The following thought has often crossed my mind – if Meath had in fact beaten Down in the 1991 All Ireland SFC Final, would that special group of Royal County stars have got the acknowledgement they deserved as one of the finest ensembles to ever grace the big field in Dublin 3?
Instead, that is, of having their reputations vexatiously tarnished and their class as a team never properly recognised or feted. That might seem a curios start point for the bulk of what you will read hereafter but you will see the reasoning behind same soon enough. Now read on…
About half way through Rory McIlroy’s final round at the 2011 US Masters, a former Meath footballer who, like myself, would watch two flies going up a wall if it constituted sport, text me “It’s a good job he’s not wearing white trousers”! The inference, though crude and more than a shade cruel, was clear and on the money.
Remember, this was a time when the star of the Co Down had just detonated into the big time within golf by claiming the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow GC the previous autumn with an explosive final round. Likewise, over the preceding three days, the Hollywood superstar had the rest of the field resembling scattered shrapnel.
Until he hid the skid marks himself at what from memory was the 11th. Part of the aptly named Amen Corner. And from then, until exactly 53 weeks ago, Augusta National hung over McIlroy like the Sword Of Damocles. Every miss thereafter by Rory being like a swing of said sword feeling like it was only inches from hitting the jugular. Or so the knockers and/or doubters would have you believe.
Though it has to be said, perhaps the greatest element of that doubt was generated by and from within the player himself. However, you would have to imagine if any such misgivings were festering, they’d have well and truly be extinguished from last year’s maiden success at the world’s most famous course.
It certainly seemed as such in the early part of the past golfing week as by close of play on Friday he had got himself into a seemingly unassailable lead. Seemingly being the optimal word though.
Because for large swathes of Saturday’s third round, it appeared the ghosts of Augusta past were going to come back and bite Rory in the ar*e. To add another layer of intrigue to the already spell binding script, as McIlroy hit another Masters malfunction, Shane Lowry was moving in the opposite direction at quite a clip.
Yet, come Sunday at the Masters – that phrase itself has an aura about it – that narrative was flipped completely on its head as the Offaly rover had a howler round of 80.
That is not to say that his fellow Irishman was completely blemish free, mind you, not by a long shot. But, in showing the character which sets him apart from most, the eventual champ recovered from two bogeys in three holes to hitting four birdies between the seventh and seventeenth to finally, absolutely bury the ghosts of Amen Corner and open up a whole new world of possibllities.
That said, it would be remiss of any commentary on another audition at awesome Augusta without a complimentary mention of the gallant Justin Rose. The affable Englishman notably comes alive when the Majors appear on the horizon.
Again, when Rory hit that patch where he was like a tractor trying to plough without power steering, it was Rose who made up acres of ground and seemed certain to draw the biggest yield until the Irishman steadied the ship half way round.
There’s already a gentleman’s rivalry between the two and that’s something which seems certain to endure as the Europeans continue to assert they’re the world’s best. Nobody would be surprised or begrudge when England’s Rose comes into full bloom again.
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