McIlroy wins over toughest crowd in the game
In 1986 at Shinnecock Hills, Greg Norman was heckled by a fan after a double bogey that prompted the yob to call him a choker. The Great White Shark went in search of blood, heading straight for the heckler and challenging him to meet him in the car park afterwards.
At Bethpage in 2002, Sergio Garcia was the victim of merciless heckling from a boisterous and boozed up New York crowd, Vijay Singh copped some flak at Olympia Fields in San Francisco a year later and back in Gotham, Angel Cabrera was distracted by a Spanish-speaking heckler as he took a tee shot at Winged Foot in 2006.
And it was here at Congressional Country Club that Colin Montgomerie’s grumpiness with the Washington DC crowds during the final round of the 1997 US Open sowed the seeds for the Mrs Doubtfire nickname and heckling that followed him like a bad smell at Brookline during the Ryder Cup two years later.
Monty was locked in a battle with Ernie Els on that Sunday with a chance of landing the major his talent unquestionably merited but having missed the 17th green (now the 18th green), and chipped to six feet, he insisted on waiting for the crowds on the then-18th green nearby to fall silent, with inevitable results. He stood there for more than five minutes waiting for the hub-bub to subside, missed his putt, took bogey and Els won by a stroke.
By contrast, Rory McIlroy has been feeling the love at Congressional this week, his great game earning him respect, his charming personality and demeanour over the course of this US Open winning the hearts of spectators and the American media alike.
It had been diluted a little over the first two rounds, despite his dismantling of the course and his rivals over 36 holes but that can be put down to sharing a tee time with the fans’ main object of their affection, Phil Mickelson.
So as McIlroy found fairways, Mickelson was spraying his ball all over the place and consequently diving in and out of the galleries to find it. The crowds loved it and witnesses would have been forgiven for imagining it was Lefty who was charging to 13 under that Friday afternoon rather than McIlroy.
Such is life. Once McIlroy separated himself from Mickelson for the weekend’s play alongside YE Yang, he got to hear just how well liked he really is here. Chants of “Let’s Go Rory!” echoed from tee box to tee box and grandstands rose to their feet in unison as he approached green after green.
“Yeah, it was incredible, the support that our group got out there was fantastic,” McIlroy said, modestly including his Korean playing partner as a recipient of the applause. “It’s nice when you get nearly a standing ovation on every green you walk up onto.”
THERE was also love much closer to the home for the Holywood golfer, who had been enjoying the company of his father Gerry all week, something he admitted he had missed during his traumatic final day at the Masters.
“It’s been so nice to have breakfast with him every morning and just talk about the day ahead, and what’s going to happen,” the 22-year-old said of his dad on Father’s Day as he arrived at the course for his date with destiny yesterday. “We’ve talked about how I have been feeling. In a way I didn’t really have that at Augusta, even if it was over the phone. It’s nice to talk one-on-one with him.
“So it’s just been good to have him here, as he’s always been so positive and it’s nice to have those reassuring words in your ears.”
Parental advice and love backed with the adoration of the crowds. It’s a wonderful mix and at the dawn of a new era, both for Rory McIlroy and golf in general, a reminder that the prodigy from Holywood is more than just a son and no longer just an Irish kid. He’s everybody’s now.
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