A farmer sipping a hot drink while sitting on a gray wooden chair on an early fall Saturday afternoon. While watching European Tour golf just across a fence from a farm in Northern Ireland. While 20 brown cattle graze within inches of him in an intimate half-circle.
Moooooving.
“Isn’t that a fantastic image?” an announcer on Sky Sports said.
“Isn’t it?” Ireland native Padraig Harrington said.
“Autograph that, somebody, quickly. That’s brilliant,” he continued.
The Irish Open played its third round at Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. And the 70 golfers who made the weekend cut played the 14th green in front of 20 or so fans. A woman later joined, and the man graciously gave up his chair and sat on a small bucket.
“There’s one of the few spectators outside of the bubble,” Harrington said on the broadcast, referring to the absence of fans at events due to the coronavirus pandemic. “He’s got a few friends as well.”
When the man is shown, he is sitting on his chair and holding his steaming drink in a white cup in his right hand. He takes one sip. Cattle are to his left, right and back, but, courteously, none in front. They are either staring at the man, or eating grass. He pets one with his left hand.
“He’s totally oblivious to them all being around,” said Harrington, who missed the weekend cut. “That’s just like so much normality to him, isn’t it?”
The Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort website said it was in a “a truly unique setting.”
Truly.
“It needs a caption,” an announcer said. “There’s a caption competition for that one.”
“Yes, indeed. They’re his favorite friends,” another announcer said.
