The Irish Open rarely fails to produce drama. Even when they’re wet, as they often are, it’s a tournament that always brings out the crowds and one that boasts a long history of great champions – Seve, Langer, Woosie, Ollie, Faldo and Monty among them, and in more recent times, Garcia, Harrington, Rahm and McIlroy.
And 14 years ago, the atmosphere during the final round of the Irish Open at County Louth, Baltray, was more like a Ryder Cup. Despite the rain lashing down, a sea of umbrellas lined every fairway and green, and the noise was deafening. Joint third-round leader Robert Rock remembers it like it was yesterday.
“The whole crowd was against me,” says the Englishman, who recalls feeling very much like the outsider, despite being the favourite to beat his amateur opponent in a play-off. This was the moment for the professional to step up and take the title, not a 22-year-old lad playing in his first European Tour event.
“I was expecting him to be a little bit unprepared for the weekend, but he turned up on that 1st tee with pretty much the whole town there watching and striped his tee shot like it was nothing,” adds Rock. “It was
