IRISH FALTER IN THE WIND
No comforts of home for the local boys as Rahm steals the affections of Derry crowd
PETER ALLISS ON WHY HE WANTS ‘GULLIVER’ TIGER TO COME BACK Go to page 56
AS IRISH Open records were scattered in the balmy breezes at Portstewart yesterday, a chill wind of reality swept across the venerable links.
On a course suited to the upbringing of Irish professional golfers, their win-less streak, which stretches back to Padraig Harrington’s Portugal Masters win last October, continues.
Rory McIlroy, the poster boy of Portstewart, was at home watching the rugby, while Graeme McDowell, who grew up four miles away, was also marked absent as a crowd of 23,208 descended on the Derry links.
With their local heroes missing, the spectators attached themselves to the survivors, specifically to Harrington, but little wind was generated in the Irish sails.
As the flags fluttered and the scoreboards creaked and groaned under a barrage of birdies, eagles, and even a hole in one from Swede Peter Hanson, there was nothing to cheer about from an Irish perspective.
On a ‘traditional links day’, as Harrington described it, the challenge of Irish golfers withered under blue skies and on increasingly slicker greens.
In scoring conditions they have known since their juvenile days, not one of the five, Harrington, Paul Dunne, Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey or Gavin Moynihan could break 70.
To put that collective disappointment into perspective, more than a third of the field, 23 out of 65, shot 69 or better.
There were two 64s, from Julian Quesne and Scott Hend, who played with Lowry, and a quartet of 66s, yet the best Irish return of the day was Hoey’s 70. The spectators deserved more.
Moynihan felt the course was playing ‘one or two shots tougher’ in the breeze, however Lowry countered ‘it was easy out there’ and the red-hot scoring suggested that was true.
Harrington acknowledged the grim state of play from a home perspective. ‘It is a disappointment that there is no Irishman up there,’ he said.
‘It would be nice if you had an Irish challenger in there pushing these guys, at least causing some drama.’
The drama is being supplied by Jon Rahm and Daniel Im who lead on 17-under-par, after rounds of 67 and 68, respectively. One shot back on 16 under is Benjamin Hebert of France on 69.
Those 54-hole totals are lower than the previous Irish Open record mark of 15-under set by Patrick Sjoland at Ballybunion in 1999 — another course which was vulnerable to low scoring.
While Justin Rose (66) is four shots back on 13-under, Rahm is the bookies’ favourite, and the darling of the galleries too as he seeks to follow such legends as Seve Ballesteros, Jose-Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia as Spanish winners of the 90-year-old event.
Harrington too, is a fan of the ‘Desperate Dan’ lookalike with the build of an NFL quarter-back.
‘Golf fans are very happy to go watch Jon Rahm play golf. I think everyone is interested in seeing him,’ he said.
Rahm has made friends wherever he’s been this week. After a slowburning 67, which caught fire with four straight birdies on the back nine, he even found time to joke about his Friday evening choice of dinner.
‘The restaurant I was at last night only had a 10-ounce steak, that’s no good for me, so I ordered lamb,’ he said with a disarming smile. The 22-year giant from Bilbao, but based in the US, is playing only his second event in Europe but has knuckled down like a seasoned veteran.
He was worried about one hole this week, the ninth, after making a mess of it in the British Amateur two years ago but has negotiated it safely in par each day, while gobbling up two eagles and 19 birdies elsewhere.
For a guy with a suspect fuse, Rahm felt the key to his round was patience while he also bought into the positive vibe from the huge support.
‘Even when I made that bogey on eight, I could still hear the cheers. The local people were supporting me and that helps out a lot,’ he said.
‘I could feel that, and I think I just let the energy just drive me. I got on the birdie train on 11 and lucky for me I made four in a row.’
The fourth, at the 14th, was straight from the Ballesteros handbook, as Rahm himself acknowledged.
‘I was lucky to make a couple good ones on 11 and 12, and then the bonus one on 14. That was kind of a Seve birdie, all over the place,’ he smiled.
A shift in wind and plenty of rain are forecast today but Rahm will be ready.
‘It makes the course a little longer, the greens a little slower, but you can get a little more aggressive,’ he said.
The top nine names on the leaderboard, covered by four shots, represent seven different nations, including the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
It is a glowing reflecting of the healthy international appeal of the Irish Open, and its bumper $6.1million purse.
That Harrington, a month shy of his 46th birthday and with only 28 rounds of golf in his legs this year, is the domestic flag-bearer on eight under, suggests the reputation of Irish professional golf, however, is not as vigorous as it might like to think it is.