PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – High above Royal Portrush’s fifth tee, about 100 yards back and 100 feet up, a gaggle of fans found a spot along Dunluce Road just perfect enough to see the main event unfold. They didn’t pay for a ticket, but that wasn’t going to stop them.

Another dozen or so climbed the tall sand dunes of the East Strand Beach, which run along Portrush’s seventh hole. From that free vantage point, they could see the tee shots landing on the fifth green. A few more dotted the dunesland right of the fifth, popping up just off the property line from who knows where to catch a peek at the one man everyone was trying to see.

It was that type of day. A sold-out day in which you needed to find a way to see Rory McIlroy play The Open Championship anyway humanly possible. Saturday at Royal Portrush was the day McIlroy and the country of Northern Ireland had been waiting for. One that never came in 2019 when McIlroy’s tournament ended within moments of it starting and years of anticipation evaporated with one swing.

It was a round six years in the making. A raucous celebration of the best athlete to come out of the oft-overlooked nation, as he dazzled the home crowd and pulled his way into contention and a storybook ending. Yes, Scottie Scheffler extended his lead to four shots with just 18 holes to play, but Saturday belonged to McIlroy, the hottest, loudest show in Northern Ireland.

“It was incredible,” McIlroy said moments after firing 5-under 66 in one of the wackiest, most captivating rounds in recent memory.

Fun had eluded McIlroy for most of his previous four rounds at Royal Portrush (two in ‘19 and the first two this week). They were defined by pressure and trepidation – the weight of a country on one man. It was evident in the atmosphere, tense rather than delirious. Nervous rather than rabid. That’s what happens when you want something so bad. It’s debilitating, not freeing. Your mind darts to what could go wrong. You could see it in McIlroy’s swings and hear it in the skittish roars of the crowd.

And for that, Saturday was cathartic – a release of all that angst as McIlroy delivered on his potential and the crowd delivered on theirs, equally powerful forces that willed the hometown world No. 2 up the leaderboard and into the fringes of contention.

“It was four-and-a-half hours of constant noise,” said Jordan Smith, McIlroy’s playing partner, who was happy to revel in a moment of silence but was still in awe of the front-row seat that he had for the McIlroy show.

“I was crapping myself on the first tee,” Smith said.

The crowds were lined ten rows deep on Royal Portrush’s opener, as most of the crowd found a way to catch a view of the par-4. McIlroy sent a driving iron into the fairway, his first time hitting the fairway on his nemesis hole this week. A safe approach right of the front-left hole location left McIlroy a 36-foot birdie putt that he holed – the first sign of what was to come.

“It’s Moving Day, isn’t it,” said one Irish woman, likely in her 50s, who was able to get enough of a view to see the putt drop. It was said with hope in her voice, trying to convince herself and those around her that McIlroy might just mount a charge.

On the second hole, a kid dipped under the ropes and managed to blend in with the gaggle of press following him just long enough to see McIlroy’s approach find the green. With “RORS” spray-painted black across the kid’s bleach-blond buzz cut, it didn’t take long before a marshal ushered him back under the ropes. He’ll always have that shot, though.

And it was the site of McIlroy’s next birdie, one of the tap-in variety as his eagle putt stopped just short of the hole. He would add another birdie on the par-4 fourth to quickly jump to 6-under, four back of Scheffler at the time. Pars at the gettable fifth and seventh holes stifled the moment, as did birdie putts that burned the edge on birdies at the eighth and tenth, threatening to turn McIlroy's perfect start into a whimper of a finish.

His round took an even bigger hit on the difficult 11th, when he drove it well left of the fairway and then hit one of the wildest shots of the tournament. His recovery shot landed in the fairway short of the green, but McIlroy’s swing also unearthed a second ball that was embedded underneath the surface of the ground and popped out.

“Have you ever seen that before?” McIlroy asked NBC on-course analyst Jim “Bones” McCabe as he walked back into the fairway.

McIlroy was unable to get up-and-down from short of the green, dropping a shot just as Scheffler holed an eagle at the seventh. But McIlroy answered with a thrilling eagle of his own at the 12th, rolling in a 56-foot eagle putt that created a row that shook the media center on the other side of the property.

“It's one of the largest roars I've ever heard on a golf course,” McIlroy said, calling it one of the coolest moments of his career.

That made what happened at the 15th and 16th holes feel tame, where McIlroy first hit the flagstick with his approach and holed the subsequent short birdie putt, then got up and down from a gnarly spot short of the green at the signature par-3 16th, "Calamity Corner."

“I rode my luck at times, but yeah, it was an incredible atmosphere out there. I feel like I've at least given myself half a chance tomorrow,” McIlroy said.

That’s all the Northern Ireland crowd needs: a chance. It’s a chance they never got in 2019 – to cheer on one of their own at The Open Championship. Shane Lowry was the next best option, but make no mistake, it would pale in comparison to McIlroy, the Grand Slam champion who has returned home to share the spoils, making a run for the title.

It will be difficult. Scheffler leads McIlroy by six shots. The closest pursuer, Haotong Li, is six shots back. To bank on Scheffler to falter would be foolish. He’s given no signs that he will, but if McIlroy and the crowd can cultivate the same energy on Sunday that ran rampant through the grounds on Saturday, anything feels possible.

One thing is certain: You’ll want to watch – anyway humanly possible.