In his final pre-tournament diary entry, Matt Cooper reflects on an evening well spent, the gift of Padraig Harrington, and reveals some three-ball clues.
Dinner time
It was the AGW (Association of Golf Writers) annual dinner on Tuesday night and a bit of a nerve jangler for yours truly because, for the first time, I was in charge of organising 230 members, guests and sponsors (plus venue, ticketing, trophies and a few other things, too). For the last week we’ve had a special guest confirmed but had to maintain absolute secrecy. It was worth the wait, however, to see everyone’s excitement when Rory McIlroy walked in the room wearing his green jacket.
He was in terrific form and we were reminded yet again that he has the capacity to disappear down the odd cul-de-sac, but while some folk would stubbornly stick to an errant route, he’s not too proud to reverse out and start again. So he duly made fun of his recent relations with the press and charmed everyone with behind-the-scenes tales of getting fitted for a green jacket in the Butler Cabin.
I was sat next to the head pro at Royal Portrush, Gary McNeill, who told me that McIlroy remains as friendly now as he was when he first played the course as a youngster – and how McIlroy spotted him walking the fairways at Augusta National a few years ago and, despite it being a tournament day, walked over to say hello.
McNeill is once again on stand-by as a weekend marker, a role he also fulfilled in 2019. “The scariest moments are when thousands of people go completely quiet,” he said. “It’s the strangest feeling and a little bit terrifying.”
An odd little highlight of the night for me was meeting cricket legend Kapil Dev. India’s 1983 World Cup final win remains one of my favourite-ever sporting occasions and prompted a lifelong obsession with slow-medium bowling. I told Kapil that I was (and remain) a huge Mohinder Amarnath fan. “A lovely batsman,” said Kapil. “It was his bowling I liked,” I admitted, of the occasional dibbly-dobber. Kapil found this hysterically funny and cried: “You loved a bowler who literally walked to the wicket?!”
More Teder tales
Estonia’s Richard Teder, who I wrote about on Monday, is having a lovely week and is proving to be very popular with the galleries. A group of family and friends have made the journey, too, and they’re all staying in a house in Portrush.
They report that his progress is being monitored by television stations in Estonia, but also in neighbouring Baltic states. His phone is also buzzing with videos from all the friends he has made in the amateur game, all astonished that he’s making the sport news across Europe.
“They even love him in Portrush,” they said. “Every restaurant we go in, there are people who want to talk to him. Some called him Harry Potter. ”
His coach David Da Silva likes how he’s playing. “He’s hitting the ball beautifully,” he said. “He just needs the putter to warm up.”
I was then taught how to wish someone good luck in Estonia. You say “pöialt hoidma” which means “hold your thumb”. You wave your fists in the air with your thumb tucked inside your fingers. And to wish someone a lot of luck? You hold onto your big toe instead of your thumb.
Or were they having me on?!
Chatter box
The Irish journalists have enjoyed a wonderful couple of decades and not just because of the success of their players on the course – they’ve also been able to enjoy Padraig Harrington nattering away on all subjects off it, too.
Last month’s US Senior Open champion was at it again this morning and listening in was just glorious. I was a huge fan of the game Mousetrap as a kid, bewitched by the progress of the ball through a host of curious diversions, and Harrington is like a golfing conversational equivalent.
He’ll be hitting the first shot of this year’s championship and admitted that he’ll be nervous. “Anything in play will do me,” he said. “I’ll be doing a bit of posing after I hit. No matter how bad the shot is, I’ll be holding my finish and pretending it’s a good one for the photographers.”
Someone asked him how Rory McIlroy would be feeling about his own first tee shot after his famous bunt out of bounds in 2019. “Thanks, for that,” said Harrington with a laugh, knocking his cap back on his head and scratching his fringe Stan Laurel-style. “Never mind Rory thinking of out of bounds, you’ve just put it in my head now!”
Padraig Harrington - the greatest interviewee in Irish sport - on Scottie Scheffler's existential meditations
— Gavin Cooney (@gcooney93) July 16, 2025
'I just love playing golf. If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be sitting in front of the shopping channel, spilling ice cream on myself, buying packages that I never open'
The two-time Open champion has said Royal Portrush is his favourite course and there is one standout reason why: “I like risk and reward, and there’s an awful lot of it out here.
“You hit good tee shots on several holes out here, and you’ve got a birdie chance. You hit a bad tee shot and you’re reloading. You know, there’s out of bounds on four of the first five holes. On the second hole you can make eagle or you hit it in one of those bunkers and be looking at a six.
“There’s a lot of three shot swing holes out there. Dealing with the frustration of not getting the reward is what you have to deal with and I’ve always liked courses that are mental battles.”
He was intrigued by the thoughts expressed by Scottie Scheffler on Tuesday. The world number one said: “This is not a fulfilling life. There are a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfil them in life, and you get there, you get to number one in the world, and they’re like, ‘What’s the point?’”
Harrington’s first response was to say how much he still loves golf and the ongoing quest for perfection so he doesn’t share Scheffler’s lack of fulfilment.
But his main thought was that Scheffler was digging himself a hole. In fact, he even mimed doing so with a cheeky smile. “It’s interesting because I don’t know exactly what he meant and it could make sense, but every time he loses form he’ll be asked questions relating to what he said.”
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I got chatting to a Danish friend in the media centre earlier and he’d been chatting to Jacob Skov Olesen, the DP World Tour rookie who 13 months ago was winning the Amateur Championship an hour away from Portrush at Ballyliffin. He’s excited to be back and loves the course. He’s a tempting 7/2 to win his three-ball against Jason Day and Taylor Pendrith.
The diary often enjoys a gossip with the Japanese journalists and they confirm that Rikuya Hoshino is still injured after his withdrawal last week and that Hideki Matsuyama might also be less than 100%. He’s flexing both his neck and his wrist.
They also don’t believe Shugo Imahira has any shown anything to suggest he’ll improve on an Open record of three starts, three missed cuts, and one score in the 80s every visit. Si Woo Kim is in his group and his only top 40 in the Open was at St Andrews. The third player in the group is the amateur Seb Cave who is 13/2 and knows how to play on the links.
I also bumped into a South African coach and we reminisced about how Aldrich Potgieter went from a links novice who missed the cut in the 2022 St Andrews Links Trophy to the winner of the Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes in a matter of weeks after a lesson on how to hit two-iron stingers and bump and run chips from Sunshine Tour veteran Rogers Wessels.
The coach said those skills could serve him well tomorrow and he’s another tempting price up (11/4) against Brooks Koepka and Sam Burns.
