Rónán MacNamara in Portrush
Yeah, we all remember THAT tee shot. If Rory McIlroy’s 2019 homecoming was going to be spoiled one would have thought it would have happened just around the corner on the 18th on Sunday but he managed to burst his own balloon in a matter of seconds.
The first hole at Royal Portrush features a generously wide fairway upon first glance, but a gruesome bunker takes a stranglehold on the left side of this hole. THEN, the internal out of bounds left and right of the fairway are firmly in the mind.
McIlroy started his 4-iron on the right edge of the fairway but such were his nerves on the day, he managed to hook it across the fairway and the ball trickled out of bounds on the left hand side. It led to a quadruple bogey 8 and his chances were dashed instantly.
It’s a tee shot that has been replayed countless times this week and the first tee experience is something McIlroy is wary of ahead of the beginning of play on Thursday. That being said, he has played the first hole four times in practice, gone out of bounds twice and failed to hit the fairway…
Six years on, McIlroy will arrive to a heroes welcome, as a grand slam winner. But none of that matters as his newfound ability to hit a low squeezed cut shot will be firmly under the microscope.
There were rumblings that the internal out of bounds would be removed as sort of a pampering to Rory’s needs but chairman of the championship committee Dr. Ian Kerr said that was never the case, with the internal OB being part of the history and tradition of the club where horses once grazed happily.
McIlroy seems much more relaxed this week and after a runner-up finish in Scotland being the ideal preparation he is ready to wake from his post grand slam slumber.
“I remember the ovation I got on the first tee on Thursday and not being prepared for it or not being ready for how I was going to feel or what I was going to feel,” said the Holywood man.
“Then the golf on Thursday feels like a bit of a blur. I try to forget that part of it.”
It’s also a homecoming for McIlroy’s club mate Tom McKibbin who will be playing his first Open Championship on Irish soil and just his fourth major in all.
Add to that, the 22-year-old has been drawn in the opening three-ball alongside Nicolai Hojgaard and Pádraig Harrington who will get us underway at 06:35, there will be a lot of action around the first tee on Thursday.
It’s a big week for McKibbin who expects to be more nervous than usual.
“I guess I don’t know what it’ll feel like till I till I get there on Thursday, but yeah, obviously, seeing how he felt the last time, and I’m sure the other guys felt that. I’m sure I’ll feel it too,” said the LIV golfer.
Harrington won’t be without the butterflies either as he cuts the ribbon on the 153rd Open.
“I’d be definitely very nervous about that tomorrow, and, yeah, I’ll be very comfortable with anything in play will do me. I’ll be doing a bit of posing after I hit matter how, how bad the shot is. I’ll be holding my finish and pretending it’s a good one.”
And don’t think Darren Clarke offered any steady advice. The Dungannon native famous switched from an iron to a driver just to have a bigger head to make contact with the ball when he hit the opening tee shot six years ago.
“Bloody Darren”, Harrington replied when asked if Clarke has offered any advice. “‘He says, ‘I was going to hit a little three iron down there but I so nervous’, so he took out the driver and bunted it down there because it was a bigger head.
“And I’m saying, ‘Darren, this isn’t helping me!’.
“I don’t know what the condition is going to be, but I really don’t fancy hitting a driver off the first tee. Hopefully it would be the three iron.”
Shane Lowry added: “I reckon that first tee that morning in 2019 was the most nervous I’ve ever been on the first tee of a tournament.”
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