16-07-2025
Portrush return a fitting time to mark a glorious era
The return of the Open Championship to the north Antrim coast, so soon after its last visit, has been taken as an appropriate time to mark Irish golf's years of plenty on the world stage.
Tourism Ireland has produced a glossy documentary, screened last week on the Sky Sports Golf Channel, called 'This is Open Country' celebrating the last two decades of Irish success in the Open Championship, and in the majors more broadly.
The facts and figures are well known at this stage. Between Padraig Harrington rattling in his nervy bogey putt on the fourth play-off hole in Carnoustie in 2007 and Rory McIlroy collapsing into a puddle of emotion on the 18th green at Augusta last April, Irish golf has racked up 11 major championship wins.
Seen in a broader historical context, this is an extroardinary burst of success. Back in the latter part of the 20th century, winning majors was something Irish golfers just didn't do.
In those innocent days, the best we could hope for was one of our boys taking down an American big-shot in the Ryder Cup singles, becoming the toast of the continent and then getting tossed in the lake at the Belfry while draped in a tricolour.
Fred Daly's victory at Royal Liverpool in 1947 on a score of +21 - take that, USGA - was the island's sole major championship victory and occurred during an era when the top American professionals didn't tend to bother with the 'British Open'.
The only US player in the vicinity of the leaderboard for Daly's win was Frank Stranahan, who crucially was still an amateur player at the time.
Sam Snead and Ben Hogan played the Open Championship only once during their pomp and both won it once. Snead's meagre winning purse didn't come close to covering the expense of travelling over and he spent the week at St Andrew's in foul humour, like Red Foreman being forced to endure a holiday in the south of France.
It wasn't until Arnold Palmer and his quest for a 'modern grand slam' in 1960 - in partial emulation of Bobby Jones' feat in the amateur era 30 years earlier - that the Open Championship recovered its gilded status among players from across the pond.
The 'majors' as we recognise them today were established then though not everyone was on board.
Christy O'Connor Snr had been the best player on the British & Irish circuit - ie, the effective forerunner of the European Tour - in the late 50s and early 60s, and he ran the Open Championship close a few times, finishing runner-up behind Peter Thompson in 1965.
Harry Bradshaw subsequently advanced the theory that O'Connor was ambivalent about the idea of winning the Open Championship, reasoning that this would change his life. And he didn't want that.
O'Connor famously turned down 20+ Masters invitations during his heyday, reasoning that his game wouldn't be in good nick at the time of the year and that it didn't make economic sense.
In the 80s and 90s, Irish golfers were mostly TV spectators when the American majors rolled around. Europeans had a legendary spell of dominance in Augusta in those years, though this country didn't share in this bonanza.
The other US majors, behind a TV paywall from the mid-90s, were remote to the lives of the average Irish pro and always seemed too suffused in Americana to be accessible.
The US Open was typically won by nationalistic Yanks and/or Republican party donors like Payne Stewart or Lee Janzen. The PGA Championship, the major with the least distinctiveness and grandeur, was won by Americans 95% of the time and then occasionally by the odd Antipodean or else Gary Player.
The Open Championship, by contrast, always held a degree of Irish interest. Every now and again, a European Tour stalwart from these shores would make a run at it.
Christy O'Connor Jnr finished tied-third at Sandwich in 1985, two strokes behind Sandy Lyle, having begun with a sensational 64 on Thursday to take a four-stroke lead after Round 1.
Eamonn Darcy was right in the mix in Birkdale in '91, only one shot off the lead heading into the final round after an excellent 66 on Saturday.
Paul McGinley was leader at the halfway point alongside Tom Lehman in Royal Lytham in '96 and then Clarke was in the hunt in Troon in '97, finishing tied-second.
By the turn of the century, expectations had been raised. Harrington, with his obsessive work ethic, had embarked on the journey which would culminate in his three major wins in 2007 and 2008.
The dramatic playoff win over Sergio Garcia at the most feared Open Championship course was seismic at the time and feels even more so in retrospect. Harrington's wins had a galvinising effect on the rest of Irish golf. A major frontier had been breached.
As McGinley indicated in the documentary, Clarke, who was perceived to have missed the boat, almost took Harrington's wins as an affront, believing in his bones he was a better player. In 2011, at 42, he became the oldest debut major winner since Roberto Di Vincenzo in 1967.
By then, McIlroy was already a superstar. Three years later at Royal Liverpool, having recently recovered from a turbulent, year-long slump, he won by two strokes to add to his haul of majors. And it was surely only a matter of time before a green jacket completed the set...
Five years later, the decade was closed out in riotous fashion, Shane Lowry cantering to victory as the Open returned to Royal Portrush for the first time in 68 years.
From an international perspective, there was probably little enough drama down the strech, with Lowry sitting on a comfortable lead. On that Sunday, it felt like Ireland had formally co-opted the Open Championship and was having a party on home soil, while the rest of the world watched on, their noses pressed against the window.
There's little mystery as to why it's the major most suited to Irish players. No country in the world is more blessed with glorious links courses and the weather is less of an issue for our lads than it is for the Jupiter, Florida set.
It's an American golf nut's idea of heaven, traipsing around the Irish coastline with their golf bag in the boot, taking in Ballybunion, Lahinch, Old Head of Kinsale, et al.
"This is the best that life that has to offer," golf writer - and 'Full Swing' talking head - Dan Rapaport wrote this week ahead of a six-day long golf binge, which began in Portmarnock.
It also helps to explain why the US golf sickos and podcasters get so irate whenever the Irish Open is held at a parkland venue, as it is again this year.
They at least get their Irish links fix at the Open Championship.
The tournament's speedy return to Portrush indicates that it's become a fully-fledged part of the famous 'rota'. Turnberry has fallen out of favour, to the dismay of many, not least its current owner in the White House.
Xander Schauffele could be forgiven for being a tad irked at the narrative in Antrim this week.
One local reporter appeared to skim-read their brief and asked Lowry this week about his chances of emulating Padraig Harrington's feat of winning it back-to-back. The 2019 champion responded diplomatically that Schauffele was the only player capable of pulling that off this year.
Regardless of how things are going, Lowry will presumably refrain from crying out 'F**k this place' as he did at various stages at the last two major venues.
Outside of the majors, the 2019 champion has enjoyed a consistent year, even if that tour win has remained frustratingly elusive. The last Open champion to win twice at the same course, meanwhile, was Tiger Woods at St Andrew's in 2000 and 2005.
McIlroy has less to improve upon from his harrowing experience in 2019. He should at least be able to muster a better start. And he was in fine form in Scotland last weekend, finishing runner-up behind Chris Gotterup.
He is again in a relatively buoyant mood, having recovered from his strange post-Masters funk, where he seemed suddenly bereft of motivation and severely miffed following the driver-gate fallout.
Oddly enough, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is in the midst of an existentialist phase of his own. In a startlingly open press conference, the three-time major winner admitted that the afterglow of victory doesn't be long burning out.
It was a wonderfully honest performance even if the words "I'm not here to inspire the next generation of players because what's the point?" probably won't be included in his next Rolex ad.
With another golfer - Brooks Koepka, for instance - such a disclosure might have sounded alarm bells for their week. With Scheffler, the suspicion is he'll be even more relaxed and composed come the weekend.
Elsewhere, Jon Rahm, after a dismal first year in the majors after joining LIV, looks back in the groove in 2025 and is among the favourites.
The Irish contingent, meanwhile, will be centre-stage in the first two days at least. Golf fans here should savour that while it lasts. History reminds us it may not always be the case.
