The prize for leading Irishman at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open goes to local dairy farmer, Billy O’Kane.
O’Kane appeared on TV coverage during the third round sitting enjoying a steaming cuppa and as the picture zoomed out, here was the sight of O’Kane as content as could be surrounded by dozens of brown cows on the property that ajoins the Galgorm Castle course.
It left Paul McGinley, and who was calling the action for SKY Sports Golf, to react: “And he’s got a few friends outside of the bubble. Somebody photograph that quickly. It’s brilliant.”
BBC Northern Ireland TV then sought out O’Kane.
Meet Farmer Billy O’Kane & his cows 🐂🐄
The Irish Open sensation! ⛳️
💬 I decided to go and check my cows… so I took a deck chair and flask of tea! 💬@DDFIrishOpen | @EuropeanTour | @GalgormResort | @GalgormCastle | @GolfChannel pic.twitter.com/gLaCrV8cMi
— BBC SPORT NI (@BBCSPORTNI) September 27, 2020
“I really decided to go and check the cows, and I knew there wasn’t many people that could go and watch the golf and I could watch it across the river,” he said.
I took a deck chair and a flask of tea and sat down and watched five or six groups. The sun was shining and I really enjoyed it.
They’re really good players, much better than me…
My phone wasn’t working very well yesterday, and also people of my age aren’t particularly good on social media, but my children tell me there’s been quite a lot”.
Disappointingly, only four Irish made the cut and all four finished near the tail of the field with amateur Mark Power the leading Irishman in sharing 60th place among the 70 who made the cut.
