Scenes From Rory McIlroy's Return to Royal Portrush

Rory McIlroy’s return to major championship golf in Northern Ireland as the new grand slam hero created once-in-a-generation scenes. One player, the singular focus and rooting interest for nearly everyone who came through the gates at the Open Championship. Superstars will always draw a majority of the attention, but here almost every single fan came not just to see one player, but also to try and push him across the line. 

That major championship golf 1) has found its way back to Royal Portrush and the tiny country of Northern Ireland this century, owing in part to Rory’s ascendance in the game, and 2) with Rory as a favorite and 3) in his new green jacket with the slam complete, was a confluence of events that felt like a miracle. But Portrush became the center of the golf world, and Rory the center of Portrush. He was not the best player in the field, but the animating force of this championship. 

The broadcast and media tend to overplay “the crowd,” both its substance and impact. Writing about the crowd can be a facile crutch to not cover the golf in a critical way. But given this year for Rory, it felt like a historic celebration worth documenting. We’ll go back to normal settings and scenes for majors next week and next year. But here are a few combined observations – it was hard not to jot them down whether you went out looking for them or not! 

{{inline-article}}

• These were not the loudest roars and cheers ever heard on a golf course. But in terms of size, congestion, and focus, it was one of the largest and most impressive galleries the game has seen. The visuals of looking up to see tumbling dunes covered by spectators over three to four holes where Rory was in range were stunning, especially in the late afternoon sun of the weekend. This may seem crude, but it was like each dune and hillside was the stick in Fun Dip, and all the people little grains of sugar just attaching themselves to every inch to get a glimpse.

• Prior to Thursday, we asked about 20-25 locals who they thought would win on Sunday. Nobody said anything but “Rory.”

• For the sake of completeness, and to add to the crowd-on-wheels category from above, here’s an excerpt from our Friday newsletter: “On Thursday, I watched a wheelchair-bound old man get rolled into and stuck in exceedingly ADA-noncompliant knee-high fescue atop a dune, just to get a glimpse.”
• McIlroy holed a 56-foot eagle putt on No. 12 on Saturday, a moment he described as one of the loudest roars and “coolest moments” he’s ever had on a golf course. As the leaderboard by the 18th green was updated to reflect McIlroy’s eagle, the grandstands about a half-mile away absolutely erupted.
• McIlroy walked onto the driving range on Sunday morning with an outside chance of winning the Open Championship. Upon arrival, spectators exploded with applause from the driving range grandstands. McIlroy smiled and acknowledged the crowd in a way that he likely wouldn’t have at other points of his career. This wasn’t the locked-in McIlroy we’ve observed at past major championships. He was still focused, but the blinders weren’t on. He embraced the scene.
• Championship leader Scottie Scheffler appeared on the range about 10 minutes after McIlroy to much less fanfare. A muted cheer for the world No. 1. As soon as the applause subsided, a woman with a thick Northern Ireland accent yelled, “We’re behind you, Rory!” 
• McIlroy’s walk up the 18th fairway and onto the green on Thursday evening was a surreal, memorable scene. He finished his opening round at about 9 p.m. local time, as darkness began to encroach but plenty of daylight remained. I’ve never witnessed a more serene scene as McIlroy removed his cap and acknowledged the thousands of fans roaring for him from the grandstands. He tapped in his par putt, walked off the 18th green, and embraced the applause of the people who had waited hours for a glimpse of him. Immediately once he’d exited the 18th green, the grandstands emptied in a stampede even though six more groups were still set to come through. I’ve never become emotional at a golf tournament before, but I was overcome with emotion at the beauty of the scene unfolding on the 18th green. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before in the sport.
• Opposite the people attached to dunesides were the low-lying areas around tee boxes, where they crammed between bushes and unmaintained areas just to look up at Rory and his swing without any hopes of seeing a ball, its flight, or the result. It created this somewhat regal visual.

• Many tried to get to high ground, namely the grandstands surrounding greens and the traditional U-shaped 18th seating area. Going out to catch Rory on the back nine, the lines had already started to form – more than 100 deep just to get to the stairwell for what had become one-in, one-out capacity. Getting through the queue by the time Rory came up the 18th looked completely hopeless, but they stood in line. The lines never got longer than that hour or so before Rory was due.
• When they announced his name on the first tee on Thursday, the noise traveled up to the green and across the adjacent holes. Again, these were not the loudest roars you’ll hear in a major. But nothing else ever came close on the first tee.
• On the first tee on Sunday, the crowd lined the entire rope line all the way up to the green, the depth increasing both around the putting surface and tee box. But the entire hole was surrounded by a human chain, and this happened all week across multiple holes. A sometimes uncomfortable dynamic throughout the Open was the immediate thinning or clearing that occurred after he had passed. It even happened on the weekend when the presumed champion, Scheffler, would be coming through in a matter of minutes. 
• Those technically not “on the grounds” found their spots to glimpse Rory whenever he came through. They ran up the massive dune on the seventh hole from the public beach below to get an un-ticketed glimpse.

• A powerful one was the uniformed staff of the Dunluce Lodge, the fancy accommodation that now lines the fourth hole, coming out of the hillside to watch Rory play below on Friday. That happened throughout the weekend, and the group included his folks on Sunday, who probably could not freely walk around the course but could see the scene that they and their son had created. You wonder if they could have conceived of such a sight in this place 20 years ago.

• Shane Lowry, the 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year and one of McIlroy’s closest contemporaries in professional golf, said he watched Rory’s Saturday round “and it looked like that will be a round he'll remember forever.” He was fighting and competing, but this would be a week that became more than just that.
• Rory drove wide right on the 17th hole on both Saturday and Sunday, where the crowds were already heavy given that it was the end of the day’s play with the leaders coming through. It created an album of impactful images of Rory surrounded by hundreds. There was an embrace of the party by both Rory and Harry Diamond, his longtime friend and caddie who also hails from Northern Ireland. The crowds had to feel like an intrusion on the day’s work at times, but they were both laughing and smiling at the commentary of the up-close fans.

• On Sunday, at 17 again, he took an extended stop to wait for Harry to finish raking a bunker left of the green before going to the final hole. It was a lengthy stop that seemed purposeful so that the two Northern Ireland kids could walk together through the human tunnel to the 18th tee one more time.

Rory kicked off Open week by lending insight into his experience in 2019 at Royal Portrush, where he pulled his opening tee shot out of bounds to quadruple bogey the first hole of the championship. He described being overwhelmed and “taken aback” at the ovation he received on the first tee. He wasn’t ready for it. He finished last week with a reflection, “It's been an awesome week. I've gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug.” 

There are no moral victories in the record books. However, the Open Championship at Royal Portrush will go down as a success not just for McIlroy, but for all of the hometown fans who laid eyes and showered cheers on one of the greatest players to touch a golf club. One of their own. 

We will remember Scottie’s dominance and the celebration of Rory equally, forever.

This post was co-written by Joseph LaMagna and Brendan Porath.