Overheard At The Open: The Best Things I've Heard From A Week At Royal Portrush

Northern Ireland was previously a nation starved of professional golf action. Having grown up here, I remember jumping for joy when the news broke Portrush would host the 2013 Irish Open and I'd get to see the best in the world, in the flesh, in my own back yard. Fast forward just over a decade and we've now had two Open Championships in six years.

This has meant a huge, golf-hungry sellout crowd has flocked to Royal Portrush like a seagull to a stray chip on the town promenade. Having spent the week at this fabulous tournament, I've overheard many conversations - from the golf nerds and 'sickos' to the fans less familiar with the intricacies of this strange game, but are simply here to enjoy this wonderful tournament.

Here is a taste of the best things I've overheard on the ground this week at The Open Championship.

Different nationalities = different supportive shouts

Following the McIlroy, Fleetwood and Thomas group on Friday, it was to be expected for there to be plenty of supportive shouts towards the trio - but what fascinated me was how these changed for each player.

Obviously Rory got the most, with his fellow countrymen and women cheering him on at seemingly every stride.

"Go on Rory!"

"Rorrrryyyyyyy"

McIlroy doesn't need be doing anything specific to receive such shouts, simply walking off a tee box or down a fairway is sufficient. The same is true for Fleetwood as well, albeit his shouts are a lot more infrequent and tailored more to after he has played his shots.

"Come on Tommy!" is the most common, quite a few of which come in a thick English accent. The "Go on Tommy" shout, when said in a Irish accent, quite often comes with the world "lad" at the end.

However, the most noticeable difference is the punctuation. Tommy's 'go on' shout is just that, whereas the one Rory receives often blends into the local dialect and turns into a "g'waaaan" - almost more of a noise than actual words, but just as endearing and supportive.

Not to be left out, J.T too gets his support. He is referred to only as J.T. It's never "come on Justin!" or "go on Thomas!" - in fact, he's never referred by christian or surname. He simply goes by J.T.

This leads to a unique shout almost only used for American players - "let's go J.T!". This shout is almost always bellowed by someone who doesn't sound overly American but, for whatever reason, puts a slight American twang as they shout it. Combined with the thick Northern Irish accent, this makes for amusing listening.

Badly pronounced names

The Northern Irish accent is one that makes it difficult to pronounce names. None of us have any bother articulating some of our most wordy place names - Cuilcagh ('Cwhale-ca'), Ahoghill ('A-hauw-hill') and Lisnagunogue ('lis-na-gun-yah'), for example. However, golfers names are a different ball game.

"Is that Tony Finoo?" asked one teenager in the direction of his father.

"Fee-Now, son. Tony Fee-now. But aye, that's him."

Thailand's Sadom Kaewkanjana understandably caused confusion as he rose up the leaderboard earlier in the week. One couple saw my media lanyard and put me on the spot as we stood beside the 13th green, asking "who is this Sadom kid? How do you pronounce that?"

I tried my best to answer after practicing in the mirror all of Thursday evening but I feel Sadom would have corrected my efforts if he was present.

One particular three ball caused havoc for the elderly couple sitting in front of me in the 16th grandstand on Friday.

"Oh my gosh" said the woman as Romain Langasque's name appeared on the screen on beside the 16th green.

"Hodge... Hod... Hodge-guard?" she asked speculatively as Rasmus Højgaard's name then flashed up.

She then turned to her partner, grabbed his arm and chuckled as the final player of the three ball, Christian Bezuidenhout's approach shot landed on the green.

"Not even going to try with that one", she chuckled.

On behalf of my countrymen and women, I apologize to those who have had their names butchered this week - I hope we made it up to you with our warm hospitality.

Umbrellas out = impromptu golf lessons

The fans at Portrush were well prepared for wet weather on Thursday and Friday. Heavy showers meant umbrellas went up and down constantly. When they went down, the coaches got to work.

"It's such a good drill to create that lag you need, lad.

"Get the hips through... that's how you can compress the ball and really control it" said one teenager to his seemingly younger brother or relative as he used his umbrella as a makeshift golf club.

The fan village was a sea of makeshift golf lessons from future golf coaches. Whether it was working on takeaway, the impact position or even alignment in some cases, the most used training aid in Northern Ireland on Thursday and Friday was an item not made for saving your golf swing but rather saving you from mother nature.

"After all this time, I'm only finding out now you use a baseball grip?" said one middle aged man to his partner as he raised his umbrella akin to Scottie Scheffler meticulously checking his grip on the driving range.

"Maybe you should try it, you couldn't get any worse" she replied with a rye smile.

"Rory's gonna get ya..."

The Irish have made no secret about who they want to win this week and although it's clear they don't want Scheffler to win, they've remained as classy as a crowd can be.

This was until Saturday.

Standing behind the second green, roars erupted as Fitzpatrick chipped in for eagle. Scheffler, found the middle of the green on the Par 5 in two in true Scottie fashion and left his eagle putt from around 50ft just outside of 'gimmie' range.

However, the seemingly unflappable leader made what felt like his first mistake of the week as his short putt for birdie lipped out. Gasps met the result from the crowd around the green, but muted cheers emerged from the hospitality tent to the right of the green - likely from Rory fans who'd had a drink or five throughout the day.

The Portrush faithful, albeit a very small and likely intoxicated minority, broke their cover. The cat was out of the bag - they clearly don't want Scottie to win.

"Rory's gonna get ya! Rory's gonna get ya!" chanted half a dozen men in their early twenties, all holding half empty plastic cups of beer.

It's a big if, but IF Rory can get within realistic distance of Scheffler down the stretch on Sunday, I will be fascinated to hear how the fans react....