Rory McIlroy's 'I was there' moment cherished by youngsters - and hat tip to DP World Tour for neat call

I am referring to the world No 2 holing an eagle putt at the 72nd hole to force a play-off in the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club on Sunday before going on to land the DP World Tour title for the second time.

“The kids standing around that green will remember that roar for a long time,” noted Shane Lowry, McIlroy’s close friend and Ryder Cup team-mate, as he hit the nail on the head in a post on social media.

We’ve all got “I was there memories” from our journey in life and, for me, the one that I will always cherish is sitting in the grandstand as a 19-year-old at St Andrews as Seve Ballesteros created his iconic celebration after winning The Open in 1984.

Though working on this occasion, I will also always remember sitting inside the ropes at the back of the 18th green at Oakland Hills in Detroit as Colin Montgomerie holed a six-foot putt to clinch Europe’s victory in the 2004 Ryder Cup.

I got a real buzz from both those moments and, by the looks of things, it was exactly the same for those Irish fans in general but, in particular, the youngsters as McIlroy rolled in his 27-foot eagle putt to match the clubhouse target set by Joakim Lagergren then beating the Swede at the third extra hole.

An area around the 18th green specifically for kids hadn’t initially been planned by the DP World Tour but, once the team on the ground saw that there would have been a demand for it, they created one and what a brilliant call that proved to be.

‘It deserves to be played over and over again in years to come’

No matter what angle you watch McIlroy’s putt from - and it’s worth watching from every single one - the biggest thing that jumps out is the joy on the faces of hundreds of young spectators. It is absolute sporting gold and deserves to be played over and over again in years to come.

“It's right up there,” admitted McIlroy in his post-event press conference at the County Kildare venue in reply to being asked where creating such a memorable moment ranked in his career. “Just that scene on 18, hitting your second shot into the green, and you've got the grandstand and all the crowd on the right, but then half of the first fairway is full as well. It's just absolutely incredible seeing it. You always want to have the putt on the last green to win or do something big, and that was definitely one of them. I'll remember that for a long time.”

In his Sky Sports Golf interview at the back of the 18th green after repeating a title triumph at the same venue in 2016, the 36-year-old spoke about being “very fortunate” to feel he was “one of very few golfers in the world” to receive such a level of support on home soil.

McIlroy mentioned Jon Rahm, who is also idolised when he plays in Spain, and Bob MacIntyre now receives tremendous backing from Scottish fans as well, with the roar that greeted his Genesis Scottish Open success at The Renaissance Club in 2024 being every bit as loud as the one McIlroy generated on Sunday.

It’s even more significant when a player experiences such a moment in a national Open, with MacIntyre having admitted on more than one occasion that it will take winning a major to top what he achieved on home soil.

For the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton and Matthew Fitzpatrick, the lack of an English Open on the schedule at the moment means that an event like the BMW PGA Championship is the tournament that provides an opportunity for them to experience something similar, with Hatton already having a Wentworth win under his belt from 2020.

On the back of his breakthrough PGA Tour triumph in the season-ending Tour Championship just over a fortnight ago, Fleetwood will be given a hero’s welcome in this week’s edition of the Rolex Series event at the Surrey venue, where all 12 of the players in the European team heading to Bethpage Black in a fortnight's time for the Ryder Cup are teeing up.

At the same time, ten of the players set to represent the US on Long Island will be competing in the PGA Tour’s Fall Series opener, the Procore Championship in California, with Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau the odd ones out and only due to being a LIV Golf player in the case of the latter.

Look out for some Ryder Cup hints at Wentworth and California

Look out for European captain Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, his US counterpart, having a say in some of the pairings at the respective events because it is a chance to get players feeling comfortable with each other, though with 11 of the 12 from Rome two years ago in his line up once again, that is less of an issue for Donald as he bids to emulate Tony Jacklin by becoming a winning European captain both home and away in the transatlantic tussle.

For many and non-golfers in particular, the Ryder Cup is the best event in golf and that is perfectly understandable. It’s a pity, though, that we are unlikely to see the sort of scenes from The K Club on Sunday repeated at Bethpage Black because, sadly, youngsters are likely to be few and far between in the crowd outside of the practice days and that’s something that really should be addressed on both sides of the Atlantic going forward.