It has been six years since the Open Championship and Royal Portrush renewed their vows, six years since a rain-spattered Shane Lowry practically floated down the 18th fairway, serenaded by the throaty chorus of his fellow countrymen as the man from Ireland won the Claret Jug in a golf story that will stand the test of time.
It had been 68 years since the Open had been played at Royal Portrush, long enough for generations to come and go, for the Troubles to flare and recede, and for all the reasons not to come back to come and go.
If you were around Portrush when the Open Championship finally returned, you likely remember the exhilarating feeling that rode on the gusty winds coming off the North Atlantic. And maybe you remember that Saturday night after Lowry’s third-round 63 when thousands squeezed around Portrush Harbour where there were fireworks between the rain showers and the lines to get a pint of Guinness at the Harbour Bar were so long there were barricades to manage those thirsty to drink it all in.
The Open Championship is back at Royal Portrush this week, the anxiety of getting it right in 2019 replaced by the anticipation of having it all come to life again so quickly.
Native Irish sons Lowry and Rory McIlroy remain the central characters in the year’s final major championship, their ancestral ties to Northern Ireland illuminated in the most human ways six years ago when one won and the other lived out a heartbreak in real time over two disappointing days.
This week, they are back with McIlroy now having a green jacket in his possession and a bigger place in the game than he had when he hit his opening tee shot out of bounds on the first hole of the 2019 Open Championship, setting in motion a first-round 79 that was as disheartening as it was surprising.
“You travel a little bit and you see and you come back and I never really appreciated having Royal County Down and Royal Portrush right on my doorstep. I’d go there and it’s a treat and it’s special.”
Rory McIlroy
Every major championship has a sense of place about it but it runs deeper in the Open Championship and, perhaps deeper still, when it’s at Royal Portrush. Ireland and Northern Ireland sit on a relatively small rocky bit of land on the edge of the Atlantic but the countries have an outsized presence in the game.
Pádraig Harrington. Graeme McDowell. Darren Clarke. Lowry and McIlroy. They’ve each put their names on major championship trophies since the turn of the century, strengthening the game’s connection to the prideful nations.
Whether it’s Lahinch and Ballybunion, County Louth and Royal County Down or Portrush and Portstewart, there is a rare richness to golf on the Emerald Isle.
“I’ve always underestimated it being from there,” McIlroy said six years ago in advance of the Open’s return. “When you’re from there, I don’t think you appreciate the golf courses that you have.
“You travel a little bit and you see and you come back and I never really appreciated having Royal County Down and Royal Portrush right on my doorstep. I’d go there and it’s a treat and it’s special.
“To see and hear how people react when they go to those places where for us, oh, it’s Portrush and it’s RCD. … It puts everything into perspective and how lucky we are that we do have golf courses there.”
Golf began at Portrush in 1888 and among the items collected in the clubhouse are a framed bracket from a tournament in 1895 and photographs from the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship played there in 1903.
After Max Faulkner won the 1951 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, it seemed the event might never return. There were political and religious issues to deal with, the lack of infrastructure to accommodate a world-class event and some changes to the golf course were required.
There’s an old Irish saying – may the most you wish for be the least you get – and that applied to Royal Portrush and its quest to bring the Open back. What began as a conversation in 2007 was brought to reality six years ago though it was said to require more than 2,000 ferry trips to bring the literal nuts and bolts for the event to Portrush.
The golf course, which was made better when the new seventh and eighth holes were created a decade ago, is one of the finest links in the world. It is theatrical with dunes heaving and plunging, the wind off the North Atlantic a persistent presence and the par-3 16th hole, nicknamed Calamity Corner, adding just the right dose of drama near the end.
This has been a major championship season to remember. McIlroy’s victory at the Masters was played out on the emotional edge, exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.
Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Championship victory added to a résumé that is approaching rare territory and J.J. Spaun’s rain-soaked U.S. Open win was heartwarming.
Now, it’s back to Royal Portrush with its rugged beauty and the echoes of a nation celebrating its native son’s victory six years ago still hanging in the air. It seems like only yesterday but maybe that’s because of how it felt six years ago.
And how it feels to do it all over again.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Shane Lowry works his way to the 18th green to cap off his 2019 Open triumph at Royal Portrush.
BRENDAN MORAN, SPORTSFILE VIA GETTY IMAGES