Home stars shout praises of Portrush on special weekend

You only have to listen to the emotion in Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell’s voices when they talk about the Irish Open arriving in Royal Portrush to understand that this week is about much more than a golf tournament.

The sell-out crowds for all four rounds as well as the remarkable figure of 14,225 spectators for yesterday’s Pro-Am, indicate that two of Ulster’s favourite sons are talking for the entire local community up here on the Antrim coast.

“The Irish Open has always been one of my favourite tournaments and to have it here in Royal Portrush, with this amount of people here already coming to the tournament; sold out for the first time in European Tour history; and to look out and see all the stands around, and the people around makes me very, very proud,” Clarke said yesterday ahead of his first round today.

“It’s not just me; I mean, everybody at Royal Portrush and the locals are right behind it. It’s all worked out unbelievably well. The players love it. It’s almost got an Open feel, which is what I think the course deserves. It’s fantastic to look out there and see all of the locals and what everybody has achieved.”

That The British Open champion can even see them from his doorstep also points to the emotional pull Portrush has had on the Dungannon man. Having spent much of his professional career based in London, when Clarke decided it was time to come home, he chose Portrush and a home on the hill above the Dunluce links he has played since childhood.

“It’s just a very special place. Portrush, I moved up here when I was young, and I played an awful lot of my golf here and moved back a couple of years ago.

“Winning The Open last year, a lot of it was due to the fact that I was living here again and playing in Royal Portrush. To have all of the fellow tour pros to see the golf course, some of them have not been here before, and every one, bar none, has been full of praise already.

“I live up in the hill and you are looking down and you can see the grandstands and all of the people walking around the golf course. It’s on a pretty big acreage of land, this golf course; and you can see people on the tees and greens and walking around; and the response from all of the locals, the whole area has gotten right behind the event. And hence, why the whole thing is sold out.”

For McDowell, playing in his hometown this week having cut his golfing teeth on the Rathmore links next door to Royal Portrush, that emotion is such that it has to be carefully managed if he is to take the realisation of a dream one step further and win the Irish Open here this weekend.

“I was watching Andy Murray playing Wimbledon last night and just thinking how difficult it is for him going to Wimbledon every year, but I suppose he’s used to it,” McDowell said.

“Not really a great comparison, but the Irish Open is always a sense of pressure and a sense of expectation from the crowds and whatnot.

“We joke about it being the fifth major, but any Irish player would be very proud to have the Irish Open on his CV, to win in front of home fans is a very special thing. It’s just kind of exaggerated even more this week to be in my home town, a golf course that I’ve grown up on and I feel like I know fairly well. There’s added pressure.

“That’s why I’m a bit motivated to try and get out of the gates the next couple of days and get into contention early this week. It would be very easy to just kind of get lost in the whole emotion of it all and just to kind of enjoy it, as opposed to what I want to do which is enjoy, yes, but enjoy the business end of things on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.

“I’m really motivated to play well, for sure. There is dangers of getting lost in the atmosphere really because it is going to be fantastic. Like I say, they came out en masse and they are going to be here en masse this weekend and really creating a great environment for everyone.

“I’ve got to get the focus and I’ve got to get the business edge from the word go because if I don’t, it would be very easy just to enjoy the craic.”

And victory, after all, brings rewards of its own, especially in one’s home town. “To win there this weekend, there will be a pretty kick-ass party somewhere in town Sunday night,” said McDowell with a broad grin.