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The crowds: It was The K Club's Colosseum. The snaking walkway from the putting green, through the car park eventually opened out to the first tee on the Palmer course, an arena enclosed on three sides by stands that climbed high into a leaden Kildare skyline. Forget the torrential rain, the pageantry, colour and noise was never going to be compromised.

The individual cries of goodwill that propelled the European golfers on the first part of their journey from the practice facilities gradually increased in intensity and volume as voices blended into one plaintive cry, but nothing could have prepared the golfers for the wall of noise that assailed them on turning that final corner.