GOLF: The Americans just can't get enough of the US Open champion from Holywood, Co Down

YOU WANT to know how Rory McIlroy has been embraced in the United States? On Saturday, as roars of "Let's Go RO-R-EE" reverberated around the course here at Congressional Country Club, American Zach Johnson stood like a statue, unable to move, as he let the clubface linger behind his ball on the 14th fairway. His veteran caddie, Damon Green, someone who had probably thought he had seen and heard everything in his golfing life, both as a bagman and a player, couldn't take any more of the deafening chant. He turned and yelled and, in a nutshell, told the crowds the adjoining 12th fairway to shut up! He got only a temporary respite, for the chant started again and grew and grew. Louder and louder, enough to make the hairs stand up on your neck.

The crowd, predominantly Americans, have taken Rory McIlroy to their hearts. They've been mesmerised by his ability to get his 5ft 9in frame to regularly bomb the ball off the tee to distances over 300 yards. And of how the ball more often than not finds a place in the middle of the fairway. They've become enamoured with his youthful exuberance, and his ability to enjoy golf. Of how he interacts with them, of how he plays at a fast pace and with sheer joy.

My brother is a northside Dub who somehow ended up as an NYPD officer in Queens. He rang the other day to say how "crazy" everyone in the Bayside precinct was about this Irish kid. It's all they've been talking about. And that story is not unique.

The US television commentators - including the doyen and hard-to-please Johnny Miller - have been tripping over themselves to embrace the golfer who has "RORS" embroidered on the back of his cap just above the Titleist logo. Feherty. Nobilo. They're all enamoured with McIlroy. He's the only story in each and every town, coast-to-coast.

So too with the US print media. Back in February 2009, Jeff Rude - a columnist in Golfweek magazine - didn't exactly give a whole-hearted welcome to the then teenager McIlroy who had jumped into the world's top 20 after his first tour win in the Dubai Desert Classic. "I have a simple rule when it comes to rankings," Rude wrote. "If longtime scribes such as myself haven't even seen you, you can't be in the top 30 in the world. Meaning you haven't been on the radar at majors and other topshelf stuff."

Perhaps that snide argument says as much about insular US thinking of the time, but there can be no argument that McIlroy has converted his sceptics in jig-time. As American golfer Brant Snedeker succinctly put it the other day, "Rory's probably got more talent in his pinky (little finger) than I have in my whole body". Oh, and there hasn't been a mention of an asterisk.

Remember when Pádraig Harrington won back-to-back majors in 2008 at the British Open and US PGA, a time when Tiger Woods was an absentee, another US writer suggested that there should be an asterisk placed beside his name. Hogwash, of course. But, guess what? Woods, absent from Congressional, has barely been mentioned all week. McIlroy's wizardy beguiled and mesmerised all strands of the golfing fraternity to such an extent that he is now viewed as the next potential great of the game.

Oh, for sure, there's something about Rory! Jason Day, another exciting young player, sought to describe what McIlroy brings to the game. "The next generation is starting to kick up now and he's the guy that's leading it . . . He's just got so much game, it's unbelievable how much talent he has at 22," said the Ausssie, who is all of a year older than the Ulsterman.

McIlroy's impact hasn't been all about his on-course golf. It is about how he behaves off the course too. Many of the comparisons with Woods have related to his potential to win majors going into the future; but other off-course comparisons are worth noting in understanding why the Americans and beyond have taken McIlroy to their hearts so much.

After his final-round collapse in the US Masters in April, McIlroy took the meltdown on the chin. He gave television, radio and newspaper interviews - even quipping that he'd had five or six holes to prepare himself for the golfing autopsy - and his demeanour and grace was a stark contrast to the surliness of Woods's post-round interview.

And another thing. Last week, McIlroy - in his role as a Unicef sporting ambassador - headed down to Haiti to see for himself the plight of children in the earthquake-devastated country. McIlroy spoke of how it gave him "perspective", but the fact that he went there at all, but especially in the week before the US Open, got huge airtime on radios and television in the USA and also hugely favourable comment from writers in newspapers and on-line.

McIlroy has impacted immensely. His name is now a global trademark. He's that big. And Graeme McDowell - winner of the US Open in a life-changing moment at Pebble Beach last year - believed that this is only the start of a great odyssey.

"I've played a lot of golf with Rory. I've played a lot of practice rounds with him, and I've gotten to know him very well the last three or four years. I've said many times he is one of the most phenomenal players I've ever seen. He may be, hands down, the best player I've ever seen hit a golf ball," said McDowell.

He added: "He's a phenomenon. Obviously, we were disappointed for him at Augusta. What he's done (at Congressional) has been an accident waiting to happen. He's been threatening to do this for many, many years and it is great to see him fulfilling his potential."

Harrington, the man who set the whole European surge in motion with his three major wins in 2007-2008, had other food for thought with his observation that Woods - currently with 14 majors - is not the man most likely to break Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 Major wins. "If you're going to talk about someone challenging Jack's record, McIlroy's your man. When you are winning Majors at 22, with his talent, and he's got 20 something years to play Majors, and another 100 Majors in him, I would give him a great chance to catch Jack," said the Dubliner.

McDowell and Harrington can't be accused of jumping on any bandwagon, they've been espousing such views for some time.

The Golf Channel is the television station for golf anoraks in the United States, and they simply can't get enough of the man from Co Down. In interviewing McIlroy's manager Chubby Chandler on Saturday morning, the presenters talked of McIlroy's "extraordinary ability" but also the fact that he is "also a kid that people really, really like." Chandler, as is his way, told it as it is about McIlroy. "He's a really good kid. He has had a great upbringing. His mum and dad have kept his feet firmly on the ground. He has a wonderful mixture of being grounded and yet very confident which is hard to find . . . he is just a naturally good lad. He is very respectful when he should be. He is fun loving when he should be. He is a very rounded person."

"He's just got so much game, it's unbelievable how much talent he has at 22