I’d rather have Rory here than any of the next 10 on the Order of Merit
THE eight-year-old kid only had eyes for one golfer as he fought for a decent vantage point at Woodbrook, a course as flat as a pancake. It was 1975 and Paul McGinley was with his father Mick, at the Irish Open – the first in 22 years and the one which marked the start of the tournament’s revival on the European Tour.
That summer, sponsors Carroll’s plastered billboards around Dublin with photos of Tom Watson and Jack Newton, who’d duelled for Open glory at Carnoustie a few weeks earlier.
The ploy worked as huge galleries flocked to Woodbrook to see bigtime golf return to Ireland. ‘That’s where Tom Watson became my hero,’ recalled McGinley. ‘Christy O’Connor Jnr won. That was the first Irish Open I remember going to.’
Watson remains McGinley’s idol, even if the eight-time major winner came out second best in the Ryder Cup in 2014 when the doughty Dub supervised a glorious European game-plan at Gleneagles.
The American never played in the Irish Open again, but McGinley has been teeing it up at his native championship for almost 30 years.
His CV stands up to scrutiny, too. There was the ‘great thrill’ of a thirdplace finish in 2000 to Patrick Sjoland at Ballybunion, where Watson was club captain but unable to attend the event.
Four years later at Baltray, McGinley jumped from the cut-line to finish fifth behind Brett Rumford, and then kicked on to make the Ryder Cup team, where he holed a certain putt of relevance on the final day.
This week at Ballyliffin may be one of his last hurrahs at the Irish Open for he won’t play next summer as tournament host in Lahinch.
Come 2020, he will be 53, and probably busier than ever with his commitments to TV, the European Tour board, and his golf design business. ‘I won’t rule out playing in the Irish Open again, I’ll see how my golf games goes. I don’t want to go there for the sake of it; I want to be competitive,’ he said. As preparation for Sky’s coverage, McGinley was given a job this weekend he’d willingly have volunteered for. For there was no one better qualified to showcase the nooks and crannies of hidden Donegal than McGinley, whose roots with his Dad’s home county, run deep. As a kid, he’d scampered around the dunes of Dunfanaghy on the west flank of Sheephaven Bay, and he’s been a regular visitor since.
‘It’s the prettiest county in Ireland, a place I’m really proud of,’ he says. ‘Donegal has a rawness that other counties don’t have, the cliffs, oceans, beaches, mountains, all sorts of terrain.’
This is the first of four events in the next six weeks and should his game sharpen, no one should discount a McGinley challenge at the Senior Open in St Andrews next month.
The back problems which plagued him in recent years – he cut a disconsolate figure after being forced to pull out of the 2015 Irish Open on the final day when inside the top 20 – have receded.
He is swinging freely and ready for a busy spell inside the ropes, for nothing stokes his fire like the Irish Open, especially when it’s taking place on his home turf. Last July, after missing the cut badly at Portstewart, he spoke of having ‘unfinished business with golf’. He still feels that way.
Ideally, he would prefer breeze and blue skies next week as Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm spearhead a quality field in the Dubai Duty Freesponsored event, which carries a bumper €7m prize fund as a Rolex Series event on the European Tour.
‘Glashedy was a big, big, course last time I was there about 10 years ago. It will be interesting to see how it plays with modern equipment.
‘I spoke to John Farren (Ballyliffin general manager) this week and he says the course is in terrific shape with the weather we’ve had. The rough has grown, and the course is primed.’
The Pat Ruddy-Tom Craddock design measures 7,220 yards from the back tees and plays to a par of 72. It is no push-over, especially if the winds blow.
‘It’s a driver’s golf course. Like all links, there is a high premium on ball control, using wind as your friend, keeping it on fairways and greens.
‘A good ball striker will come through, as it’s not a course you can fudge it around on. Bright and breezy are the conditions we want. We don’t want rain, we don’t want it calm either,’ said McGinley. Spearheading the field is defending champion Rahm, the world number six, and McIlroy, the world number seven, who is hosting the Irish Open for the fourth and final time. While he won so memorably at The K Club in 2015, where there was a premium on length on rainsodden fairways, McIlroy has missed the cut thrice since 2014. As he reassessed his goals at the end of 2017, McIlroy suggested to McGinley, and his fellow Irish pros, they might shoulder the responsibility of overseeing the event going forward. ‘That conversation came from Rory. In terms of his re-assessment of his game and a rededication, part of it was minimising distractions that were taking him away from golf ‘Rory wanted to focus on his golf more. It’s tough being a host, you’re
asked to go to a lot of things. He wanted to be there as golfer and a golfer alone. We’re happy to take on the mantle,’ said McGinley.
A year ago, McIlroy enticed the likes of Hideki Matsuyama, who was then world number two, Justin Rose, and Tommy Fleetwood to Portstewart. None of them are Donegal-bound this week but McGinley is adamant the field remains strong.
‘You’ve the Opens of France, Ireland, Scotland all leading into the Open at Carnoustie, it’s a challenge to get quality players.
‘Once you have Rory and Jon Rahm, anyone else is a bonus after that. I’d prefer to have Rory in the field than have the next 10 guys in the Order of Merit and not have Rory.’
This year, McGinley is there too, and the Irish Open is all the better for it.
You can’t fudge this course, if you don’t have control you are in trouble