{"id":538986,"date":"2026-04-19T06:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T06:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/538986\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T06:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T06:48:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-golfers-success-is-priceless-for-golf-tourism-in-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/538986\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy: Golfer&#8217;s success is &#8216;priceless&#8217; for golf tourism in Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Northern Ireland more widely, tee times for the prime <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/articles\/c70xv0501qvo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">links courses<\/a> of Royal Portrush and Royal County Down are already sold out for 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gary McNeill, head golf professional at Royal Portrush, attributes this to a range of factors, including McIlroy&#8217;s success and the club hosting The Open and Irish Open in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added that Rory and other big names &#8211; like Darren Clarke, Graham McDowell and P\u00e1draig Harrington &#8211; had played &#8220;a massive part&#8221; in large events coming to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Whenever Rory wins something big, it really gives such a boost to the country and keeps the focus on golf in this country,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Open at Portrush last year had a &#8220;magnificent atmosphere&#8221; and felt like &#8220;a homecoming&#8221; for McIlroy after his first Masters win, McNeill said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It gave all those who came to the championship to spectate the opportunity to congratulate Rory and cheer him on as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Northern Ireland more widely, tee times for the prime links courses of Royal Portrush and Royal County&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-538986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}