McDowell, who was raised Protestant but whose mother is Catholic, told me in an interview a couple of years ago that he, like McIlroy, has never felt the need to pick sides. "I wasn't brought up with that us-against-them kind of vibe," he said. "I was very sheltered from it all." But when it comes to golf with , he added, his allegiance does lean toward Ireland, a result of his playing junior golf for the Golfing Union of Ireland. We got what we paid for: a grunt from the cashier (yes, there was a cashier), greens as woolly as a mammoth and a four-group backup on the first tee.
"We only have one team in Ireland; there's no North and South," McDowell said. "So I grew up wanting to wear the Irish blazer -- the green and the gold. It didn't matter to me what religion I was, or what religion my teammates were. I wanted to play golf with Ping G20 fairway wood for Ireland. To me, though, sport has no religious boundaries. It has no political boundaries. Sport is just sport." Today that town-run track is called Robert T. Lynch Municipal Golf Course, and greens fees start at $30. But when I was growing up, it was Putterham Meadows, and it cost two bucks for me and my friends to play.Statistics: Posted by sally000 — Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:55 am
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