IF RORY MCILROY’S CAREER has been a long battle between his ethereal talent and the unworldly pressure and expectation that talent necessarily breeds, then Royal Portrush has been a theatre of this war.
McIlroy first round at Portrush was a gift from his parents for his 10th birthday, but it was when he returned to the Dunluce Links six years later, in 2005, that he came of age.
McIlroy had left school that year to focus on golf full-time, and he rocked up to the Antrim coast on the second week of July to play qualifying for the North of Ireland championship.
Having shot a steady 71 on the Valley Course on the first day, he played his second and final round of stroke play at Royal Portrush.
This proved to be the public’s first glimpse at the thrilling sight of a Rory McIlroy with a point to prove.
These are the situations in which he has always been at his most irrepressible: think of the quality of his match play against Patricks Reed and Cantlay at the Ryder Cup, or his jibe at Greg Norman after winning the 2022 Canadian Open in the shadow of the early shots of the LIV civil war. Paul McGinley still maintains it to this day, that McIlroy is at his best when he plays with “those pointy elbows”.
In 2005, it was the Walker Cup selection committee that had McIlroy jutting out his elbows.
The Great Britain & Ireland team for that year’s Walker Cup was announced only eight days earlier, and it did not include McIlroy’s name. As they sought a fourth-straight victory for the first time, they decided to name only one Irish player in the squad, picking British amateur champion Brian McElhinney over McIlroy.
McIlroy would have been the youngest player in Walker Cup history had he been picked, but instead that piece of history went to England’s Oli Fisher.
The chief selector of that squad was Peter McEvoy, with Gareth McGimpsey the captain, and both said that McIlroy was omitted because he didn’t show up to enough of the major amateur events at which they were casting their most attentive eyes, instead taking invites to pro events on the European Tour.
“Rory,” said McGimpsey, “mismanaged his season from the Walker Cup point of view.”
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Jilted, McIlroy nonetheless remained dignified in public, wishing McElhinney well and stressing it was his ambition to play the Walker Cup two years later.
McEvoy later admitted to worrying at the time as to whether they were doing the right thing. “We’re leaving out Rory,” he fretted, “and I think we all know what he is going to be.”
It took only eight days for McIlroy to show the selectors what he would be.
McIlroy was two-under through his first eight holes at Portrush, and then went supersonic as he turned, with a birdie at nine, an eagle at 10, and another birdie at 11. As he loitered on the 11th fairway waiting for the group ahead of him to move off the green, McIlroy saw someone drain a putt and pump their first. He turned to one of his playing partners and asked, “‘Why would you be fist-pumping on the second day of qualifying for the North of Ireland?”
A few minutes later, McIlroy rolled in a birdie putt and involuntarily pumped his fist. What was that you were saying Rory?
“At that point,” reflected McIlroy years later, “I realised I was doing something pretty special.”
The news was now spreading like wildfire across the course and filtering through the town: young McIlroy might just be about to pull this off. The crowds swelled, and by the time he was standing on the final tee box, McIlroy was 10-under and needed only to make bogey to take the course record. Instead he rolled in a birdie putt to sign for a 61 to obliterate the record by fully three shots.
McIlroy later described it as a defining moment in his career, “because the wider golf world took notice”.
The Association of Golf Writers’ dinner was held that evening, and Walker Cup selector McEvoy had the misfortune to be seated beside the Irish table.
“God, I got a hard time,” McEvoy later told National Club Golfer. ”How can you not have picked him?’ If I’d known he was going to go round in 61, I would have picked him!”
In the end, McElhinney played only once at an epic Walker Cup in Chicago, in which the USA brought their losing run to an end by a single point, decided on the 18th green of the penultimate match. McEvoy later admitted they would have won an unprecedented fourth-straight Cup had they picked McIlroy.
Irish golf journalist Brian Keogh later wrote that McIlroy’s father believed his omission from that Walker Cup team was the best thing to have happened in the early days of his career, and McIlroy was selected for the Walker Cup two years later, after which he turned pro.
McIlroy returned to Portrush for the 2019 Open with the kind of CV worthy of what the locals had witnessed 14 years earlier. In advance of the championship, McIlroy sat down with the R&A to talk through his course record, and said something which carried a great resonance by the Thursday night of his return.
“It felt normal to me”, said McIlroy. “I had that cockiness and thought this was what I was supposed to do. I think my confidence now is more fragile. The confidence and cockiness I had at 16, sometimes I think I need to rediscover that.”
Instead the 2019 Open became an exhibit of the brutal weight of pressure. During practice, McIlroy’s tee shot on the first hole leaked right and out of bounds. When he sought to correct come Thursday, he over-corrected and hooked his his ball out-of-bounds to the left. He would make a quadruple-bogey eight on the very first hole, leaving thoughts of a triumphant homecoming dead on arrival. He had played more than 10,000 holes on the PGA Tour at that point: this was only his fourth quad.
McIlroy would go on to three-putt from four feet on the 16th hole and make triple on the last to sign for a 79. This time, his 61st stroke at Portrush came on the 15th hole.
Golf.com later uncovered the story of the 2-iron with which McIlroy hit his ruinous first shot, which ended up in the bag of his caddy Harry Diamond’s father-in-law, having been passed around Portrush like some kind of baleful and cursed relic.
Now freed from the burden of expectation, McIlroy charged for the cut line across a rollicking Friday afternoon, shooting a thrilling 65 but ending up just a single shot short of making the weekend.
“The support I got was incredible, you could see out on the back nine, if I got that momentum yesterday…, ” trailed off McIlroy in a sob-stabbed interview on Sky.
“This is a week I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I didn’t play my part but everyone in Northern Ireland who came out to watch me definitely played theirs.”
McIlroy's Thursday trial at Portrush in 2019. Oisin Keniry / INPHO
Oisin Keniry / INPHO / INPHO
Everyone enjoyed those roles so much that the Open has returned to Portrush in short order, to which McIlroy was last month asked to throw forward, after his ho-hum finish at the US Open.
“I didn’t realise how emotional I was going to be at Portrush”, he said.
“I think that was a thing I was unprepared for more than anything else. I remember I hit a shot into 12 or 13 Friday night, obviously trying to make the cut. I remember the roar I got when the ball hit the green, and I felt like I was about to burst into tears. Just that support and that love from your own people.”
This is why Royal Portrush stands out when we trace McIlroy’s remarkable career: it’s by the Antrim coast where he has shown just how meagre his flood defences are when the waves of emotion start to roll.
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To understand Rory McIlroy, you have to understand his relationship with Royal Portrush
IF RORY MCILROY’S CAREER has been a long battle between his ethereal talent and the unworldly pressure and expectation that talent necessarily breeds, then Royal Portrush has been a theatre of this war.
McIlroy first round at Portrush was a gift from his parents for his 10th birthday, but it was when he returned to the Dunluce Links six years later, in 2005, that he came of age.
McIlroy had left school that year to focus on golf full-time, and he rocked up to the Antrim coast on the second week of July to play qualifying for the North of Ireland championship.
Having shot a steady 71 on the Valley Course on the first day, he played his second and final round of stroke play at Royal Portrush.
This proved to be the public’s first glimpse at the thrilling sight of a Rory McIlroy with a point to prove.
These are the situations in which he has always been at his most irrepressible: think of the quality of his match play against Patricks Reed and Cantlay at the Ryder Cup, or his jibe at Greg Norman after winning the 2022 Canadian Open in the shadow of the early shots of the LIV civil war. Paul McGinley still maintains it to this day, that McIlroy is at his best when he plays with “those pointy elbows”.
In 2005, it was the Walker Cup selection committee that had McIlroy jutting out his elbows.
The Great Britain & Ireland team for that year’s Walker Cup was announced only eight days earlier, and it did not include McIlroy’s name. As they sought a fourth-straight victory for the first time, they decided to name only one Irish player in the squad, picking British amateur champion Brian McElhinney over McIlroy.
McIlroy would have been the youngest player in Walker Cup history had he been picked, but instead that piece of history went to England’s Oli Fisher.
The chief selector of that squad was Peter McEvoy, with Gareth McGimpsey the captain, and both said that McIlroy was omitted because he didn’t show up to enough of the major amateur events at which they were casting their most attentive eyes, instead taking invites to pro events on the European Tour.
“Rory,” said McGimpsey, “mismanaged his season from the Walker Cup point of view.”
Jilted, McIlroy nonetheless remained dignified in public, wishing McElhinney well and stressing it was his ambition to play the Walker Cup two years later.
McEvoy later admitted to worrying at the time as to whether they were doing the right thing. “We’re leaving out Rory,” he fretted, “and I think we all know what he is going to be.”
It took only eight days for McIlroy to show the selectors what he would be.
McIlroy was two-under through his first eight holes at Portrush, and then went supersonic as he turned, with a birdie at nine, an eagle at 10, and another birdie at 11. As he loitered on the 11th fairway waiting for the group ahead of him to move off the green, McIlroy saw someone drain a putt and pump their first. He turned to one of his playing partners and asked, “‘Why would you be fist-pumping on the second day of qualifying for the North of Ireland?”
A few minutes later, McIlroy rolled in a birdie putt and involuntarily pumped his fist. What was that you were saying Rory?
“At that point,” reflected McIlroy years later, “I realised I was doing something pretty special.”
The news was now spreading like wildfire across the course and filtering through the town: young McIlroy might just be about to pull this off. The crowds swelled, and by the time he was standing on the final tee box, McIlroy was 10-under and needed only to make bogey to take the course record. Instead he rolled in a birdie putt to sign for a 61 to obliterate the record by fully three shots.
McIlroy later described it as a defining moment in his career, “because the wider golf world took notice”.
The Association of Golf Writers’ dinner was held that evening, and Walker Cup selector McEvoy had the misfortune to be seated beside the Irish table.
“God, I got a hard time,” McEvoy later told National Club Golfer. ”How can you not have picked him?’ If I’d known he was going to go round in 61, I would have picked him!”
In the end, McElhinney played only once at an epic Walker Cup in Chicago, in which the USA brought their losing run to an end by a single point, decided on the 18th green of the penultimate match. McEvoy later admitted they would have won an unprecedented fourth-straight Cup had they picked McIlroy.
Irish golf journalist Brian Keogh later wrote that McIlroy’s father believed his omission from that Walker Cup team was the best thing to have happened in the early days of his career, and McIlroy was selected for the Walker Cup two years later, after which he turned pro.
McIlroy returned to Portrush for the 2019 Open with the kind of CV worthy of what the locals had witnessed 14 years earlier. In advance of the championship, McIlroy sat down with the R&A to talk through his course record, and said something which carried a great resonance by the Thursday night of his return.
“It felt normal to me”, said McIlroy. “I had that cockiness and thought this was what I was supposed to do. I think my confidence now is more fragile. The confidence and cockiness I had at 16, sometimes I think I need to rediscover that.”
Instead the 2019 Open became an exhibit of the brutal weight of pressure. During practice, McIlroy’s tee shot on the first hole leaked right and out of bounds. When he sought to correct come Thursday, he over-corrected and hooked his his ball out-of-bounds to the left. He would make a quadruple-bogey eight on the very first hole, leaving thoughts of a triumphant homecoming dead on arrival. He had played more than 10,000 holes on the PGA Tour at that point: this was only his fourth quad.
McIlroy would go on to three-putt from four feet on the 16th hole and make triple on the last to sign for a 79. This time, his 61st stroke at Portrush came on the 15th hole.
Golf.com later uncovered the story of the 2-iron with which McIlroy hit his ruinous first shot, which ended up in the bag of his caddy Harry Diamond’s father-in-law, having been passed around Portrush like some kind of baleful and cursed relic.
Now freed from the burden of expectation, McIlroy charged for the cut line across a rollicking Friday afternoon, shooting a thrilling 65 but ending up just a single shot short of making the weekend.
“The support I got was incredible, you could see out on the back nine, if I got that momentum yesterday…, ” trailed off McIlroy in a sob-stabbed interview on Sky.
“This is a week I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I didn’t play my part but everyone in Northern Ireland who came out to watch me definitely played theirs.”
Everyone enjoyed those roles so much that the Open has returned to Portrush in short order, to which McIlroy was last month asked to throw forward, after his ho-hum finish at the US Open.
“I didn’t realise how emotional I was going to be at Portrush”, he said.
“I think that was a thing I was unprepared for more than anything else. I remember I hit a shot into 12 or 13 Friday night, obviously trying to make the cut. I remember the roar I got when the ball hit the green, and I felt like I was about to burst into tears. Just that support and that love from your own people.”
This is why Royal Portrush stands out when we trace McIlroy’s remarkable career: it’s by the Antrim coast where he has shown just how meagre his flood defences are when the waves of emotion start to roll.
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Golf Home discomfort Open Championship Rory McIlroy Royal Portrush