David, who hails from the southern tip of Ireland in County Cork, and Cordula drove 2500 kilometres from Austria to be at Portrush. For those playing at home, that’s the equivalent of driving from Melbourne to Townsville.
Why? “We like golf.”
The fans
More than one million hopeful golf fans entered the ballot for tickets to this year’s Open, meaning the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) easily sold its maximum 278,000 tickets for the four-day event.
That’s not even counting the 89,000 people who attended the four days of practice. Not bad for a holiday town with a population of 6500.
McIlroy is a sporting giant in sports-mad Ireland, where this week’s Open is up against a variety of big-ticket events. Pubs across the country are booked out on Saturday for the British and Irish Lions’ first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane. The next day, 82,000 people will pack Croke Park to watch Cork take on Munster neighbours Tipperary in the All-Ireland Hurling final.
Rory McIlroy has a loyal following at Royal Portrush.Credit: AP
But McIlroy carries a different kind of gravitas.
“He’s a national figure. He epitomises golf and all that it stands for,” says Chris McHale, who travelled two hours on a train from Belfast to watch day one of the Open.
“He represents everything that’s good about golf. He’s not out just to win, he likes to win, but he doesn’t want to win at all costs. He puts integrity before the game. I think in years to come, people will talk about the greats of golf; Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player … and Rory McIlroy will be one of those.”
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“Northern Ireland has produced a lot of world-class sporting personalities, but I think Rory will be the undying one because everyone loves him; even the people that don’t play golf.”
While McIlroy is undeniably a drawcard, his appearance at Royal Portrush was not the only motivation for David and Cordula’s five-day drive from Austria. They simply love of the game of golf.
“I took up golf five years ago because my husband was playing for a long time,” Cordula said. “It’s the atmosphere, it’s the people, it’s the skill they have.”
So what have they made about the hysteria surrounding McIlroy?
“It’s rock and roll,” David smiled. “I’m surprised there’s so many media on day one following him, which has put a little bit of extra pressure.
“Everybody loves golf, everybody plays golf, then all of a sudden, we have someone playing at that level. I mean, come on, the guy is charming!”
Fairways were lined five and six deep on every hole McIlroy played on Thursday. Teenagers screamed for a wave, while others held out hats and golf balls, praying for a quick signature.
But getting close to McIlroy is extremely difficult.
The security
Tens of thousands of people followed McIlroy from hole to hole during his opening round at Portrush. On top of the fans seeking a mere glimpse of the local hero, hundreds of journalists, broadcasters, photographers and security staff walked the course with him.
McIlroy approaches the 18th green on Thursday.Credit: Getty Images
In fact, unless you were watching closely, it would be easy to miss Andy.
Andy is McIlroy’s personal bodyguard.
We don’t know a whole lot about Andy, other than he’s former military, now runs a private security company, lives in Dubai and when Rory is playing golf, Andy is his shadow.
The R&A don’t allow personal security to guard players on the course, so for the four days of the tournament he’s technically employed as a marshall.
That helps Andy blend in with the other course officials, wearing a white R&A polo tucked into pants with a matching hat.
Andy wears black, tinted sunglasses and brown combat boots. Strapped to both his shoulders is a black backpack, filled to the brim. The contents are as mysterious as his professional background.
On his left wrist is a digital Garmin watch, which in typical military style has its face pointing towards the ground and not the sky and on his right wrist is a Whoop – a personal device that tracks sleep and other health statistics.
Andy doesn’t exactly look like he’d run any records in a marathon, but he’s not there to run marathons. He’s there to protect McIlroy’s life at any cost.
He’s built for power, not endurance.
“Don’t let his appearance fool you, he’s a coiled spring ready to pounce at any moment,” said one official.
“He moves quickly when he has to.”
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Dressed in the same outfits as Andy are a group of MLOs – military liaison officers.
They’re current or former military personnel, employed for the week by the R&A to act as buffers between the players and the fans.
Before each day’s play, the R&A consult the MLOs about which players and groups require support. Some crowds will attract two, some won’t need any.
On Thursday, McIlroy’s group had four.
Over the course of the 18 holes, there wasn’t a single incident to speak of.
The golf
Thursday was a strange, yet unsurprising, day for McIlroy on the golf course. After his errant tee shot on one, he made bogey which, given all who had preceded him, wasn’t a disaster.
He evened up the ledger with birdie on the par-five second hole. That was despite hooking his drive far to the left and being forced to pitch back onto the fairway, splitting a narrow gap carved out by thousands of fans, many of whom were willing to risk the danger of an errant shot.
He made further birdies on holes five and seven before hitting his first fairway of the day on the eighth.
Pound for pound, McIlroy is arguably the biggest hitter the game has seen, but his once trustworthy driver has been anything but in recent times, and he must’ve been frustrated with his tee shots in the first two hours of play on Thursday.
McIlroy riding a putt.Credit: AP
But as he stood over his ball on eight – a 385-metre par four that eases to the left – he pumped a 274m drive miles past both of his playing partners to sit in the middle of the fairway. Ironically, his best drive of the day only resulted in a par.
He arrived at the turn at three under and then birdied the 10th to put him right in contention at the top of the leaderboard.
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Unfortunately for him and his many fans, back-to-back bogeys on 11 and 12 and then another on 14 took the wind out of his sails.
But as all champions do, he rallied when it counted the most and made birdie on 17, before narrowly missing a long birdie putt on 18 to finish with a one-under round of 70; tied for 20th, very much within striking distance. Rory will know that, and so will Andy.
Sam McClure travelled to the British Open with the assistance of Golf Australia.