Inevitable, wasn’t it? Except, for a time, doubt hung in the air around this piece of real estate in Co Kildare. Until, finally, it didn’t, as Rory McIlroy – who required three holes of sudden death to finally overcome the stubborn resistance of Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren – again produced that masterful X-factor to add further lustre to his golfing legacy.
McIlroy, in the role of pursuer, set off on his chase from the first tee in donning waterproofs as a soft, persistent rain escaped from the grey clouds overhead. But by the time he completed the task of laying claim to the Amgen Irish Open for a second time in his career, a sunny spotlight shone down on the Northern Irishman as he raised his arms to the packed galleries around the 18th green.
The drama was unrelenting throughout a final round of supreme shot-making by many, outrageous putts, a hole-in-one and, indeed, some elements of luck, with McIlroy twice being thankful for the heavy, wet rough saving his ball from progressing down grassy banks to the hazards, on the third and especially off his drive on the 15th.
And, like the showman embellishing his performance, there was the remarkable sight of his ball doing a full 360-degrees around the tin cup on the 13th green before the birdie putt fell into the tin cup.
Such are the memories that will live in the head.
Frenchman Adrien Saddier had set off with the lead, a shot clear of Spain’s Angel Hidalgo with McIlroy, like Lagergren, cast four shots adrift. The scene was set.
On a day of magnificent golf, which enthralled the huge crowds who’d packed the grandstands and crammed onto the mounds of this stadium course designed by Arnold Palmer exactly for these big tournaments, McIlroy’s closing eagle on the 18th for a 66 enabled him to join Lagergren on 17-under-par 271.
This was a final round which wasn’t decided until the death, in truth. When McIlroy completed his front nine, having moved to 14-under, he was part of a five-way share of the lead that also featured Rafa Cabrera Bello, Lagergren, Hidalgo and Saddier.
Cabrera Bello had aced the Par 3 third hole to kick-start his charge and would sign for a 67 that left him in tied-third alongside his fellow Spaniard Hidalgo, two shots behind McIlroy and Lagergren.
Lagergren, ranked 1,194th in the world, had seemed to grab the initiative with his own brilliance when playing the Par 5 16th. There the Swede, whose only win on the European circuit had come in the Sicilian Open in 2018, hit a 3-wood approach from 266 yards to eight feet. It was an audacious shot, his ball finding the green between the flag and the banks of the River Liffey with no room at all for error. To his immense credit, he rolled in the eagle putt and when he birdied the 18th for his 66, it looked for all the world as if the title would be his.
Not so fast!
McIlroy has history in these parts. En route to his first Irish Open win in 2016, when he was the tournament host, McIlroy too had shown bravery and skill in reaching the 16th green in two before two-putting for a birdie and then produced what would be the Shot of the Year on the DP World Tour when hitting a 5-wood approach to three feet for a closing eagle to win.
And when McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond arrived to the fairway of the 18th hole for the 72nd hole of regulation play, they each knew that an eagle – and nothing less – was what was required if extra-time would be forced.
The perfect drive left a eight-iron in hand and, from 202 yards, McIlroy’s approach finished 27 feet below the hole.
“I had a putt on the last green last year at RCD to force a playoff with Rasmus, and it just missed on the high side. So it felt like it was a little bit of redemption. I hit it, and I wanted to just be aggressive with it. It was such a cool moment, such a cool feeling for that to go in. That gave me a chance in the playoff.”
That aggressive uphill, right-to-left eagle putt enabled McIlroy to join Lagergren on 17-under and, behind him, Hidalgo needed to do the same to make it a three-way play-off. He couldn’t.
So it was that McIlroy and Lagergren were transported in buggies back to the 18th tee for a sudden-death play on the iconic Par 5 dog-leg. It wouldn’t be straightforward, though. The first time of asking, the hole was halved in birdies. The second time of asking, the hole was halved in birdies.
And, then, a third time.
McIlroy’s drive was pushed and, for the first time in his four tee-shots on that 18th, the ball found the rough. Advantage Lagergren? It looked so. But Lagergren’s approach was pulled ever so slightly and, when it hit the fringe of the green, it ran over the bank into the hazard.
Advantage McIlroy? For sure. There was never any chance of going anywhere near the water, and McIlroy safely found the green – a brilliant shot in its own right out of the clinging rough – and he very nearly sank the eagle putt. The tap-in birdie from McIlroy left Lagergren, who’d taken his penalty drop greenside, needing to chip-in for a birdie to force further sudden-death.
He didn’t, and the roars from the galleries – spine tingling ones – saluted McIlroy’s victory, one which added further to his legacy in a year where he has completed the Grand Slam in adding the Masters to his Pebble Beach and The Players successes.