'When you watch him caddying on TV, he has the same attributes from when I played against him'

The 42

14-05-2025

THERE'S A NAME that takes him back 13 years. He's been hearing it a lot lately. Understandably so. He knows someone who knows Rory McIlroy. The link is there and people are curious to know more.
He did meet McIlroy once but that's a lesser known fact. What is known is that he played against McIlroy's caddie Harry Diamond in the final of the 2012 West of Ireland Championship and lost out by one hole. And it's been coming up more and more lately given McIlroy's recent triumph at the Masters, and his impending pursuit of another golf major this weekend at the PGA Championship in Quail Hollow.
Stephen Healy understands the desire to feel three degrees of separation from one of the greatest and most enigmatic stars in modern sport. And the Claremorris man is happy to oblige with his memories of that 2012 final against Diamond in Rosses Point.
The images come back with great clarity.
Those birdies on three and five. How he was two up after six holes before a costly three-putt on the seventh. That dropped shot on the 12th after a brilliant drive that got dragged by the wind to the top of a bunker leaving the ball in a position that was just too far above his feet. The holes coming down the final stretch that were halved, and the breaks that just didn't fall Healy's way.
It's all still there playing out hole by hole in his mind.
'I had a good chance at the last and it just didn't go in,' he recalls. 'I had a very good putt that just lipped out. It'd be nice to win but I'm not overly devastated that I didn't.'
There wasn't much talk in the aftermath of Diamond's victory apart from the customary handshake and exchange of good wishes. Diamond's friendship with McIlroy was already well documented at that point, with one report in the Irish Independent revealing that McIlroy had sent a text message to Diamond earlier that day ordering him to 'get your name on the board alongside the good players'.
Diamond delivered and would later go on to carry the bag for McIlroy and help him navigate those final steps towards completing the long-awaited career Grand Slam. Healy took a different road that ultimately led him away from competitive golf, but for that one day, they were locked in for an Irish major.
Rory McIlroy and Harry Diamond pictured together after victory at the Masters. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
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Healy can't remember what year it was that he met Rory McIlroy. They had both been invited to the Faldo Series in the UK, an event organised by six-time Major winner Nick Faldo. It's for young golfers who have been identified as talents to look out for, and Healy and McIlroy were both on an upward curve.
Healy was an Irish Boys champion and McIlroy was snapping necks with what he could do on a golf course. The pair met at dinner and talked about how McIlroy was contemplating a golf scholarship in America. Already, Healy knew that they were planets apart.
'He was so much better than everyone else at his age. When I was playing Boys Interpros, he was playing Senior Boys. What he's gone on to do is amazing and you've a lot of good young players who don't make it, so to go on and do what he's done is unbelievable.'
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McIlroy opted against the scholarship route, preferring instead to carve out a path to the professional ranks through the European amateur circuit. Healy however, did go down that road, and headed for Jacksonville University with similar ambitions of one day graduating to the pro game.
He enjoyed his time there, and was glad of the scholarship when it came to handling college expenses. But as time went on, he realised that becoming a professional golfer wasn't on the cards for him. He could see his own ceiling.
'I wasn't playing that great,' he remembers. 'I was doing alright but then you see the players over there. I had the odd good tournament and I could play well sometimes but I wasn't going to get on tour. So I was either going to stay there or come back to Ireland and I just decided to come back for multiple reasons. Once your funding goes in the US, you have to go down the route of convincing people to give you money and I had no basis for that.
'The pro game is extremely difficult. I have a lot of friends who turned pro and tried to make it. It's almost impossible.'
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The West of Ireland Championship is arguably the most prestigious amateur golf tournament in Ireland, its status driven mainly by the calibre of past winners. McIlroy was a back-to-back champion in 2005 and 2006. Shane Lowry was the 2008 winner while Pádraig Harrington was the one lifting the trophy in 1994.
The Irish Amateur Open and Irish Amateur Close are the bigger tournaments, Healy concedes, but there is a 'romantic' element surrounding the West of Ireland Championship.
Healy has played in the tournament on four or five occasions, he recalls, but this was the closest he came to winning it.
Like the Masters, it's the first major of the Irish amateur season. The terrain at the Rosses Point links course in Sligo is testing to begin with, and is made all the more difficult by the unforgiving April weather conditions. For Healy and Diamond in 2012, they were battling the rain, hail and wind as well as each other.
'That kind of suited me,' Healy continues, 'because I wasn't playing that well. The good thing is that if you're playing great and hitting the ball well, if the weather is bad, everyone is missing the green anyway.
'The West is always like that.'
Stephen Healy studying a putt at the 2012 West of Ireland Championship.
Healy was back in Ireland a little over a year at that point, and was considering whether or not to continue playing golf. He made the West of Ireland cut but not with any eye-catching scores, and was finishing rounds in the mid to high 70s. But then his tournament caught a spark in the matchplay portion. He won some difficult matches including a semi-final win over Ronan McNamara who was the tournament winner the following year.
But he feels he played his best golf while trying to make the final compared with what he produced in the final against Diamond.
'I didn't play badly in the final but I probably played a lot better to get to the final. I could easily have won it; I didn't throw it away.
'He's [Diamond] a really steady player, he didn't really have any mistakes. I had a good chance at the last and it just didn't go in. There were no bad parts of his game. He hit his irons well, was a pretty good putter.'
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The caddie in Diamond wasn't obvious to Healy when he played against him in 2012. But now that he has seen his former opponent work the bag at some of the biggest tournaments in the world, it's clear that the sturdy play he brought to Rosses Point is why he is guiding McIlroy so effectively now.
Healy cautions that friends don't always make good caddies, but in the case of Diamond and McIlroy, knowing each other since childhood has clearly added to their dynamic. And the fact that Diamond played to a reasonable level equips him with a high standard of insight that McIlroy can rely on.
'When you watch him caddying on TV, he has the same attributes from when I played against him. He played to a high enough level to know the nuisance points and the stuff you feel in the tournaments.
Rory McIlroy and Harry Diamond at the 2012 Irish Open. ©Russell Pritchard / Presseye ©Russell Pritchard / Presseye / Presseye
'I don't know his personality but he was a very steady and calm player. It seems from watching on TV that he's still like that. You want that in a caddie, obviously. And Rory obviously wanted someone he could trust and they're obviously best friends.
'He didn't really show any emotion when I was playing with him so I guess that's what you want. Especially with the circus around McIlroy, so I suppose that helps.'
As for why the 2025 Masters was McIlroy's time to run down his demons and get that green jacket on his shoulders, Healy points to the strength of his long game. McIlroy's average distance off the tee is just over 318 yards, which is the third-highest on the PGA Tour.
'The one thing about Augusta is the guys who bomb it off the tee have the best chance,' says Healy.
'The plateaus are precise. You have to be very down off the tee for the second shot. He has such an advantage in that. If he can play anyways alright, he always has a chance. He almost has a handicap on the rest of the field. He hits the ball very high and the way he gets it to stop, the other players can't do that.'
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There was little to separate Healy and Diamond in that final at the West of Ireland Championship. But in golf, the fine margins of one hole are the big differences that separate the winner from the runner-up.
Healy doesn't play golf competitively anymore but has still gained a lot from the journey. He was never really drawn to academics when he was growing up, and even played at a golf tournament during his Leaving Cert. But while attending Jacksonville University, he developed a passion for finance in the business college and has carried on down that road.
That gap into professional golf never opened for him, but he has brushed with greatness.