Michael Kim makes bold claim about the Irish crowd’s reaction to Rory McIlroy’s dramatic putt on the 18th hole

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Rory McIlroy forced a playoff at the Irish Open in the most dramatic fashion as he made a stunning eagle putt on 18 to send it to a head to head with Joakim Lagergren.

McIlroy delighted the home crowd as he held his nerve to hole out and sent the fans around the green into one of the biggest frenzies we’ve seen all year.

At one stage it looked like McIlroy had it firmly in the bag but a couple of mistakes late on coupled with Lagergren’s own excellent play saw him drop two back going down the last.

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However, in true McIlroy style, he produced two fine shots to get on the green in two before he rolled in his eagle putt.

In scenes reminiscent of what we’d see at a Ryder Cup or in the days of Tiger Woods’ dominance, the crowd lapped up every minute.

And now, over on social media, PGA Tour player Michael Kim has given his reaction to the putt.

Michael Kim compares Rory McIlroy to Tiger Woods at the Irish Open

There aren’t many better sounds in golf than hearing a home crowd erupt when the favourite makes a putt like this.

In fact, it’s an easy argument to make to suggest we’ve not seen or heard scenes like this all year.

Indeed, that is the point Michael Kim has made on social media, as he compared the crowd roar to the days of prime Tiger Woods.

As we saw with Woods so many times over his career, the sound of the crowd willing the ball in the hole was something we became accustomed to on a weekly basis.

Adding further comment on just how impressive the scenes were, golf journalist Dan Rapaport pointed out how this might be the best crowd moment of 2025.

• READ MORE: Golf fans are already calling for big change at the Irish Open in 2026 with some wanting ‘petition’ to be started

Rory McIlroy is the man for the big occasion

Some players just have it in them and Rory McIlroy is one of them.

There is a reason he is a top two player in the world and it is moments like this that show it to everyone.

McIlroy’s calmness and the mental capacity to hole such a putt in such testing and pressurised circumstances is exactly why he is the main man for Luke Donald and Team Europe this month.

The crowd roar was something else, as pointed out here. But above all else, it showed McIlroy is well and truly the man for the big moment and when we get to Bethpage Black, he’ll need more of these moments to help Europe win out.