Rory joins the runners-up club

RORY McILROY has joined Fred Daly, Harry Bradshaw, Christy O’Connor and Darren Clarke as Irish golfers who’ve finished runner-up in The Open.

Unlike Bradshaw and O’Connor, who never got their hands on the Claret Jug – Himself had 10 top 10 finishes – McIlroy, Daly and Clarke all won the oldest championship.

The first near miss came in 1947 when Daly was five shots behind Henry Cotton at Muirfield, while two years later, Bradshaw tied with Bobby Locke at Royal St George’s and lost the 36-hole playoff.

Bradshaw was thwarted by a bizarre event at the fifth hole during the second round when his ball landed in a broken bottle.

He played where it lay, although he was entitled to a free drop, but didn’t move it far. The subsequent bogey proved costly.

O’Connor was one shot behind Peter Thomson and Dave Thomas at Lytham in 1958 and two shots behind Thomson at Birkdale seven years later.

While Clarke was runner-up to Justin Leonard at Troon in 1997, beaten by three strokes.

Pádraig Harrington, a two-time Open winner, was a shot outside a four-man play-off at Muirfield in 2002 where he bogeyed the last

hole.