There’s no place like home for hero G-Mac
IN the entrance hall at Rathmore Golf Club, Rory Hamilton, a former captain, was armed with a warm welcome, and a polite request to sign the visitors’ book.
As Open fans ducked for cover during a late afternoon downpour, Hamilton was being kept busy, but no one was turned away, for Rathmore is not like that.
The homely artisan’s club nestles in the shadow of its big brother Royal Portrush and in every convivial nook there is evidence of one of its favourite sons: Graeme McDowell. His photos adorn the walls, along with shirts and replica trophies from his triumphs, including the 2010 US Open.
The club captain Stephen Murdock spoke glowingly of McDowell, who won the Arnold Palmer award the night before from the Association of Golf Writers’ for his accessibility. ‘Graeme has always been like that, approachable and easy to talk to. You can take the lad out of Portrush, but you can’t take Portrush out of the lad,’ said Murdock.
In one corner sat Kenny McDowell, watching his middle son being interviewed for TV. McDowell is a former club president and would have been captain if he had the time. ‘My dad had three jobs for most of his life. He got the bug in his 30s, and he got it pretty hard. Thankfully, the game was affordable to him,’ explained G-Mac yesterday. ‘He brought my brothers [Gary and George] and I out on the course and we got the bug quickly too.’
In football terms, Rathmore is Rochdale to Portrush’s Manchester United, whose members have access to the
adjacent 36hole links at certain times. This is where McDowell learnt his trade, skipping out on the Valley Links regularly, and the championship Dunluce Links irregularly, at first. ‘Dad was heavily involved in the junior programme and all I ever wanted was to be at the club and compete. It kept me out of trouble.’
At 13, McDowell was a signboy at the final of the Amateur Championship. By the time he graduated to the pro ranks he reckoned he’d ‘walked past the photo of Fred Daly with the Claret Jug in his hand about 10,000 times’. Daly grew up a mere wedge away, in 110 Causeway Street, where a blue plaque erected by the Ulster History Circle states: ‘Fred Daly, MBE, 19111990, Golfer, Winner of the Open Championship 1947 was born here.’ A fine hockey player in his youth, Daly was twice captain of Rathmore in the early 1950s although he was the professional at Balmoral, near Belfast.
The Daly family later moved to a house in Portrush, which they called ‘Hoylake’ after his Open win, and when he died in 1990, Daly was buried in nearby Ballywillin Cemetery. The irons he used on the Wirral are on display in a glass case at the Rathmore club, opposite a replica of the US Open trophy won by McDowell.
Perhaps this week, McDowell might be in a position to donate his own irons should he emerge as the last man standing on Sunday.
He tees off today at 9.14am in a unique place. After all, how many modern-day major winners have ever got to play an Open championship in their hometown?
Not many since the days of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris from St Andrews. Daly was one, as he pulled in huge crowds to Portrush when the Open was last here in 1951.
And for all the standing of Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke, it is McDowell who commands the most partisan support.
Almost 40, his return to the Open for the first time since 2016 could not have been timed better, and the challenge now is to play the event, not the occasion. McDowell said he ‘felt nervous’ when he teed off in practice on Tuesday in front of a huge gallery. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I figured I’m going to feel a little fired up in the morning on the first tee. ‘I’m trying to picture the crowd as a Ryder Cup crowd. I need to use them positively and not see it as a negative thing.’ McDowell has knocked it around Portrush in 63 a couple of times, when he stopped ‘for a Magners at the 10th with the lads, so that’s not a real 63’.
He’d take anything in the 60s this morning.
‘If I can somehow get out of the blocks, get settled and get into the mix, it would be pretty cool to be coming down [the stretch] on Sunday. That’s the goal.’
And in the Rathmore clubhouse, they will be rooting for their hero.