In Northern Ireland this week, golf dominated everything and the talk has not been of orange or green but of Rory McIlroy and the drama of the extra hole play-off on that famous green at Augusta.
His achievement on Sunday, winning the last golf major that had eluded him – the Masters – will forever be one of the greatest in golf. He joins an exclusive club of players who can claim a career Grand Slam; he has become the sixth member and the first since Tiger Woods, who achieved the same feat a generation ago in 2000.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever taken a nation on a journey on the back nine like we witnessed on Sunday night,” says Naoimh Quigg, a former captain of the Irish women’s golf team and lady captain at Royal Portrush Golf Club, of McIlroy’s final rollercoaster round of golf that included two double bogeys.
“To come out victorious the way he did, it was just amazing – to watch the emotion that came out of him, that I think came out of everybody that night. There are no words, really, to describe what he’s achieved. It’s just unbelievable.”
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He is the first career Grand Slam holder from Holywood, Co Down, Northern Ireland, Ireland, the British Isles and indeed Europe.
“There were about five or six WhatsApp groups blowing up on my phone,” says former Ulster and Ireland rugby player Andrew Trimble.
“Everybody was up late, everybody was watching it, every shot was just a live commentary coming through, the highs the lows, and just experiencing something collectively together, live. That only happens with sport, and that’s why live sport brings people together.”
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In the aftermath of his victory that unity continued. Among those contemplating a celebration were his home club in Holywood, the local council, the speaker of the Stormont Assembly, the DUP’s Edwin Poots, and the North’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin, who called for a “huge party” to welcome him home.
At Skinner’s bakery in Holywood, German biscuits bearing McIlroy’s face in icing sold out by lunchtime, while in London, Royal Mail decided every letter in the UK would feature a special postmark of congratulations.
“They [the UK] will claim it whenever it’s a good news story, like Andy Murray,” laughed Ruth Watt, the lady captain of Holywood Golf Club.
“But the way we look at golf is we come under Golf Ireland. When people ask the question: ‘Why does he not play for the UK?’ Well, we don’t have a ‘UK Golf’. We have an England, a Scotland, we have Welsh golf, and we have Golf Ireland.”
“Golf has always been an all-Ireland sport,” adds Quigg. “There is no Northern Ireland golf team – soccer’s the only sport I know of that’s separate in Ireland – and sport itself, not just golf, it brings people together, it brings this country together.
“You see it when you’re at the Aviva Stadium when everyone’s standing together.
“Rory has represented Ireland, he’s represented Northern Ireland – he represents everybody in Ireland, I believe, and I think he’s very conscious of that, that he doesn’t want to offend people.
“He plays for Ireland, he puts the Northern Ireland flag up and he should be commended for that.”
“Stating the obvious, identity is a complex business in Northern Ireland,” says Jon Tonge, professor of politics at the University of Liverpool.
Since 2010, he has carried out post-election surveys of identity in the North. The most recent, undertaken after the UK general election in 2024, demonstrated a roughly three-way split: 32.6 per cent of those surveyed considered themselves Irish, 30.9 per cent British and 29.9 per cent Northern Irish.
Yet McIlroy’s victory has demonstrated how identity is not rigid and fixed, but fluid and changing.
“Everyone can claim a part of Rory McIlroy,” says Tonge.
“Look at the messages of congratulation on Monday morning, they were right across the political spectrum. It was a brief period of rejoicing before normal divides resume.”
Tonge points to the different sides responded to McIlroy’s victory.
On the unionist side, there was a discussion of “arise Sir Rory” and mention of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
“So it’s about how Britain will reward him, whereas on the nationalist side it’s about whether he’s Ireland’s greatest sportsperson, so the terminology is different. It’s a joint celebration, with different emphases,” says Tonge.
Trimble says McIlroy has been “very skilful and very thoughtful about how he positions himself”.
“Something as small but as impactful as the Northern Ireland flag being on the top of the leader board at the Masters, I know people are so proud of Northern Ireland, this six counties, it’s a small country and someone representing that,” he says.
Trimble points out that McIlroy is also “engaged with and hasn’t alienated the rest of the island” and maintains “a really strong connection” with the Republic as well playing for Ireland at the Olympics.
“He is whatever that nuanced identity is. He’s not falling for the traditional, old-fashioned, binary identity,” says the former Ireland rugby player from Coleraine.
“The fact he’s not just one or the other, that he has embraced and appreciated and he represents all of that, it shows things are definitely a step on.”
Trimble says McIlroy is challenging binary identity “on the world stage”.
“The whole ‘Ireland thing’ – Rory never wanted to get involved in anything relating to the sectarianism that unfortunately is still there when you’re talking about North/South,” says Holywood golf club member Derek Bradfield.
“What he’s done, it transcends all that. This is for everyone.”
