As he watched son Steve play in his first US Open, Hale Irwin was asked about some memories from his three Open victories. Among the moments his mind revisited came at Inverness in 1979, when he went ahead by five strokes in the final round.
“I thought, ‘How do you play with a five-shot lead?’ ” Irwin told me as we walked a few holes together in second round at Congressional, where he was watching son Steve play his first Open. “The only thing I knew was try to lead by six.”
Around the same time, Rory McIlroy was moving toward 13 under and a momentary 10-shot lead on Friday. McIlroy led by eight strokes when he finished his second round with an 11-under 131 total and ended the day up six.
When McIlroy led by eight, I ran into Irwin again and asked, “How do you play with an eight-stroke lead?”
“Try to get it to nine,” he said. He laughed and added, “You knew that already.”
McIlroy took the midway lead because of ball-striking. He drove beautifully, long and straight, and led the field in greens in regulation (32 of 36).
That formula speaks to Irwin.
“My plan always was to hit the fairway and hit the green,” he said. “That’s Job 1. You can throw out local knowledge.”
Job 2 is not getting ahead of yourself. Irwin remembers being five shots ahead with two holes left at Inverness and telling himself, “I’ve got it won.”
He finished with a double bogey and a bogey and won by two.
“I let my guard down,” he said. “You can’t do that.”
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