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Irish Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
All-Ireland number four is Noel McGrath's sweetest yet, but he may already be plotting the drive for five
Noel McGrath is in the lobby of Malahide's Grand Hotel, patiently posing for photographs and cheerfully signing autographs. The Irish Sea just beyond the double doors is hidden beneath a low grey haze while incessant summer rain continues to soak the shoreline. It has been a dark, heavy morning across much of the country but there is a lightness to the air inside the hotel foyer. McGrath was a kid of just 19 when he won his first All-Ireland senior hurling title in 2010. On Sunday, at 34 years young, he collected his fourth Celtic Cross for Tipperary . Walking up the steps of the Hogan Stand to raise the Liam MacCarthy Cup , he brought his two-year-old son Sam with him to the plinth. READ MORE 'To be able to have my son there yesterday was probably one of the greatest things I could have done. I lifted the Liam MacCarthy with him in my arms,' says McGrath with a smile. 'I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be able to bring him to Croke Park [while I'm still playing], so to win an All-Ireland with him is unreal. 'That will be something I will remember forever. In time, I suppose he'll see all the pictures from it. He won't remember it but he'll have those pictures. It's special for me to be able to do that with him.' There is a second child on the way in October. Life is about to get even busier, even better. As he speaks, several of McGrath's team-mates are meandering through the lobby, floating around with expressions of total satisfaction painted across their faces. Tipperary manager Liam Cahill has taken Liam MacCarthy and a group of players to Children's Health Ireland (formerly Crumlin Children's Hospital) while others are standing around in small clusters trying to organise taxis to deliver them to one of the city's early houses. Ronan Maher with Tipperary supporter Oisín Crowe during the All-Ireland champions' visit to Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Conor Stakelum is one of those ambling around the place. This is his first experience of winning an All-Ireland SHC. 'It's the stuff of dreams really,' he says. 'I was on my phone looking at the messages, soaking it in, then I came down to the lobby here and you see everybody smiling. 'You'd always be watching the news after All-Ireland finals, dreaming about being there some day and seeing the buzz around the day after. Now you're in it.' Dillon Quirke is never far from the thoughts of this Tipperary group. Nearly three years have passed since he collapsed during a club match and was pronounced dead in hospital. For Stakelum, Sunday brought back memories of the 2018 All-Ireland under-21 final between Tipp and Cork. [ Ashamed to be seen in public just one year ago, Tipperary's redemption story defies belief Opens in new window ] 'A couple of us were out with Dan and Hazel Quirke (Dillon's parents) on Friday before training, we had a cup of tea and a scone,' says Stakelum. 'Dillon was playing that day [in 2018] and we were just chatting about that match. When we were on the bus yesterday it started to rain, and it was raining that day too. 'If things were different Dillon would be here today and no better man to enjoy it with us if he was here.' McGrath will turn 35 in December. His story of resilience and defiance has already guaranteed him a place in the pantheon of Tipp greats. In 2015 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and just days later he underwent surgery. But he hasn't let it define him, having now added three further All-Ireland titles. He also claimed this latest one alongside his brothers, John and Brian. 'As I said after the semi-final, it never gets old,' he says of playing for Tipperary. 'As long as you're able to do it and to have days like this, it would keep anyone in good form and looking to do it again. It's great, it's unreal, it's unbelievable.' Tipperary's Conor Stakelum celebrates beating Cork in Sunday's All-Ireland final. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho The retirement question has dangled overhead for a few seasons but the blue and gold has, for now, always enticed him back. 'There's no point in saying over the last number of years that you don't think about it,' says the Loughmore-Castleiney man. 'When you're feeling good about it and when you're enjoying it, it's hard to step away, because when you're gone, you're gone. You're not going to come back at my age. 'Who knows about the future? There's no point in me saying here now what I know I'm going to do. I'd love to stay playing forever but I know that can't happen.' The temptation might be to sign off on his Tipperary career with that final act of striking over the last point of an All-Ireland final victory. It would be quite the way to go. But the lure of a possible fifth medal is real. 'I'd love to be able to give it a go and have a rattle off it next year again, but we'll go back to the club over the next few months and we'll battle it out against each other there and see what happens.' Outside, the rain continues to fall but nothing can dampen the mood of contentment swirling through the hotel. Just over McGrath's shoulder, outside the double doors, is the team bus. It'll be off to Tipperary soon. Taking Liam MacCarthy home. For the fourth time and counting, Noel McGrath will be along for the ride.
CNA
6 days ago
- Sport
- CNA
No stress, no fuss, Harman's boring approach works Open wonders again
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland :American Brian Harman did what Brian Harman does best to take the clubhouse lead at the British Open on Friday - hit fairways, sink putts and leave the stressing to others. Two years after seizing the halfway lead at Royal Liverpool and going on to lift the Claret Jug by a whopping six strokes, the 38-year-old from Savannah, Georgia is at it again, this timer across the Irish Sea at Royal Portrush. He carded the lowest round of the tournament, a bogey-free six-under-par 65 to move to eight under and throw down the gauntlet to the chasing pack. If Harman is interested in omens, he also fired a bogey-free 65 at Hoylake two years ago and was never threatened as he went on to claim his sole major, sapping the spirit of the chasers on a rain-soaked final day with a nerveless display. There is nothing flashy about the left-handed world number 26 who goes about his business with little fanfare. Indeed, as he played the 17th hole on Friday, many of the fans perched alongside the fairway seemed oblivious to the fact the Open leader was in their vicinity, instead gazing into the distance for a bird's eye view of home favourite Rory McIlroy. RELENTLESS ACCURACY But his unflappable nature and relentless accuracy means that while British links courses mess with the minds of some of his compatriots, Harman feels completely in his element. "I'll approach the weekend the same way. The only thing I'm really worried about is the first tee ball tomorrow, and then I'll try to hit the next one up there close to the flag," Harman, who lives on a 60-acre ranch, hunts for his own food and drives a tractor, told reporters. "If not, go to the second hole. It's a very boring approach that I take. I'm not trying to be heroic or do anything crazy. I know that I've got the game to do it. It's just a matter of executing and staying in my own head." Harman enjoys the fact that there are "a million different ways" to play a course like the Dunluce Links, although it took him a while to figure them out as he missed the cut in four successive Open appearances between 2015 and 2019, when it was last staged at Royal Portrush. "I love the golf over here. It suits me. Distance, of course, matters over here, but it doesn't matter as much as maybe some other tournaments," he said. "You've got to know how far everything's going. Then you can't get frustrated. Like you're going to get bad breaks, you're going to end up in funny spots where it doesn't seem fair, and you just have to kind of outlast that stuff." Asked if he came close to dropping a shot on Friday, Harman struggled to come up with anything more than needing to hole a six-footer to save par at the 11th. No stress, no drama, just as Harman likes it.
Reuters
6 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
No stress, no fuss, Harman's boring approach works Open wonders again
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland, July 18 (Reuters) - American Brian Harman did what Brian Harman does best to take the clubhouse lead at the British Open on Friday -- hit fairways, sink putts and leave the stressing to others. Two years after seizing the halfway lead at Royal Liverpool and going on to lift the Claret Jug by a whopping six strokes, the 38-year-old from Savannah, Georgia is at it again, this timer across the Irish Sea at Royal Portrush. He carded the lowest round of the tournament, a bogey-free six-under-par 65 to move to eight under and throw down the gauntlet to the chasing pack. If Harman is interested in omens, he also fired a bogey-free 65 at Hoylake two years ago and was never threatened as he went on to claim his sole major, sapping the spirit of the chasers on a rain-soaked final day with a nerveless display. There is nothing flashy about the left-handed world number 26 who goes about his business with little fanfare. Indeed, as he played the 17th hole on Friday, many of the fans perched alongside the fairway seemed oblivious to the fact the Open leader was in their vicinity, instead gazing into the distance for a bird's eye view of home favourite Rory McIlroy. But his unflappable nature and relentless accuracy means that while British links courses mess with the minds of some of his compatriots, Harman feels completely in his element. "I'll approach the weekend the same way. The only thing I'm really worried about is the first tee ball tomorrow, and then I'll try to hit the next one up there close to the flag," Harman, who lives on a 60-acre ranch, hunts for his own food and drives a tractor, told reporters. "If not, go to the second hole. It's a very boring approach that I take. I'm not trying to be heroic or do anything crazy. I know that I've got the game to do it. It's just a matter of executing and staying in my own head." Harman enjoys the fact that there are "a million different ways" to play a course like the Dunluce Links, although it took him a while to figure them out as he missed the cut in four successive Open appearances between 2015 and 2019, when it was last staged at Royal Portrush. "I love the golf over here. It suits me. Distance, of course, matters over here, but it doesn't matter as much as maybe some other tournaments," he said. "You've got to know how far everything's going. Then you can't get frustrated. Like you're going to get bad breaks, you're going to end up in funny spots where it doesn't seem fair, and you just have to kind of outlast that stuff." Asked if he came close to dropping a shot on Friday, Harman struggled to come up with anything more than needing to hole a six-footer to save par at the 11th. No stress, no drama, just as Harman likes it.
Daily Mail
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Why brains and not brawn will bring home the Claret Jug at The Open, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
At 3.30pm on Wednesday, about 15 hours before Padraig Harrington was scheduled to hit the first shot of the 153rd Open, Bryson DeChambeau was out on the links of Royal Portrush trying to find sense in its riddles. It was the chuntering that gave his game away. He was practising on the 11th hole and that is one of the toughies — a 475-yard par four that bends aggressively to the right and is lined the entire way on both sides by gorse, mounds and lost balls. Behind DeChambeau was a magnificent view of the Irish Sea and, if you looked hard enough, Giant's Causeway. Out in front was something different — a narrow, snaking strip of fairway and the devilish question of how much of the corner you dared to cut. Or to frame that one slightly differently — are you feeling a bit silly today? Speak to the old boys, or even a younger one like Robert MacIntyre, and you know that is the crux of links golf. It is golf as it was first imagined and it is golf that we only see a few weeks of the year at the elite end. It is the golf of fescue and thorns and no pretty stripes in the grass. It is the golf of gusts and unfair bounces. It is golf where the brain counts for more than strength. It is the golf of wisdom and nous and, occasionally, taking the long way to get there quicker. Rolling the dice on a links course? It is silly to roll the dice. On the 11th, DeChambeau was feeling bold, naturally, so he took a greedy bite out of that corner and will have known that the more you bite, the less of a landing zone you have. He might also know by now that the locals, guys like Graeme McDowell, say this is one of the hardest holes on the course and that a missed fairway is an automatic bogey or worse. DeChambeau missed and then, with brambles at his ankles, missed the green. That was when he tried something else and worked on his approaches from the fairway, this time with his Trackman device on the ground behind him. He was going back to the world he knows best — the data of spin rates, clubhead speed, angles and trajectories. He is an interesting character, DeChambeau. A physics graduate, he styles himself as a scientist, and it has been years since we first added the 'mad', but that next shot at the 11th was better. It went well and he smiled. But before long he was in the rough stuff again and, laugh as he might, he was also bordering on a different kind of mad. An exasperated kind of mad. DeChambeau has always been a tough fit for the Open, where his results read: cut, T51, cut, T33, T8, T60, cut. He can be the smartest man in the world on a parkland course and the silliest on the links. But isn't that the beauty of this major? Isn't that the point? Because some get it and some don't. Some arrive later than others, like Phil Mickelson, and some never arrive at all. Will DeChambeau balance science with art — enough to win? Maybe, because he is so good, but good and wise are different beasts. It would be a brave bet. We might say the same about Scottie Scheffler. He has the shortest odds in this field of 156, which happens wherever he plays, but he has never finished higher than seventh at the Open. Statistically, he has all metrics on his side from tee to green, but what about those shots you rarely encounter in the manicured playgrounds of the US? Those bumps and runs between the mounds, those tests of ingenuity? Those chips across a moonscape that take the decision away from the usual of a wedge into the air, towards a seven iron along the contours? The Open is the most random of the big four and can throw up surprises every day GRAEME MCDOWELL's THREE KEY HOLES There is a reason Tom Watson was still challenging for a Claret Jug at 59 and there is a reason Scheffler is yet to show his very best over here. That will change sooner rather than later, we assume, but assumptions around links golf make jugs and mugs of us all. Experience counts and at 29, we are yet to see proof that Scheffler has cracked this code. It is complicated and so are the burdens of success — Scheffler's comments this week about the lack of 'fulfilment' he has found in his dominance of the game were arresting. He stunned us with his candour. Were they signs of burnout amid the relentless churn of tournaments? Or was he revealing that the secret to his dominance came from attaching greater importance to matters away from the course? It was both jolting and quite unclear. Rory McIlroy has had a few of those conversations himself of late. He returns to Portrush wishing to embrace the local hoopla, after admitting he was overwhelmed by the pressure of a home Open here in 2019. He carved his first shot out of bounds six years ago, but comes back with a Green Jacket and signs of drastically improved form and mood. He has the game and nous to pull this place apart, like he did as a 16-year-old when he set the course record of 61. Those numbers will surely not be repeated in 2025, but as ever much depends on the weather. The forecasts suggest rain on most days and the wind is expected to be modest, rather than the heavenly fury of Troon last year. That might favour the bigger names, of whom Jon Rahm ought to be rated a serious contender. He has not won on the LIV tour this year, but nor has he finished lower than 12th and his results in the 2025 majors are strong — 14th at the Masters, eighth at the PGA Championship and seventh in the US Open. Crucially, he has vast links experience. He spoke this week about first taking on the dunes as a 14-year-old with his dad, when he learned a three iron on the roll can be smarter than a driver on the fly. He also developed the counter-intuitive skill of being able to accept a bad outcome from a good shot. He would be my pick. But if the Masters can usually be predicted from a pool of a few names, the Open is the most random of the big four. It might be too soon in the recovery from a rib injury for Xander Schauffele upon the defence of his title, but what about Shane Lowry? He is the best chipper in golf and won the last time it was in Portrush. A number of experts fancy him for a good week and ditto Sepp Straka. Tommy Fleetwood also has the ball striking to do well, Tyrrell Hatton has the iron play, Ludvig Aberg has the lot and MacIntyre is a former champion of the Scottish Open whose links expertise has been sought by both Scheffler and DeChambeau. Further from left field, the range talk is floating names like Tom McKibbin, a local who joined Rahm's LIV team, and Ryan Fox, who is overdue a strong major. At this stage, it's all hypothetical at a tournament where predicting a winner is as foolish as getting greedy at the 11th.
The Independent
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Miranda Richardson on the addictiveness of open water swimming
Miranda Richardson was a late convert to open water swimming – but now she can't get enough of immersing herself in freezing cold water and being at one with nature in our rivers and lakes. In fact, the BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated actress confesses that open water swimming is rather addictive. 'The thing is that once it gets you, wherever you are you're looking askance at a puddle and thinking 'I could get in there, yeah, I could, just for a minute. It'd be all right'. It's a bit like that,' she says with a chuckle. Richardson, 67, who's starred in numerous films, TV and theatre productions and whose versatility even stretched to playing the comedic Queen Elizabeth 1 (Queenie) in Blackadder II, was first introduced to open water swimming during filming in Ireland a few years ago, when she took an exhilarating dip in the Irish Sea. 'I got very lucky on that day, and I was in the water for about half an hour thinking, I can't believe this, I can't believe I'm here,' she recalls. 'And then I started going regularly in my time off, and it becomes somewhat addictive – the endorphin rush is good, but also the rhythmic nature of swimming is great, and what you see around you is great, and there's a healthy dose of jeopardy as well in open water swimming – you haven't got the same infrastructure that you have in your local municipal pool or lido. 'It's all very healthy – it's really wonderful for both mind and body.' Richardson now tries to go for an open water swim two or three times a week, and is a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club in London's Hyde Park. And she's so enamoured with wild swimming that she's about to take part in a wild swim challenge in Norfolk in August, to raise £100,000 for WWF. Richardson and her friend, fellow actress Maggie Service, who's appeared on TV shows including Good Omens, Dr Who and Call the Midwife, are undertaking a tough tidal open water 3.5km Wild Swim Mission at Blakeney Point, a national nature reserve on the north Norfolk coast, on August 9 to raise funds and awareness for WWF's work protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems, rivers and wetlands. And the acting duo are also hoping they'll inspire others to take part in WWF's public Swim Challenge to swim five, 10 or 20km during August to support WWF's work. 'I wanted to take on this swim with Maggie as a challenge for both mind and body,' says Richardson. 'But it's also about raising awareness of the beauty and fragility of our natural habitats. 'This is definitely a step up, but I'm excited to take it on – it's kind of daunting, but great.' She's been training with Service, and says she has phases of managing to do an open water swim every day, declaring: 'It's a wonderful start to the day, and it's the best part of the day.' The coldest temperature she's swum in is two degrees (for two minutes), and she says she's had 'a couple of squeaky times where you just have to take it easy.' But she warns that open water swimmers, and particularly newcomers, 'obviously have to be very aware, and not be stupid,' and find out about things like currents and sewage levels before even attempting to swim in a river. 'You've got to take advice and keep up-to-date with what's going on,' she advises. 'We're not saying go and find a stretch of water that nobody else has found and do something dangerous,' she stresses. 'Obviously you have to take your own risks, and you have to do a bit of research on where you might go, and be with someone, That's also a very good idea, at least initially, unless you're an extremely competent swimmer.' Urging people to take part in the WWF Swim Challenge, she says: 'I think you'd be surprised at how much you'd enjoy not just the rush, but the meditative qualities of swimming, and particularly swimming in nature.' Of course life isn't just about open water swimming for the busy actress, who's just been working on a film called The Bitter End, which stars Joan Collins and Isabella Rossellini, about the later years of Wallis Simpson's life – who became the Duchess of Windsor after marrying Edward VIII. But when she gets some free time, as well as heading for open water, whenever possible Richardson also manages to work with an ex-ballerina who does a 'wonderful, glorious mixture' of dance, Pilates, and HIIT classes both in-person and on an app. 'We just all need to keep moving as we go through life so that we can balance, we can not fall, we can get up from wherever and get on,' says Richardson, who admits: 'I can't bear gyms. I know a lot of people love them and swear by them, but I don't find the atmosphere in most of them conducive at all, so I avoid them. 'But that's not to say I don't have weights – I don't have a gym, and I don't wish for a gym, but most of what I do you can achieve with your own body weight and some free weights. ' She says she's a 'big fan' of yoga, although she hasn't done it for a long time and admits: 'I'm probably not as flexible as I'd like to think I am, but as we know, it's not a competition.' But overall, she says her health is pretty good, and points out: 'I wouldn't be doing this swim mission if I thought I wasn't in a good way – I think that would be rather foolish.' You can support Miranda Richardson and Maggie Service's Wild Swim Mission and help them reach their £100,000 goal to raise funds for WWF's work.
