‘It was very special and holing the putt was a serious buzz' — Padraig Harrington emotional over first tee honour
The first tee grandstand was packed and the fairway lined on both sides as the Dubliner set the ball rolling alongside Nicolai Hojgaard and local hero Tom McKibbin, and he made the perfect start to proceedings by brushing in his birdie putt to take the lead.
'I hyped up the tee shot as much as I could, so that when I got there today, it didn't feel so bad,' Harrington said of his 6:35am tee time.
'So I was decently comfortable when I got on the tee.
'Obviously, I didn't try for too much. Hit a nice three iron down there, held the finish, posed a bit. I got a little emotional when I was clapped on. Then I calmed down and was kind of fine when I was hitting.'
Harrington three-putted the third, fourth and eighth to be slip to two over, then took six at the 10th after losing a ball from the tee.
He birdied the par-five 12th but holed nothing on the greens and signed for a four-over 75 as Hojgaard carded a 69 to sit just two shots behind early leader Jacob Skov Olesen while McKibbin signed for a 72.
'Yeah, it was a tough day on the greens, and it just ate into my game,' he said.
'Might have been a little bit of the fact that I was hyped up for the first tee box. Who knows?'
Whatever about the score, Harrington found the whole first tee experience a memorable one.
ADVERTISEMENT
'I came off the range about 20 minutes before my tee time, and I could see the grandstand, and it was empty,' he said.
'I was like, I thought this was going to be full.
'Obviously we have to walk up and over, and as I came up and over, I could see people queueing for a long line to get into it. They hadn't let anybody in.
'By the time we got there, the grandstand was full, the first fairway was full, the first green was full.
'Hitting that second three-iron into 15 or 18 feet, holing the putt was a serious buzz.
"It was very exciting, and those crowds were spectacular at that hour of the morning. It was really great.'
Harrington teared up when giving his acceptance speech after winning the first of his two Open titles at Carnoustie in 2007 but while he confessed to occasionally fighting back tears watching movies on airplanes, he couldn't recall welling up on the course.
'I wouldn't say I get too emotional, not like that, no,' he confessed. 'It felt like they were there for me, giving me a clap.
"I expected the nerves; I didn't expect that. So I did have to adjust myself for that.'
Was it special?
'Yeah, it was very special, I've got to say,' he said. 'It's a great honour to do it, as I said. I really hate the idea of being ceremonial, but I was prepared to do it because it was here. I'm glad I did.'
He rated the experience as one of his great Open memories.
'Absolutely,' he said. 'You certainly wouldn't start your career off expecting anything like that. It's not something you think, 'oh, this is something I'd like to do in my career'.
'It was out of the blue when I was asked this year, but it's not out of the blue if you were thinking about it. I'm glad I did it now, put it like this. Maybe I might get to do it again.'
As for McKibbin, the Holywood star (22) bogeyed the first and third and made an eight-footer for par at the fourth to avoid going three-over before finding his feet.
He hit a bunker shot close to birdie the fifth, drained an 18-footer for eagle at the seventh and birdied the ninth to share the early lead with Hojgaard.
He even had a putt for the outright lead at the 10th but he missed it and then ran up a double-bogey six at the 11th after moving his ball just a few feet in the right rough.
'A little bit of everything in there, a little bit of a good, a little bit of bad,' said McKibbin, who got a shot back with a two-putt birdie at the 12th en route to his 72.
'Overall one-over. Not great, but not bad. Not too annoyed but not happy. It was overall a very sort of up-and-down day.
'Obviously I was two-over after three. I don't really feel like I hit too bad of a shot to be in that position.
'I just missed the fairway on one and didn't have a good lie at all. I hit a good shot into three and came up a little bit short. Then I hit it down the middle of the fairway on four and it was in a divot. It was just not going my way.
'Hit a good bunker shot on five and made a birdie there so one-over after five wasn't too bad.
"Then I started to play quite nicely after that. I only sort of struggled on the holes with the wind off the left. Besides that, it was okay.'
Meanwhile, Darren Clarke wanted better than an opening 75 but he has no plans to walk off into the sunset just yet and plans to play on in The Open until his exemption runs out in 2029.
The 2011 champion (56) hinted at Royal Troon last year that he might make his 33rd appearance at Royal Portrush this week his Open swan song having missed the cut six times in a row.
But after making the weekend last year to finish tied 75 and winning on the PGA Tour Champions this season, he's decided he's likely to keep going until his exemption runs out when he's 60.
'It was me that said it last year that Troon may have been the last one,' he said. 'I made the cut and played nicely. All this week I've been playing nicely. I played nicely in the Champions Tour all year.
'It's one of those things where if I got to the stage I didn't have a chance of making the cut or have a half decent week, I wouldn't play. I wouldn't want to feel I was taking a spot away from a young, maybe more deserving kid. That's maybe me 35 years ago or whatever.
'If I think I can still compete, fortunately I've earned the right to still play for another four of them if I want to. If I don't think I could put on and play half decent, I wouldn't do it. We shall see.'
Like Harrington, Clarke made nothing on the greens to match the Dubliner on four-over.
But he was pleased to hear that the 2007 and 2008 champion felt emotional when hitting the first tee shot and matched his 2019 birdie.
'It's a huge honour to hit the opening tee shot, especially for somebody like Padraig in Ireland,' he said. 'As much as I told him he was going to feel nervous and feel a bit of pressure when he walked down the steps, he probably didn't believe me, knowing Padraig like I do.
'But I guess whenever he got there and got on the tee, oh, this is pretty big. So I'm glad to hear he was emotional about it.'
As for his game, he said: 'I played really nicely and practised and everything was good. Then today just didn't quite have it. That was it. .. It was a tricky day, could have been worse. Just got to play better tomorrow.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Rory McIlroy keeps cool head as he banishes ghosts of past with Masters champ continuing hot streak at The Open
RORY McILROY kept his head among the intense adulation of his home crowd as he shot a one-under-par 70 in the first round of The Open at Portrush. The Northern Irishman had crumbled under similar pressure when the event was last held at the course in 2019 - taking a quadruple-bogey eight at the first hole and missing the cut. 1 Rory McIlroy banished the ghosts of his past with a calm performance at The Open Credit: Getty But the Masters champion, who completed a career Grand Slam at Augusta in April, is just three shots off the lead after a day when he was wayward off the tee but hot on the greens. 'That's a great position to be in but at the same time it brings some added pressure because I didn't want to let them down. 'I dealt with that pressure pretty well - I certainly dealt with it better than I did six years ago! 'I am happy to give myself a good start and get myself into the tournament. 'I'm surprised four-under is leading, a thought someone would go out and shoot six or seven under 'I knew what to expect, it wasn't new to me playing at an Open at home, and that experience definitely helped. 'I didn't feel I was walking into the unknown, unlike last time when I hadn't experienced this before.' Most read in Golf BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS McIlroy sank a crucial 12-foot putt for par on the 15th, having carded three bogeys in the previous four holes - before a birdie on 17 left him under par for the round. He said: 'That par putt on 15 was a big one having bogeyed three of the last four. The Open Faces Tee Time Chaos Amid Parade Clash in Portrush 'That was a huge putt, it kept whatever momentum I had and then to go one under for the final three was pleasing. 'The wind picked up a bit on the back nine and that made it more difficult. 'It was a tough day, spending a lot of time in the rough and fairway bunkers, so to shoot under par is a bonus.'
The 42
3 hours ago
- The 42
McIlroy battles against driver issues but puts himself in the mix at Open
RORY MCILROY OVERCAME consistent problems off the tee to post a one-under round of 70 to leave himself firmly in the mix of the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush. In spite of one of the worst off-the-tee performances of his major career, McIlroy lies just three shots off the lead at the end of the first day's play. The lead is shared by Jakub Olesen, Haotong Li, Matt Fitzpatrick, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Harris English. Having infamously gone out of bounds with his first tee shot during the 2019 Open at Portrush, McIlroy again sent his first shot down the left, though this time it bounced into the rough and remained in play. He made bogey on the first, but bounced back with a birdie on the par-five second. McIlroy struggled off the tee all day, battling a consistent left miss and hitting just none of his first five fairways and just two of 14 overall. It was his joint-moist inaccurate driving round in his major career, and he ranked second-last among the field for driving accuracy. Some majestic irons and steely putts on slow greens kept him in the mix, however, with birdies on five, seven and 10 moving him to within one shot of the lead. From there, however, he began leaking oil, hooking his tee shot into thick rough on 11 and though he managed to scramble himself into position to save a par on the toughest hole on the course, he missed his putt from 11 feet. More galling was a three-putt bogey on the par-five 12th. He dropped another shot on 14 to fall back to even par. He missed fairways on 15 and 17, though left the latter within 12 feet thanks to an approach that made more intelligent use of the contours around the green. McIlroy poured in his fifth birdie of the day to get back under par. He left a birdie putt just shy of the hole on the last to close with an under-par round of 70. 'It was good. I had it going three-under through 10 and let a few slip there around the middle of the round', said McIlroy. 'I steadied the ship well, played the last four at one-under, and it was nice to shoot under par. 'I felt like, once we turned for home – like played 10 and turned back and played 11 – the wind picked up a little bit, and it just became that little bit more difficult. Advertisement 'It was a tough enough day, especially either chopping out of the rough or out of the fairway bunkers most of the time. So to shoot under par was a good effort. 'I'm surprised four-under is leading. I thought someone might have gone out there and shot six or seven today. Only three back with 54 holes to go, I'm really happy with where I am.' McIlroy was surrounded by enormous galleries everywhere he went, and said with some understatement that he dealt with their attendant expectation better than he did in 2019. 'Look, I feel the support of an entire country out there, which is a wonderful position to be in, but at the same time, you don't want to let them down. So there's that little bit of added pressure. 'I felt like I dealt with it really well today. Certainly dealt with it better than I did six years ago. I was just happy to get off to a good start and get myself into the tournament.' Elsewhere, Bryson DeChambeau struggled with the links' challenge, carding his worst opening round at a major championship with a seven-over round of 78, leaving him in a major battle to make the cut. DeChambeau's playing partners fared better, with Justin Rose battling to a bogey-free, two-under round of 69, while Robert MacIntyre shot even-par. Elsewhere among the late wave, Jordan Spieth birdied two of his final four holes to claw his way back to two-over, which was also posted by his playing partners Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg. Tommy Fleetwood, playing alongside McIlroy and the runner-up at Portrush in 2019, has a lot of work to do to win a first major of his career this week, posting two-over.
Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Tommy Fleetwood falls foul of new bunker raking policy at Open
Tommy Fleetwood fell foul of the R&A's new policy on how bunkers are raked at this week's Open at Royal Portrush. The Englishman was one over when he drove into the sand short of the driveable par-four fifth but when he reached his ball he was not impressed. His escape hit the lip of the bunker and only just came out. He went on to bogey and his struggles continued as he eventually finished with a two-over 72, five off the lead. For decades the R&A used greenkeepers as bunker-rakers with each group but this year abandoned that policy and left the responsibility to caddies. "It's a change for us but we think a good one," new R&A chief Mark Darbon said Wednesday. Fleetwood was not so sure, saying: "It wasn't a great rake job. But the first thing is I was not very happy to be in there, so that's my fault. But when things aren't going well... "It was like in somebody's hitting mark that hadn't really been raked great. I probably could have managed it better." Asked whether he would like to see the return of bunker-rakers he added: "That would be handy. The amount that I hit in them today, I'm sure I was probably asking for the bunker-rakers back. "They've always had bunker-rakers until this week? I thought so. I thought that was odd. "You don't know what's gone on before. I'm not going to hold it against anyone too much. "I'm not going to get angry about anyone where you don't know what's happening, but it wasn't great and bunker rakers would have been nice."
