KILLARNEY, IRELAND I
Golf giveth
and golf taketh away. Fifteen months
ago,
Robert Rock
had the good fortune
to pick up the top prize of €500,000 in
the 3Irish Open, even though he lost a
playoff for the title. His luck was that
the winner happened to be an amateur,
Shane Lowry
. So the Englishman was
in a position to buy a new house with
his windfall.
Thursday at Killarney, Rock
departed the scene with nothing,
despite having stood only one stroke
off the lead after a sparkling first
round of 65. The problem was that his
marker transposed his scores for the
14th and 15th holes, and Rock failed to
notice the error.
“I didn’t have a clue until I was
shown,” said the 33-year-old who was
informed of the error only after he
had done an upbeat media interview.
“It’s never happened to me before. I’m
normally fairly thorough, but I missed
it somehow.”
Given the standard set by
Tiger
Woods
in 1997, such revelations almost
demand to be followed by a tourna-
ment victory. It will be recalled how,
when Woods was making his major
championship professional debut in the
Masters, he told the assembled
media how he had shot a 59 the
previous week in practice with
Mark
O’Meara
at Isleworth.
Notions such as hostages to fortune
sprang to mind, when
Graeme McDow-
ell
spoke in Killarney about his exploits
the previous Sunday. As in his first-ever
round of 59 which he did in a fourball
at Royal Portrush in the company of his
father,
Kenny
, uncle
Uel
Loughrey
and
an American friend,
Kevin Vance
.
Australian left-hander
Richard
Green,
the early pace-setter who
likes nothing better away from the
golf course than to race Porsches in
his native Australia, looked long and
some might suggest longingly at
Rory
McIlroy
’s car in the Irish Open parking
lot. It’s a black Audi R8 which carries a
price-tag of €229,560 in the Republic of
Ireland. “I like those R8s,” said Green.
“A very nice car.”
the general public. And by way of high-
lighting the point, he talked of the ap-
parent, current plight on home terrain
of
Padraig Harrington
, a three-time
major champion.
Justin Rose
provided a fascinating
insight into the difference between a
player’s perception of form, and that of
Peter McEnery
, a victim of cystic
fibrosis, had the dream of his young
life fulfilled, Wednesday, through
the generosity of Harrington. As an
enthusiastic supporter of Make-A-
Wish Foundation, Harrington played
with the 14-year-old who had earlier
received a new set of golf clubs from
TaylorMade, Ping and Titleist.
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