McIlroy to Harrington: ‘Oh, Paddy, Paddy, Paddy’
BETHESDA, Md. – As things now stand in this U.S. Open, the most important hole has been the 18th in the second round, the one where Rory McIlroy came up a little sideways with his approach and ended up in the water. From there, he made a double bogey-6. If it hadn’t been for that double, the rest of the guys might as well grabbed a ticket and joined the other folks to enjoy the Rory McIlroy Show – live and coming to you from Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C.He’ll be here all week, folks. Well, all the rest of the week, anyway, which means Sunday, the final round. And unless something truly bizarre happens – say, a brew from the three witches of Macbeth, or someone sticking pins in a voodoo doll – young Rory McIlroy, 22, of Northern Ireland, will be lifting the trophy above his curly mop-top. And the second straight Northern Irishman to do so.
“It’s just phenomenal,” said the first, Graeme McDowell, who won at Pebble Beach last year. “You run out of superlatives to describe what he’s doing this week. He’s devastating the field.”
It didn’t feel that way to McIlroy at the outset.
“I knew I was going to feel a little bit of pressure and a little bit of nerves,” McIlroy said. And maybe there was an echo of the Masters collapse in there. “And it took me a few holes to get into the round.”
That would seem to have been the case. He merely parred the first four holes. He didn’t make his first birdie till No. 5. Then another at No. 9, then his second bogey of the Open at No. 10. After that, two birdies and the rest pars coming in for a 68, his worst round of the tournament. And he’s 14 under at 199, which inspired smiles among the countrymen.
It was another Irishman, Padraig Harrington – a man with a gift of song – who predicted McIlroy would break Jack Nicklaus’ record of winning 18 majors.
McIlroy put his head down. He’d loved to have ducked that one.
“Oh, Paddy, Paddy, Paddy,” he prayed.
He looked up. “You know – I’m still looking for my first one,” McIlroy said. “That’s all I can say.”
Jason Day, Australia’s latest entry into the young lions of golf, got a surprise. He’d just shot a 65. “Rory is 12 under …” he said, “and everybody’s got to go out and put up a low score. He’s going to lap the field if we don’t.” And before the words were out of his mouth, he was two shots further back. McIlroy was 14 under and was lapping the field. Korea’s Y.E. Yang shot 70 and stayed in second place, holding McIlroy to an eight-shot lead, and Day was tied for third with Lee Westwood (65) and Robert Garrigus (68), low American.
Westwood, ranked No. 2 in the world, seemed to having a tough time recognizing that he’d worked all these years trying to get to this stage, and here was some kid racing off with his dream.
“You don’t know how Rory is going to deal with the big lead,” Westwood said. “He had a big lead in a major and didn’t deal with it well before. There’s pressure on him with regards to that. So we’ll see.”
Yang took the view that mental health in this case would best be served by a mixture of hope and reality. “I’ll try to catch up with Rory as much as possible,” Yang said, “but I think it’s actually a race for second place.”
Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson was holding out hope. He made up ground with a 66, and is tied for sixth.
“You’re in contention on Sunday,” someone actually said to him. “How does that feel?”
“It feels good,” Jacobson said, clearly not sharing the enthusiasm of a 10-shot deficit.
McDowell has his game plan for the final round. “I’m going to have a chance for a good finish tomorrow,” he said, after a 69 left him 14 shots off the lead. “And I’ve got to concentrate foremost on that.”
And after that, he’ll do what the rest of the field should have done in the first place.
“Once I step out of the 18th tomorrow,” McDowell said, “it’s a chance to get a cold beer and watch the wee man do it.”
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