Late last year, as we spent the morning in the Kruger on what was his first safari experience (the wilds of Northern Ireland are rather light on giraffe and wildebeest), Rory McIlroy quietly confided to me that he was hoping to bid that night for a spot in this year's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Johann Rupert having customarily put up a place in the field as one of the charity auction items at the Dunhill Championship pro-am dinner at Leopard Creek.

The spot wasn't for himself, as he would be an automatic inclusion; no, he wanted to get his father Gerry into the pro-am tournament, and be able to play alongside his dad on the weekend McIlroy senior turned 50. Rory didn't get the spot last year - the bidding skyrocketed quickly, as it tends to when Selwyn Nathan and Sam Hackner are in the audience, and I eventually sold the lot to a well-heeled German for three quarters of a million rand - but a few quietly pulled strings ensured that this year's celebration of links golf was a family affair, and one that ended with Gerry McIlroy getting the definitive 50th birthday present.

With gale force winds tearing across St. Andrews on Saturday, play was postponed and the tournament extended by a day, which made for a Monday conclusion, which just happened to be Gerry McIlroy's birthday, setting the stage for a fairytale finish: could Rory complete an extraordinary gift to his dad (as well as half a million quid for himself) and win the Dunhill Links? Very, very nearly; one back starting the final round at the Old Course, McIlroy had to be content with a share of second behind a charging Simon Dyson, but enough to take the 20-year-old from Holywood to top of the Race To Dubai, in the company of the man who introduced Rory to the game.

The McIlroys won't forget 2009 at St. Andrew's, then, even if it wasn't quite the perfect finish; but no one who was at the tournament will struggle to remember the Dunhill Links, particularly those at Saturday night's dinner. Picking up the microphone to host the evening, and looking across at everyone from Hugh Grant and Ronan Keating to Ruud Gullit and Tim Henman, was a personal buzz; the collective thrill was in listening to Keating, Huey Lewis, Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres, Don Felder and country star Clay Walker join the local band, as well as surfing god Kelly Slater a little later, and provide an impromptu night of musical genius that will remain unique to one Saturday night in a small town in Scotland. Simply unforgettable.

The celebrity dancing didn't quite match the celebrity music - Michael Vaughan looks distinctly more comfortable at the crease than on the dancefloor (Mark Ramprakash, a little help here wouldn't go astray), while Schalk Burger senior, looking more like a white Don King every time I see him, glides to music in the manner of the Titantic attempting a three-point turn. The Immelmans cut a suave pair, mind, as did little Thomas Aiken; naturals or not, the floor was packed all night, Huey Lewis the architect in chief of a splendid night of music.

Sean Fitzpatrick called the tournament his favourite week of the year when giving a vote of thanks (Fitzy declined my invitation to do a Q&A session on the Tri-Nations and Rugby World Cup), and enthusiasm inherent in simply being at the tournament was reflected in the number of people who saw the sun come up in the morning before they'd had a chance to get to bed. Rory McIlroy wasn't one of them, the golfers a well-behaved lot on Saturday night; last night, though, if anyone was painting St. Andrews red, it would have been a small, curly-haired Hobbit of a golfer, and the happiest 50-year-old on the planet. And rightly so.

  • Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za