Ok, I give in.  There’s only way to start this blog.  All hail to Francesco Molinari, champion golfer of the year, winner of the Open Championship at Carnoustie and the first Italian to hold aloft the Claret Jug.  He didn’t think it was his place – he used to put Carnoustie on his list of courses to avoid – but it is now because it was his time and he had the skill, the nerve and the competitive nous to embrace the opportunity of a lifetime.

Molinari was in the form of his life in the run-up to the 147th Open.  He’d held off Rory McIlroy to win the BMW PGA Championship in May; he’d won for the first time in America at the Quicken Loans National at the beginning of July; the week before the Open he was runner-up at the John Deere Classic in Illinois.  Many people thought that an odd decision, passing up the chance to get in some links practice by playing in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at Gullane but it proved a master stroke.  Denis Pugh, the highly respected coach who has been a key member of team Molinari for years, explained that they decided it was better to keep a swing that was in peak working order operating smoothly without any need to incorporate links kinks until absolutely necessary.  As a result Molinari’s confidence and self-belief remained sky high.

If there’s anything volatile about this particular Italian, he keeps it well hidden and in the last round, paired with a resurgent Tiger Woods and his attendant hype, he was calmness personified, chugging along in his own bubble, undistracted by the Cirque du Tigre.  Molinari didn’t drop a shot in the last 37 holes – at Carnoustie, for goodness sake, where it was breezy enough on the last day to give most player conniptions.  And those last four holes!

Watching the telly coverage on the Saturday, I texted my fount of all knowledge (Mo) with the following question:  “If I settled for a 4, 4, 4, 4 finish all four rounds at Carnoustie [that would be 4 over par, cos the fearsome 16th masquerades as a par 3], would that be too wimpish to win an Open or would it get me close enough to lift the claret jug?”  The answer, when it came, was succinct:  “Claret jug finish……”

Yes, there were birdies at the formidable 16th, I think there were a few at the 17th, Justin Rose had a ridiculous four 3s at the 18th (watch out when you’re next at Carnoustie, Justin!) and Zander Lombard, one of a slew of talented young South Africans, threw all calculations into the air when he had an eagle two at the last on the third day.  He still finished 6 over par for the last four holes for the championship.  Even Molinari, who rolled in a knee-knocking birdie putt for a 3 at the 18th on Sunday, with a fist pump that showed he knew just how important it was, played the last four holes in a total of 2 over par.

As the wonderful, mad, regular readers of this blog know, I’m not a stats person, so I haven’t trawled through the entire field to see if my theory would hold up, more or less, even with Carnoustie at its most benign, as it was this year.  Rory McIlroy, who shared second place with Rose, Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele, two strokes behind Molinari, played the last four in 2 over par and Rose, heaven help him, played them in 5 under (UNDER).  Blimey.  Perhaps we should draw a veil over what on earth Justin was up to elsewhere.

But it was Francesco’s week – he’s hoping his victory will inspire big brother Edoardo to new heights; they won the World Cup together in 2009 and were on the winning Ryder Cup team at Celtic Manor in 2010 – and it is just the boost Italian golf needs after being awarded the Ryder Cup in 2022.

 There have been quite a few good Italian golfers, men and women but when Francesco lifted that ancient trophy, I didn’t immediately think of them, not even Costantino Rocca, who came close to winning the Open at St Andrews in 1995, losing out to John Daly in a play-off.  No, I thought of a couple of members of the AGW, tireless advocates of golf in Italy, now no longer with us, people like Piero Mancinelli, who was a bit of a legend and the wonderfully flamboyant Maria Pia Gennaro, who died far too young.   I do hope they’re somewhere congenial, smiling, smiling, smiling and savouring a moment for the ages.

And now it’s on to Royal Portrush, four miles from where Maureen and I grew up in Portstewart.  Wow.  It’s beyond exciting.  It’ll be an all-ticket Open for the first time and I’m sure that in due course I’ll be voicing my disapproval of how corporate the championship has become, how increasingly unopen the Open is in too many respects but that’s a rant for another day.

Putting was always reputed to be Francesco Molinari’s weakness, preventing him from taking full advantage of his supreme ball striking but at Carnoustie, when it mattered most, his holing out was flawless.  He holed everything he needed to, the nasty short and mid-range putts a champion has to hole to win the titles that matter.  Time after time his nerve and his stroke held up.  That’s testament to a lot of work and a lot of thinking, a refusal to remain stuck in the same old rut.

Harvey Penick, the legendary Texan teacher who coached Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw, among many others, was asked what was the best advice he could give them as they set out on their professional careers.  He gave it some thought, then said, “Make sure you go to dinner with good putters……”

Coming down a few levels, my putting is of the erratic variety and I’ve now got a book that I hope will change that – although, of course, as usual, it all depends on how much effort I’m willing to put in to change the bad habits of too much of a golfing lifetime.  Anyway, I’ve started studying my (complimentary) copy of The Lost Art Of Putting, an absorbing wee tome by Gary Nicol and Karl Morris, with a foreword by Paul Lawrie, the man who won the Open at Carnoustie in 1999.

I don’t know Gary well but it’s a joy to see him going from strength to strength in what has become a distinguished coaching career.  His late father Alister, a member of the AGW and golf correspondent of the (Scottish) Daily Record for many years, was a good friend.  He was also, obligatory for Scottish journos who gravitated to sport, a football man and Gary’s godfather is Sir Alex Ferguson, a master of the mind game.  Good to see that Sir Alex is well on the road to recovery after his brain haemorrhage.  Here’s hoping he’ll be holing plenty of putts in future.

 

This is a big week for a lot of people – players and their entourages; administators; referees; the town of Carnoustie; restaurants; hotels; guest houses; media.  The list goes on and on.  It could, of course, be life changing for someone – a first time major winner, for example.

One man pivotal to the success of the entire week, however, is Craig Boath, head greenkeeper at the Carnoustie Links. This is his third Open at the Angus course.  In 1999, that year of the unplayable rough, he was an apprentice;  then in 2007 he was assistant head greenkeeper; now he is the man at the helm.  Can you imagine the pressure of years of your work being under the microscope of the world’s finest exponents of the game, never mind television pictures being beamed all around the world to millions of viewers?

Don’t expect any tricking up of the links – Boath is proud of the fact that Carnoustie can, in his opinion, hold its own with the modern game, technological advances notwithstanding.  The course is actually slightly shorter than in 2007 and the fairways are not narrower.  In fact, at the 11th hole on the right hand side near the green there is a slight widening out of the fairway.  The intention is to have the greens running at between 10 and 10.5 on the stimpmeter, positively slow by Tour standards, but necessary on links courses where off-shore winds will cause the ball to move if the greens are cut any lower.  He has presented the course to highlight its strengths.  Thoughtful strategy is demanded to avoid the penal bunkers and it’s essential to recognise when to have a go and when to hang back and be a little more conservative.  Good shots are rewarded as much as they ever are on a fast-running links and, by and large, this week’s test favours a thoughtful player and a mindless grip-it-and-rip-it-down-there-as-far-as-you-can strategy is going to have to be tempered by sound thinking.  Phew – a proper golf course then and not even the teensiest bit tricked up.  Thank you, Craig and team.

Tuesday evening at The Open Championship can only mean one thing – the AGW (Association of Golf Writers)  dinner, one of my favourite nights of the year.  Patricia has been a member of the AGW for donkey’s years and I have ensured that I’ve been permanently on her guest list since I first worked for the BBC at the 1997 Open at Troon.  It’s a fun evening with the presentation of a Player of the (previous) Year and various other awards and there are normally a sprinkling of top players present.  They’re happy to be there not least because they are free to escape early and their presence is always much appreciated.

Last year the guest of honour was one of my favourites, Sergio, resplendent in his green Masters jacket.  It’s a great opportunity to have an informal chat and take some pics.  Alison Root, editor of the informative Women & Golf magazine and a huge Sergio fan, was determined to have her photo taken with the Spanish Masters champ.  I obliged and, if I say so myself, took rather a good pic.  It was then my turn and Alison took the photo.  I hadn’t the heart to tell her later but it was a disaster – she was obviously still shaking with excitement at her proximity to her idol and the resultant blurry image could have been of anyone!!

This year the AGW is celebrating its 80th birthday, having been founded by 30 scribes attending the 1938 Walker Cup at St Andrews.  Their stated aim was to “establish a close liaison with the governing bodies and promoters of golf” and a list of their past presidents makes for impressive reading with Bernard Darwin, Renton Laidlaw and Percy Huggins amongst their number.  As Patricia is back home in Cheshire looking after my husband, who is on the mend post elbow surgery, it fell to me to host her guests at the dinner – a very onerous duty indeed!  Ros Rentoul, captain of St Rule Golf Club in St Andrews, and I had played university golf against each other many years ago and hadn’t seen each other since but golf bridges all such divides with ease and I had a lovely evening getting to know her again.  Former Wales international Pam Valentine, now a member of the R&A Amateur Events Committee, fresh from a hole-in-one (her 4th) on ladies’ captain’s day at home in Wrexham, was with us and any evening in her company is a treat.

It was a treat for the three of us to see Segio, Ernie Els and John Paramor, esteemed Rules guru, be presented with their awards and another bonus that Gary Player, although endlessly entertaining, only spoke for three minutes!  He spent more time imparting his wisdom to Ernie’s nephew, Jovan Rebula, the newly crowned Amateur champion.

 

 

As usual, the Master of Ceremonies was the BBC’s excellent Iain Carter who moved the proceedings along with a swing including an entertaining little interview with Jean Van de Velde.  When Iain asked Jean did he often hark back to that 72nd hole in 1999 when he”only” needed a double bogey to win the Claret Jug, Jean replied with a wonderful Gallic shrug, “Well, no.

“Some people are destined to get their names on a trophy.  I got mine on a bridge!”