{"id":35991,"date":"2025-04-20T16:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35991\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T16:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:13:14","slug":"excitement-at-fever-pitch-as-hero-mcilroy-touches-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35991\/","title":{"rendered":"Excitement at fever pitch as hero McIlroy touches down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grand Slam champ flies home… and Holywood is ready to party\n<\/p>\n

Before the Grand Slam winner\u2019s private jet had even touched down at Belfast City Airport yesterday morning, speculation was rife about his possible itinerary.<\/p>\n

Such was the buzz of excitement swirling around the club yesterday as McIlroy flew in, there was a false alarm after whispers began circulating about the imminent arrival of a high-profile visitor.<\/p>\n

In the end it turned out to be the Japanese Ambassador to Ireland, who stopped by to congratulate the members on the golfer\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

And curious visitors from abroad continued arriving in busloads throughout the day, hoping to catch a glimpse of McIlroy should he turn up.<\/p>\n

Kallam Craigs (33) was confident the superstar, who learnt his trade on the local fairways and greens, will stop by.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s delighted to get back and I\u2019m sure the main thing he\u2019s probably looking to do is to see the family and relax \u2014 no surprises he\u2019s taking a week off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say he\u2019s just really looking forward to putting the feet up, seeing the family, seeing a couple of his friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure he will probably be up here at some point with the green jacket on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be a few drinks taken when he gets up here.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019d like to think he\u2019ll have a couple of pints himself \u2014 because he has certainly earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Club president Tony Denver said there were incredible scenes on Sunday night when McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the Grand Slam \u2014 all four Major competitions \u2014 and the first from Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Stuart<\/p>\n

Stuart Thompson<\/p>\n

Member Stuart Thompson (41) added: \u201cIt\u2019s normal him coming round here. I suppose it\u2019s been a long time waiting for this, so it\u2019s a massive weight off his shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t heard anything. I\u2019m sure the club will probably do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy was accompanied by daughter Poppy as he disembarked from his jet.<\/p>\n

He had shared an emotional message with her just after fulfilling his own dreams on Sunday night when he told the media: \u201cOne thing I\u2019d say to my daughter Poppy is never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up on your dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and Poppy are expected to chill out with family before he returns to the US for next week\u2019s Zurich Classic in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\"Ricardo<\/p>\n

Ricardo Neufuss<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever happens, happens,\u201d Ricardo Neufuss said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done it as an individual and made the club proud. I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be a big crowd to welcome him back. You couldn\u2019t have scripted it better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so nice for such a big achievement in such a small area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Holywood<\/p>\n

Holywood Golf Club PGA Pro Ciaran Lavery<\/p>\n

Club PGA professional Ciaran Lavery said: \u201cWe\u2019d love to see him, but it\u2019s not something that we\u2019ve been told, or sort of let know anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019ll be nice \u2014 we only need one word.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve nothing planned, but if he was to arrive we would just go with it and embrace it more than anything,\u201d<\/p>\n

Daire McGarvey added: \u201cThere\u2019s talk of it, there\u2019s maybe going to be something… we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grand Slam champ flies home… and Holywood is ready to party Before the Grand Slam winner\u2019s private jet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2378,1384,18463,2826,4287,79,16,15,20757,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-35991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-down-news","10":"tag-george-best-belfast-city-airport","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-us-pga-championship","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114371179634746752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}