and having declared his intention earlier in the week to represent Ireland in the forthcoming Olympics, it was noticeable how much more relaxed he was.
Yesterday he endeared himself to everyone, no sloppy and silly play but marvellous entertainment for the thousands who turned up by shooting a 69 which included six birdies, an eagle as well as a double bogey and four bogeys.
In all my years of golf I have never seen someone of the pedigree of McIlroy being so wasteful on a golf course, but rather than switching off, his play was captivating. Much like a volcano, it was both destructive and yet beautiful.
Graeme McDowell did what Graeme does best yesterday. A 68 on Thursday gave him a chance to be competitive but yesterday he made that opportunity count. From the off he looked focused, homing in on every opportunity to climb the leaderboard. He is now firmly in contention to win his first Irish Open title and much like a dog with a bone, he is not going to make things easy for any of his fellow competitors.
As for Pádraig Harrington, he is still a big force. Written off in recent years, he has hung tough, gamely climbing a greasy ladder, smiling through the turmoil. Yesterday, his face showed many of the signs of the tough road that he has travelled, his perennial smile now almost a thing of the past.
This year Harrington has been more competitive, but he still has to put four competitive rounds together. Simple as that sounds, it hasn’t been achievable but he’s close, real close. Personally, I have been very impressed with the technical aspects of his game, given that he is quite obviously short on confidence. It is not easy playing in an Irish Open if you are Irish. There is a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation and everyone wants a piece of you.
For Pádraig, the worst possible draw for the week was probably to play with someone like McIlroy.
Much as Harrington is game, being paired with McIlroy is guaranteed to attract almost too much attention for someone short on confidence. The distraction of frenetic galleries, always seeking another vantage point and cameras going off at the wrong time, would not have been welcome. However, it was Harrington who dominated his more illustrious rival over the past couple of days. That will have given him great confidence. He can still play and this weekend he must continue to believe.
Pádraig will be well aware of the fantastic progress made yesterday by one of his golf scholarship students at NUI Maynooth, Gary Hurley. Just four years ago he was given the opportunity to participate in the Irish Open Pro-Am with McDowell and how wonderful it is to see him here this week living the dream.
Sixty-six yesterday represented the best score by any Irishman. It seems that Ireland’s reservoir of richly talented players shows no signs of drying up.
