Inside Track: We read about it just hours after Rory sinks that final putt

There was a whinge here last week about the poor coverage the dailies are giving to League of Ireland First Division games. Sometimes the scorelines, but never a match report.

That’s what it’s like in the paper I read. (Which, from here on in will be known as TPIR.) It was no better than usual after Dundalk had beaten Cobh Ramblers the Friday before last; but what a show it put on the following Monday, this time for golf.

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This is not another whinge, a comparison being made of the treatment of LOI lower reaches and the Augusta Masters; rather, an acknowledgement of how TPIR was able to present a glowing account, with pictures, of Rory McIlroy’s masterful win in Augusta in such a short space of time.

It was after midnight when the Holywood Hero brought a nerve-tingling final round to a close, sinking a four-footer in a play-off to shut out Justin Rose’s gallant effort.

Yet, here was I reading all about it seven hours later on the other side of the Atlantic. “Hold the front page” almost certainly rang out.

I know a wee bit about deadlines, having seen black hair turning to grey trying to meet them on occasions.

I was a player most times in an era of hot metal and a printing machine, which at full capacity could turn out no more than a 1,000 copies an hour.

Technology has banished typewriters to the dustbin, and the printing ink now in use no longer requires you to wash your hands after reading a paper. Locals are no longer printed during the night.

Still, TPIR carrying complete details of a pulsating Masters’ final chapter had me asking how it had been done, while at the same time ruefully casting my mind back.

The story it told on the cover and in the sports pages was one of history in the making. Never before had a European golfer completed the Grand Slam, winning The Masters, US Players’ Championship and two Opens, the USA and British.

McIlroy now sits alongside Gene Sarazen, Jack Nichlaus, Gary Player, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, and at 35, who’s to say he won’t again claim some of the big prizes, maybe even bring up a fresh accumulator.

The North’s big attractions are the Titanic Centre and Giant’s Causeway. No doubt they’ll again have tourists flocking there in their thousands this year, but still might not be the hottest tickets around.

The British Open is being staged at Portrush, and if McIlroy commits to be there – and the near certainty is that he will – you can only imagine the scramble there’ll be for spot behind the ropes or in the stands, hopefuls tapping on their mobiles or computers, or asking, “Do you know anyone in the Royal & Ancient?”

McIlroy won’t, however, be the only attraction. It was at the County Antrim course where Shane Lowry won the title six years ago, and he’ll be hoping it’s a case of horses for courses.

The big Offaly GAA supporter and benefactor was in the hunt after three rounds of the Masters, but buckled on the last day, coming in with an 81, which was quite possibly his worst ever round in a Major.

How much the inane questions he was asked in an interview after round three unhinged him only he can answer.

The guess is he won’t be rushing to get in front of a camera any time soon – though he might relent if he gets his hands on the Claret Jug for a second time.