GUI bask in reflected glory

ROLLO McCLURE remembers the first time he saw Rory McIlroy swing a club.

It was a Barton Shield event at Knock Golf Club outside Belfast and the newly-minted US Open champion was just 12 years of age when the Golf Union of Ireland’s current treasurer glanced across to the ninth.

“I looked back at this slip of a lad who played the most perfect approach to the green and of course it turned out it was Rory,” said McClure, whose home club of Malone is just 10 minutes or so down the road from Holywood.