At Holywood Golf Club in Co Down, Rory McIlroy is everywhere.
He is sinking a putt on the giant screen in the clubhouse, which is replaying Sunday night’s Masters win on a loop. He is a smiling young golfer, his portrait hung on the wall to commemorate winning Ulster Boys Under 18 Champion 2003. And he is most certainly at the bar, where punters can order a Rory’s Green Jacket, a cocktail of gin, elderflower cordial, lime and soda.
The now double Masters and six-time Major winner even has his own car parking space at his hometown club, but according to the club’s lady president, Audrey Gibson, McIlroy doesn’t always use it. “He would park down in the car park,” she says. “His mum and dad are regulars.”
That is the McIlroy they know; the golfing prodigy who grew up in this club and who, for all his success, has never forgotten his roots.
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“Rory’s father Gerry was our bar manager here, and a nicer guy you couldn’t get, and Rory is just like his dad,” says Gibson.
“They’re just all natural, down-to-earth people. His two uncles still play golf here.”
“Sean, his manager, rang here straight after the win and opened a bar [tab] for us here last night [Sunday], which was a lovely touch and members really appreciated,” adds club captain Kieran Diver.
“They just felt connected – we hope we’re connected, and we felt that connection last night.”
McIlroy felt it too. Interviewed as he accepted the famous green jacket after winning his second US Masters title in a row, he spoke of how he had been “a little kid with a dream” with “amazing support” from “my family, friends and everyone back home ... I can’t thank them all enough for that continued support”.
On Sunday night, they were in the clubhouse supporting him once again. “It was absolutely amazing,” says Gibson. “There was such a buzz. It was just hiving, everybody was so excited, just the same as they were last year.
“To do it two years in a row is absolutely amazing.
“Last year, I think Scottie Scheffler said to him he would allow him the jacket for one year, but Rory said, ‘no, I don’t think so’, so he came back and proved he could do it.”
“It just means Rory is a superstar, a super superstar,” says Diver. “There’s just immense pride anyway in Rory, and doing this, it gave us one heck of a night, but we sort of expect it every time he tees up, because he’s just so good.”
On Monday morning, the significance of McIlroy’s victory is underlined by the non-stop media interviews. On the club’s rooftop terrace, replicas of three of McIlroy’s Major trophies – donated by him to the club – have been brought out of their display cabinets specially for the TV cameras and sparkle a bright silver in the sunlight.
“It’s that sort of pinch yourself moment when you see how far he [Rory] has come,” says Diver. “For the club, we’re already immensely proud ... and I think even for Holywood town, it’s massive, to have Rory come from here ... and I think for the country.
“But I think it goes beyond that, to be honest. He has such a global reach,” he says.
“You’ll see every junior in the world over the summer will be out there wanting to be Rory,” says lady captain Kathy Mackey.
Already out on the course at Holywood are 11-year-old members – and McIlroy fans – Freddie Scott and Henry Buchanan.
“He’s from here and he’s very inspiring, because he’s done very well,” says Buchanan.
“I find him really cool,” says Scott. “He’s inspired me a lot to help me play golf.”
Mackey and Gibson have witnessed the effect McIlroy has had on not just the younger generation of boys and girls, but also women; Holywood Golf Club has a waiting list for both juvenile and women members.
It has also brought them golf tourists. “Any American that comes to Northern Ireland now comes to Holywood, and they clear the shop,” says Gibson.
“They don’t just buy one hoodie, they buy one in every colour,” adds Mackey.
In Holywood itself, McIlroy biscuits have become something of a tradition for Skinners Bakery, which runs up a batch every time he wins another Major; of the several hundred baked on Monday morning, there was not a single one left by the time The Irish Times called in at lunchtime.
Next door, at Templeton Robinson estate agents, all the house listings have been removed from the window and replaced with pictures of a jubilant McIlroy. “Well done Rory,” a display reads.
“Brilliant,” says one local man contemplating the display. “It’s just brilliant.”
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Back at the golf club, there is talk of an event to recognise McIlroy’s achievements and “of course we’d love Rory to come,” says Diver, though emphasising that he “fully respects” the golfer’s hectic schedule; he – and others – has no doubt there will be plenty more to celebrate in future.
“He’s so much ahead of him over the next few years,” says Mackey. “Who knows what he might do?”
