At the Open Championship on Thursday morning, there is silence.
The crowd holds its breath as Shane Lowry approaches the first tee. He takes one practice swing, then another, then prepares to take his shot.
Thwack! The ball whooshes past and spectators turn as one following its flight. Their delight explodes into sound: clapping, cheering, shouting.
“Come on Shane! We love you Shane!”
Six years ago, this course was the scene of the Co Offaly man’s lone Major triumph, a fairytale result which saw an Irishman lift the claret jug on the tournament’s first return to Ireland since 1951.
Now, he strides on past, looking straight ahead to where the course unfolds before him, his head firmly in the game.
The Open has begun.
Spectators under umbrellas on the first day of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club on Thursday. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
From dawn on Thursday, the crowds started filing into the course at Royal Portrush Golf Club, on the north Co Antrim coast. Another former Open champion, Dubliner Pádraig Harrington, had the honour of hitting the first ball of the tournament, at 6.30am.
After that, the numbers watching on kept growing, with a total of 50,000 people expected on Thursday and about 270,000 in total over the four days, making it the largest sporting event on the island of Ireland.
Ciarán McGuinness (13), from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, with his brother Michael (11) and their mother, Gráinne
As 13-year-old Ciarán McGuinness, from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, put it: “We were at the Irish Open a few years ago, but that’s like watching a Gaelic club match compared to this. This is like the All-Ireland final in Croke Park.”
No wonder then, that this is “a dream come true” for the chief executive of Tourism Northern Ireland, John McGrillen.
“It’s one of the limited opportunities we have on the island of Ireland to host a really world-class annual event.”
The estimate is that it will generate more than £200 million (€231 million) for Northern Ireland’s economy, between direct economic benefit and marketing impact – and this does not include the longer-term consequences, from the increase in golf tourism – up by almost 66 per since 2019 – to the investment which has seen new, luxury hotels open in Portrush.
No wonder, too, that the North’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, took the opportunity to visit on Thursday, speaking at a business breakfast before touring the course.
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill at Royal Portrush. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
“It showcases all that’s good about us,” Ms O’Neill said. “I think it very much sends a message that we’re open for business, and I think when people tune in and see this beautiful part of the world, they’ll know that the island is amazing, they should want to come here, and we will very much be promoting that message.”
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In Nashville, Tennessee, that message has been heard loud and clear. The Holland family are at the Open on what is their first visit to Ireland.
“We live on a gated golf course at home, and our street name is Portrush, named after Royal Portrush, so that was another reason we decided, when we were talking about a family trip for the summer, it felt fitting that we go to Portrush,” says mother Andrea.
The Holland family, Andrea, Adam, Austin and Aidan, from Nashville, Tennessee
The new direct flight from Nashville to Dublin was also a bonus, she explains. All big fans of Rory McIlroy, the 2014 Open winner, the Hollands plan to travel back to the airport via his hometown of Holywood, Co Down.
“It’s nice here,” says Andrea’s son Aidan.
“The food’s good, the weather – it’s like 100 degrees Fahrenheit back home, so this feels perfect, and it’s all very pretty, with all the hills. And being on the coast is beautiful,” adds Andrea.
Despite the torrential rain which erupted at midday, out on the course at Royal Portrush it feels like a world apart, not least from the tensions which often grab the headlines in Northern Ireland in the summer.
[ The Open timings ‘adjusted’ to accommodate Portrush Sons of Ulster eventOpens in new window ]
Even within the world of sport, this week there was sectarian chanting by Linfield fans at a Champions League qualifying match against Shelbourne FC at Windsor Park, and in Comber, Co Down, a cross-community sports camp was called off after some local residents expressed concerns about the participation of children from a GAA club.
While there are flags here too, fluttering from the top of stand that rings the 18th green, they represent countries from all over the world; here, the Irish Tricolour, the Scottish Saltire and the English cross of St George fly side by side.
Seamus McQuillan and his son Stephen, from Co Monaghan
“Every flag should be respected and honoured, and when you come to golf, that’s always the case,” says Naoimh Quigg, a former captain of the Irish women’s golf team and lady captain at Royal Portrush. “There’s no division in golf.”
“When you see a mural of an Offaly man on a wall in Portrush, it says a lot about where things have gone in the last number of years, so I think it’s great to see,” says Stephen McQuillan from Co Monaghan, who is here to watch the tournament with his father, Seamus. Both are big Lowry fans and remember the significance of his victory in 2019.
“The reception he got when he won it, it was for all of Ireland, it wasn’t just for North or South,” he adds.
The hope on the course this time is for another Irish winner.
“We’re like everyone,” says McQuillan. “You want to see McIlroy do it.”
