Before turning his attention to hosting this week's Irish Open at the K Club and trying to justify his tag as favourite, Rory McIlroy had one last piece of business to attend to on Tuesday night.

And that was the small matter of entertaining 2,000 guests at the Dublin Convention Centre alongside one of his heroes – Alex Ferguson.

A sell-out crowd filled the capital city venue to listen to the four-time Major winner in conversation with British football's greatest manager, while raising money for McIlroy's charity – The Rory Foundation.

Among the audience were a number of celebrities – including One Direction's Niall Horan and Leinster's Rob Kearney – highlighting McIlroy's status as not just a golfing but a global superstar.

But there in the corner of the hall was a washing machine and a group of children queuing up to try to chip a ball into it – a reminder of where the boy from Holywood first started out and how he got to grips with the game he now dominates.

And while McIlroy’s methods may have moved on since he was gripping a wedge in his hallway at home, the importance of practice was something both he and Ferguson were quick to reiterate. McIlroy said: “I feel like I spend a lot of time around elite sports people, and people who are at the top of their game whether it is in golf, or football, rugby or tennis.

“And the top people all have one common denominator, and that is they work harder than the rest.”

Compere for the evening James Nesbitt, a lifelong United fan, produced a statistic for the audience – every time Ferguson's United came second in the league they won it the year after.

Resilience

And the ability to bounce back is a trait McIlroy himself has needed after a number of high profile disappointments in his career. One was injuring his ankle ligaments ahead of his defence of last year’s British Open, and the audience were the first public crowd to be shown a video of the infamous incident which ruled him out of St Andrews.

McIlroy also talked candidly about his meltdown in the 2010 Masters, he said: “It is the only time that my mind has gone blank on a golf course. My mind wasn’t thinking clearly . . . I was just frazzled.”

And while it clearly still haunts him, McIlroy has bounced back like a Ferguson side in the six years which have followed – and now he wants to go on and dominate like one as well. “This (Irish Open) isn’t a tournament I’ve played so well at over the past few years, so hopefully it starts here this week with a great performance at the K Club.”