New Open Champion, Darren Clarke.
Lets just suppose you had walked into a bookmakers at the beginning of last week and asked to place a tenner on world number 111, Darren Clarke winning the first major of his career on Sunday. Most punters probably would have given you a strange sort of sidewards look. The bookies on the other hand, would have been more than happy to oblige, offering you odds of 150/1, and thus a potential windfall of £1,500.
But who would have been stupid enough to have done that, right?
Well no doubt there is someone out there who decided to take a punt on the 42 year old Northern Irishman, and is probably right now counting their lucky stars – if not their winnings.
In the same week that a Scottish couple bagged the £161m jackpot in the Euromillions, Clarke overcame the odds to scoop the £900,000 winners' cheque as well as having his name engraved upon the famous old Claret Jug.
Clarke's win caps a remarkable couple of years for golf in the tiny country of Northern Ireland, with his countrymen, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell both winning majors of their own.
Some may call it a coincidence that such a thing could happen; after all, how could a country with a population of less than two million ever produce three of the top players in what is truly a global game?
Indeed, golf is not a particularly big sport in Northern Ireland – with football and a plethora of Gaelic sports favoured.
But the truth is, that little country seems to have made a habit of churning out great sports men and women down the years. Does anyone remember a certain footballer by the name of George Best?
It is hard to pinpoint exactly the reasons why Northern Ireland is enjoying such a purple patch in the world of golf at the moment, but there certainly are a number of factors that in their own small way will have served to play their part.
The Royal County Down Golf Club boasts the fourth best golf course outside of the United States, according to Golf Digest magazine's 2007 listing.
The ninth at County Down is one of the most spectacular links holes in world golf.
Furthermore, the fourth and ninth holes at that very course both made it into a book about the 500 greatest golf holes in the world.
But having great golf courses doesn't instantly guarantee great players, although the type of courses arguably could.
Links golf is the main form of the sport in Northern Ireland, so it is perhaps no wonder that in the adverse conditions at Royal St Georges, it was a hardy Northern Irishman who came out victorious anyway.
US Open champion, Rory McIlroy credits the challenging nature of Northern Ireland's courses, in particular the Holywood Golf Club where he learnt his trade, as one of the main reasons he has made it so far in the game.
As for Graeme McDowell, he chose to take advantage of the college system in the United States to learn his game.
Although just recently, success for American golf has cooled slightly, there is no doubt that it is there that the finest coaching and facilities can be found. McIlroy, too, has benefited from them in the past.
Regardless of how these men have risen to the top of their game, it remains clear that in Northern Ireland golf is a sport on the up. Who knows, it might not be too long before another Major Champion emerges from that wild and rugged land.
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