Royal Portrush is just the ticket for McDowell

Graeme urges fans to book their place early as he targets a special victory on home turf

THE Open will be played at Royal Portrush for the second time in 12 months’ time and Graeme McDowell can be forgiven for drifting off into dreamland and visions of striding up the 18th to Claret Jug glory.

A native of the town, he’s a lifelong member of Rathmore, the blue collar club whose members enjoy playing rights on both the Valley Course and famous Dunluce links of Royal Portrush.

Naturally, he’s determined to make sure he’s at Royal Portrush from 18-21 July next year for the first staging of The Open since Max Faulkner won the only edition of the championship held on the island of Ireland in 1951.

While 190,000 fans are expected to attend, tickets are now on sale and McDowell did his bit for the R&A this week, by encouraging fans to get theirs early.

All you have to do is visit TheOpen.com/PortrushTickets and those who join The One Club – which is free of charge – will be eligible to buy priority tickets.

“I am so excited at the prospect of The Open being played at Royal Portrush,” said McDowell, who learned the game on the little pitch and putt course at the links.

“The Open is a unique event in golf and one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events. Northern Ireland is such a special place to play golf. The passion, support and knowledge of the fans is incredible.

“I believe that this coupled with the magic that is The Open is going to create a memorable occasion. I would encourage everyone to try to get to Portrush next July. It promises to be a magical experience for both players and spectators.”

McDowell’s brother Gary is a greenkeeper at Royal Portrush but his father Kenny has to pinch himself when he’s reminded that son is a major winner himself, having captured the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach.

“We never dreamed about Graeme becoming a top golfer. wasn’t our dream, it was his,” Kenny said. “But that’s not to say we aren’t immensely proud of everything he has achieved.

“He was only seven or eight when he first picked up a golf club. I remember it well. We started going over to the local pitch and putt and every Sunday after lunch, Gary and Graeme would pipe up: ‘Take us over, take us over.’

“So they just battered balls around and Marian and I stayed in the car. We were happy to let them at it. Now it cost £1 a round on The Himalayas, which is the name of the nine-hole pitch and putt course attached to Royal Portrush.

“I thought I was going to end up in the poorhouse because the boys wanted to play all the time. So I made a deal with the pro at the time, Dai Stevenson. For £10 they could play The Himalayas for the season. When Graeme and Gary played 33 rounds in the first week, considered it money well spent. Mind you, Dai had other ideas.

“Anyway you couldn’t join Rathmore until you were ten so they both joined at the same time and they brought each other on.

“Whenever they went for lessons with the pro, he used to line them all up and have a target maybe 100 yards away and say, ‘Right, the closest to the target gets a Mars bar.’ Well after about six goes, Graeme was hitting from about another 50 yards back. He was winning a lot of Mars bars.

“The boys just lived on the golf course, especially during the school holidays. I left them over in the morning because myself and Marian both worked. In the summer, I left them over to the club when I was going to work at a quarter to eight. They had a lunch box and we took them over their tea.

“It would be getting dark and they still wouldn’t be home and Marian would be saying: ‘They couldn’t be still at the golf course?’

“And I’d be saying, I’ll tell you where they will be. There is a big bush at the back of the 17th green on the Royal. I bet you they are there. So we drove over and I flashed the car lights and next thing, Graeme’s head popped up: ‘Coming now dad, give us five more minutes.’ They were knocking shots into the 17th.”

The old 17th will be part of the tented village next year following the construction of two new holes on the Dunluce Links for The Open.

But if you get your tickets, keep an eye out for those bushes and remember how a major winner was forged there, long before the 2019 Open champion was crowned.