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along with the spade-mashie), putting the ball six yards from the pin and then holed the putt for an eagle. My wife was sitting at the back of the green, when another woman spectator walked straight across her legs. “I’m so sorry”, she said, “you must excuse me, but I’m just as excited as you”. Paddy wasn’t excited; she was so tense that she was speechless. I was now in a position to tie the lead with a birdie at the last hole. The 18th has now gone after a further re-design and the course ends with a par-4, but we played a hole of around 460 yards, all up-hill. My four-iron second shot finished some nine feet from the flag and I knew just how critical this putt could be. It was then that I had one of those rare experiences in golf, when you know it is going in as soon as it leaves the putter. Down it went and I was back in 32. Paddy could not bear to watch and I could not find her at first, until I spotted her and called “Hadn’t you better come out of there”. She was standing in the middle of a greenside bunker. Spectating can be a bit hard on the nervous system! Max Faulkner, who was to win the Open at Portrush fourteen years later, had a chance to tie my score but he charged his long putt and then missed the return to drop to third place. When we met Max would remind me that I did him out of thirty quid – on his 21st birthday, but the man who had really suffered from my two-eagle finish was Jimmy Adams (Royal Liverpool), beaten by one shot to be second yet again. He always seemed to find someone who pipped him to the top prize, but he was very gracious in defeat. At the presentation he said: “Anyone who finishes with two eagles at Portrush deserves the Irish Open - and the freedom of Ireland too!”  |
