[Dave Ireland]

Article that appeared in Sunday Independent on 1st May

Rory McIlroy could be 'that once in a lifetime dream guy'

GENERATION after golf enthusiasts of the 1930s had thrilled to the precocious skills of Jimmy Bruen, the great game delivered a comparably gifted performer in Ronan Rafferty. Now, a further generation on, the prodigy in our midst is 15-year-old Rory McIlroy, who may yet prove to be the finest ever to emerge from this fair isle.

It seems an unhealthy weight of expectation to press on such tender shoulders. But the way of the modern world is to open all doors to young talent and then see if it has the strength to survive.

So it is that McIlroy is engaged in a hectic schedule, leading up to a debut appearance in the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House from May 19 to 22. As if acutely aware of John Milton's assessment of time as "the subtle thief of youth", he is currently competing in the Lytham Trophy prior to the AIB Irish Amateur Open Strokeplay on the O'Meara Course at Carton next weekend and then the Dunlop Masters professional tournament at the Forest of Arden.

McIlroy retains a vivid recollection of the day, as a four-year-old, when his father Gerry took him to the rolling terrain of Holywood Golf Club, which overlooks Belfast Lough. "I remember meeting the professional, Michael Bannon, who was giving a lesson from a mat beside the 16th which happens to be close by the clubhouse," he said.

That was 1993, the year when another teaching professional, Butch Harmon, was entrusted with the considerably more mature skills of an American amateur by the name of Tiger Woods. As Tom Callahan tells us in his marvellous book In Search of Tiger: "Every teaching pro imagines 'that once in a lifetime dream guy' - Butch's phrase - who's the strongest, fastest, smartest, most talented, most confident, hardest working, least afraid . . . "

"It's true, you cross your fingers and hope this is going to be the one," said Bannon. "By the time Rory was eight, I realised he was very special. And I knew how lucky I was to get my hands on him, mainly because of his enthusiasm for the game. How hard he was prepared to work."

It has long been accepted that golfers inhabit a remarkably small world, where paths cross as if by a grand design and coincidence becomes a frequent visitor. So we shouldn't have been surprised that, in capturing the 1980 Irish Close title as a 16-year-old, Rafferty surpassed the achievement of Bruen, who was a month past his 17th birthday when winning it in 1937. Nor that it should have happened at Royal Co Down, where Bruen set the course record of 66 during the Irish Open of 1939.

In terms of youthful achievement, however, one of Rafferty's most impressive performances was at Royal Dublin on Tuesday, August 22 1979. That was when, against a field of professionals, he was joint winner of a pre-qualifying tournament for the Irish Open at Portmarnock. With a level-par 73 - the 18th was then a par five - he shared the best score of the 17 qualifiers with Joey Purcell, now the professional at Portmarnock, and English challengers Peter Barber and Trevor Johnston.

My problem was that I never had a golf lesson and was likely to shoot 65 or 80. So I just put that down as one of my bad days and there was no lasting hurt

- Bannon


He was a mere 15-year-old at the time, younger even than McIlroy who will be 16 on Wednesday, four days before Bruen's birthday. As it happened, Rafferty missed the cut in the Irish Open that year after two rounds of 80, but he played all 72 holes 12 months later in extraordinary circumstances.

Because of rather unkindly scheduling, the final of the 1980 Irish Close was played on Wednesday August 14, the eve of the Irish Open. Which meant that the youngster had to compete at Portmarnock without a practice round. But he carded rounds of 75, 72, 72 and 80 to make the cut on the limit and eventually gain a share of 59th place with Denis Durnian, who earned £245 for his trouble.

What was that we were saying about coincidence? The runner-up to Rafferty in the Close final that week was none other than Bannon, who was hammered by 8 and 7 and turned professional six months later. "Of course I remember that final," said the 47-year-old, who is now the resident professional at Bangor. "My problem was that I never had a golf lesson and was likely to shoot 65 or 80. So I just put that down as one of my bad days and there was no lasting hurt."

We got to comparing the two prodigies. "I have to smile now when I think that I actually baby-sat Rory, who went to primary school with my daughter, Ellen," Bannon continued. "We lived on opposite sides of the street in Holywood, so the families were always very close. I suppose that in a golfing sense, I became a sort of second father to him.

"It meant that as pro at Holywood (where he worked for 16 years before moving to Bangor in 1999), I made cut-down clubs for Rory at various stages of his development. Gradually, I could see that he had an extraordinary feel for the game. If ever you could talk about a natural golfer, he was it, but I knew it was important that such talent should be given a good method. Which I like to think I did.

"Like any learner, there were faults to be ironed out, like a rigid left leg and a strong left-hand grip. You know the way youngsters look for length off the tee by slinging out a long hook, because they haven't the strength to do it any other way. Ronan, on the other hand, retained his open stance, baseball grip and quick wrist-break. Yet if you saw a video of him at impact, which I did, he was very impressive. But while both were gifted with terrific golfing brains and a real competitive edge, Rory has a far, far better method.

"I was so confident about his talent that when he was heading for a win in the World U10 Championship in Miami, I told his father that he'd be a scratch player at 13 (McIlroy now has an exact handicap of plus 3.4). And he's remained my pupil. In fact, he came down to Bangor last Sunday for his regular check-up."

How did Bannon feel about the idea of his protege, still relatively small of stature, coming up against older, more experienced players, even tournament professionals? "What can you do?," he replied. "You daren't hold him back. You must give him his head and hope that he'll remain focused on improving his skills. At the moment, I would have no worries about Rory in that regard, simply because of how diligently he applies himself to practice."

Where the stop-watch and tape are the measuring tools of athletic achievement, in golf it's titles and scoring averages. Bruen and Rafferty excelled at both, while Rafferty exemplified the re-emergence of this country as a real force in golf. When he was 12, his English teacher and organiser of golfing affairs at Newry Grammar School, Pat Mooney, had the experience of seeing him shoot a level-par 72 gross off the medal tees on the Old Course during a school trip to St Andrews.

Three years later, there was time for a runaway victory in the Shandon Park Scratch Trophy, in between winning the British Boys title in 1979 and heading for Royal Dublin. And 12 months on from that, he was joint winner of the Brabazon Trophy (English Strokeplay Championship) with Peter McEvoy and fourth individual behind Hal Sutton in the Eisenhower Trophy at Pinehurst. Then, in 1981, he became the youngest player in the history of the Walker Cup, two months before he turned professional.

Talking to McIlroy about his gifted predecessor, there was a ready acknowledgement of achievement, but without any fake adulation. "I just know that Ronan was very good at a very young age like myself," he said. "Other than that, I don't know that much about him, except that he won the Close and the British Boys and was the youngest-ever Walker Cup player."

It didn't seem appropriate to talk further about Rafferty's achievements, in that McIlroy has already set his own benchmarks, by winning the Ulster Boys title in 2003 and 2004 and the Irish Boys and Youths titles in 2004, before recently becoming the youngest-ever winner of the West of Ireland Championship.

"I'm really looking forward to the Irish Open, though it will mean missing the St Andrews Trophy (a qualifying event for this year's Walker Cup)," he went on. On ringing team captain Garth McGimpsey to see what he thought of the situation, he was told "that if I played well enough in the pro events, missing St Andrews wouldn't really matter."

He knows the Montgomerie Course at Carton, having played it last year in the Irish Strokeplay when he missed the cut by a shot. "Though the Forest of Arden is my first pro event, I see the Irish Open as a great opportunity," he said. "I'm sure the crowds will be behind me and I'll get a lot of exposure from it.

I've known Michael all my life and from my earliest days at Holywood, he's been very good to me. I wouldn't dream of going to anybody else

- McIlroy


"I'm just going to go out and try to make the cut. That will be my main goal for the week. And if I get through to the weekend, maybe I can aim at the top-20, top-25. That would be very good for me. But I'd just love to make the cut on my first time in it."

Studies at the Sullivan Upper inter-denominational secondary school seemed to be something of a grey issue. "I've still exams to do," he said. "A few exams." Then he returned to talk of golf and how he plans to go through regional qualifying at The Island for this year's Open at St Andrews. Unlike Rafferty at his age, he has never played the Old Course, though he dutifully walked around it while on a visit to St Andrews to play Kingsbarns last year.