PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — For one glorious moment in the sun on Saturday evening at the Open Championship, the three golfers at the gravitational center of Royal Portrush shared a single ovation.
First and nearest was the main character of this year’s final major: Rory McIlroy, the golfer staring down some of the largest, loudest and most exuberant crowds in 153 playings of golf’s oldest championship. He arrived in a red Nike shirt and black pants — an ensemble mirroring another famous Nike golfer, and befitting the enormity of the spectacle that followed him. Second and furthest was the leader, Scottie Scheffler, the man whose vice grip on this 153rd Open felt quite suffocating by the time his wiry build appeared within view, stroking his beard with a quiet focus. Third, in an area that might be called the middle distance, arrived the man whose role in the day’s festivities could perhaps be described similarly: Jordan Smith.
Through some divine accident of course design, the 13th and 17th holes at Royal Portrush share a spine. The two holes — a par-3 and a par-4 — sit back-to-back in a manner that produces tremendous amphitheater viewing for those attending a tournament of the best golfers in the world (if questionable safety for the everyday play of 15 handicaps). Through another divine accident, McIlroy and Smith made it to the 17th green just as Scheffler appeared on the back side of the 13th, giving each of the 5,000 or so encircling the two greens an unusual moment of clarity: Here, for a few seconds, were the golfers everyone wanted to see.
Smith, the 89th-ranked golfer in the world, was an unusual fit in the trio, and his movements were an indication he knew it. No. 89 stood between Nos. 1 and 2 for just a few seconds before hustling to stare down a 20-foot birdie putt. When the putt saddled up to the hole, he shuffled quickly to his ball and tidied up for par. The crowds began to yell again for McIlroy after Smith’s ball found the bottom of the hole, and Smith fell in line behind the grand slam champ as the ovation crested over them like a great Irish tidal wave — Smith walking deferentially up to the 18th tee box as McIlroy charged ahead.
Smith shared this moment and all the others with McIlroy on a particularly magical Saturday afternoon in Portrush. Through a third divine accident, McIlroy, the hometown kid and owner of five majors, spent Saturday paired with Smith, the 32-year-old journeyman and part-owner of the Guinness World Record for the “most golf balls caught in one minute.” As McIlroy recorded a Saturday 66 featuring “some of the loudest roars [he’d] ever heard on a golf course” to vault into contention at his home Open, Smith watched from inside the ropes as an already-electric crowd devolved into several moments of downright delirium.
“I mean, I was crapping myself in the first tee there, but that’s understandable,” Smith said with a laugh on Saturday evening. “Once we got around, we enjoyed it. I had fun, like I said, didn’t play the best, but we enjoyed it.”
In the aftermath of one of the loudest rounds in recent major history, Smith carried a commendable sense of levity. Sharing a major championship pairing with one of the biggest stars in the world is a difficult draw for any pro, let alone a pro of Smith’s comparative anonymity in a major championship of this significance for McIlroy. You wouldn’t blame Smith if he felt peeved at the competitive disadvantage handed to him by walking alongside the day’s main attraction or battered by the lopsided support levels. But if Smith did feel this way, he didn’t show it.
Even as Saturday’s crowds spent most of Smith’s shots shuffling into position to see McIlroy, sometimes forgetting the Masters winner was not the only golfer on the hole, Smith kept a level head and a smile. On the 18th fairway, utter silence for McIlroy’s approach shot was replaced by the noticeable murmur of chatting fans and stomping feet for Smith, who responded by placing his final approach shot inside of McIlroy’s.
It was a fitting bow on an inconsistent but hard-fought day for Smith, who fired a one-over 72 that slotted him 22 spots lower on the leaderboard heading into Sunday.
“It was just constant noise for four and a half hours, to be honest,” Smith said. “I knew it was going to be loud, rowdy, everyone cheering on Rory, which, you know, he played really well today. But that was pretty special.”
Saturday was actually Smith’s second afternoon alongside McIlroy in Ireland — but Saturday’s round was “nothing” like the Irish Open tee time they once shared. About the only common thread Smith could point to was McIlroy’s demeanor, which he termed friendly and chatty, nothing like the “silence” that McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau allegedly shared in a raucous environment on Masters Sunday.
“Yeah, we chatted plenty,” Smith said. “We’re both on holiday next week. I’m in Mykonos, and he’s I think in Santorini — so that was nice.”
The vacation will be well-earned for both parties after the energy poured into Saturday at Portrush. Smith spent much of the 12 hours preceding his round preparing for the scene he expected to greet him on the first tee for McIlroy’s first weekend round in a home Open. By the time the pair strutted down the first fairway, Smith could hardly suppress his surprise: He’d undersold it.
“[The loudest moment] was probably when we were walking off the first tee,” he said. “That was insane.”
As it turned out, the surprises were not done for World No. 89. After the round was over, he admitted he’d found at least a little solace in the pandemonium: By the end of the day, some of the fans were cheering his name.
“Heard a couple of shouts for me,” he said with a grin. “That was quite nice, quite surprising.”
Soon, Smith said, this Saturday at the Open will fade into one of the most memorable days of his golfing life — a scene of noise and chaos and collective energy he might never experience at a golf tournament (from the inside of the ropes or otherwise) again.
For now, though, he’s quite happy to be on the other side of Saturday at the Open. His ear drums too.
“It’s nice to get a bit of peace and quiet.”
