Barney Murphy is a 49-year-old Irish-born cop on Cape Cod with a golf
> game so utterly hopeless that he can’t bring himself to keep score. Rory
> McIlroy is the new United States Open champion, a 22-year-old Northern
> Irishman who has captured the hearts and hopes of the entire golfing
> world.
> Beyond their shared heritage, they are an unlikely pair.
> Yet, it says a lot about each of them that they had such a grand time on
> Monday afternoon when Murphy, a decorated lieutenant and canine officer
> with the Barnstable sheriff’s office, gave McIlroy a police escort from
> a charity appearance at Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee to Logan
> Airport for his flight back home.
> McIlroy could have ridden in one of the chauffeured cars in back with
> his father and the US Open trophy, but he chose to ride shotgun with
> Murphy, even playing with Jaxx, the unimpressed Dutch shepherd police
> dog lazing in the backseat. As the cruiser motored down Route 3, lights
> flashing, they talked about life, about home, and about the whims of
> fate that landed McIlroy at the top of the sporting world.
> “He was absolutely a normal guy,’’ Murphy said. “He asked if he could
> ride in the cruiser. He said he really liked dogs. You know he’s not
> going to become anything but a normal guy, because he’s so down to
> earth.’’
> Along the way, Murphy had an idea.
> He pulled out his iPad, tapped Skype, and called his sister, Joan Dodd,
> back in Dublin.
> “You’ll never guess who I have with me,’’ Murphy said.
> “Jaxx?’’ she said, mostly because the camera was trained on the dog.
> Murphy spun the tablet and there was Rory McIlroy, a national hero,
> waving to a shocked fan back home.
> “She didn’t know what to say,’’ Murphy laughed yesterday. “She yelled
> for my nephew, Sean. He came running down and kept talking about how
> well Rory did Sunday and that he watched every minute.
> “Rory said: ‘That’s how I started, as a young boy, playing with my
> father. Keep it up and maybe one day you’ll be where I am now.’ ’’
> The ride was just one of many surprises in the daylong visit by McIlroy.
> First, organizers of the charity tournament weren’t sure he would
> fulfill his commitment a day after winning one of golf’s most
> prestigious prizes, but he did.
> Once there, he stayed hours longer than planned, signing autographs for
> every person in sight.
> “He even had his own pen,’’ Murphy said.
> When it came time to leave, it was Murphy who had the idea of the
> escort. He called his boss, who gave his approval. Murphy, who was
> off-duty at the time, assumed McIlroy would ride in the hired cars with
> his small entourage. But again, surprise.
> “He said he’d never been in a police car before and wondered if it would
> be OK,’’ Murphy said.
> They talked about growing up in Ireland, about rugby, about their
> fathers and how they helped their sons. The 90 minutes flew by, even
> when they hit traffic.
>
> “The whole country was screaming and shouting the day before, and there
> he is, sitting with me in the car,’’ Murphy said. “He such nice young
> man, humble and courteous, not one bit of arrogance.’’