Telfer's Thoughts 8.9.25

“Oh my goodness, you’d have thought Ireland had just won the Football World Cup”. Those were the low-key but wonderfully appropriate words of the Irish television golf commentator reacting to the extraordinary scenes of mayhem unfolding around the 18 th green at Dublin’s K Club golf club immediately after Rory McIlroy sank a 28-foot putt for an eagle. That putt got him into a play-off with the 33-year-old Swedish golfer Joakim Lagergren for the Irish Open title.

Thousands of dedicated Irish golf fans quite simply went nuts as the putt of their idol dropped into the hole.

No, the Irish Open isn’t a Major Championship, it’s not even the biggest tournament in Europe, but it’s an event McIlroy religiously plays every year. That alone bestows on it enormous prestige and importance evidenced further by Rory himself as the emotion poured out of him after prevailing in the 3-hole sudden death play-off. The normally fairly garrulous Irishman was lost for words as he tried to convey just how much this win means to him to the television interviewer. His love and affection for those thousands of Irish golf fans who cheered him on shot after shot is matched only by their reciprocal adoration of him.

It's been an extraordinary year for Rory by any yardstick. Winning his first Masters title to complete the Grand Slam, winning the Players Championship and now the Irish Open, along with another USPGA win early in the year in California - all in one calendar year.

Frank Nobilo, one of the finest golfers New Zealand has ever produced, once told me that one of the biggest regrets he had as a player was his inability to ever win the NZ Open. No matter how many tournaments big or small you may win overseas, he said, there’s something uniquely special about winning your own national title, sentiments Rory McIlroy would no doubt absolutely endorse.

Two Kiwis, Daniel Hillier and Kazuma Kobori, took their place in this US$6 million event.

Daniel Hillier was prominent during the first two rounds, carding a second round 6 under par 66 to hold a share of the lead at the halfway stage. The third round, often seen as moving day, didn’t happen for Daniel - two birdies and two bogeys saw him slip back to 10th place heading into the final round. Here sadly it all fell apart early for the Kiwi with 2 bogeys and a double leaving him 4 over for his round after just three holes. He steadied the ship somewhat from that point on, playing out the last 15 holes in even par but his 4 over par 76 left him in a tie for 29 th place. Nonetheless he still picked up a tidy sum for his week’s work in Dublin - E41,000, around NZ$80,000.

Kazuma Kobori had a fairly tough week finishing in a tie for 62nd place but he did show some

commendable fight on Day 2. A 3 under par 69 saw him sneak into the weekend as the 65 th and last qualifier to make the cut, helped in no small way by an eagle 2 on the 405 metre par 4 9th . Here he holed out with his second from 146 metres.

Kazuma, after a string of high finishes in recent weeks, has now overtaken Daniel Hillier as our second highest ranked male golfer. Kazuma now ranks at 158 on the official world golf rankings with Hillier dropping back to 209th . Ryan Fox remains our highest ranked male golfer, currently sitting at 39th in the world. Foxy hasn’t played for the past few weeks, taking a well-earned break back here in NZ.