There’s nothing quite like witnessing a person’s life change for the better.  It’s uplifting, emotional and leaves you with the feeling that perhaps the world isn’t such a bad place after all when wonderful things can happen to wonderful people.  It certainly beats the unrelenting diet of dreadful global news that would make a saint despair.

Last Sunday a dream came true for Sophia Popov as she held off everyone and everything (including her own doubts and questions) in the final round of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon.  She is the first women’s major winner of this strange 2020 season; the first German woman to become a major champion; the third German player (after Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer) to hoist a major trophy.

Nothing has come easily to the 27-year old American-born German.  Turning pro in 2014 she gained her LPGA card for the following year but was soon struggling with a myriad of health issues, lacking energy and stamina and losing 25 pounds in the process.  It took almost three years and a great deal of her own research to arrive, finally, at the diagnosis of Lyme’s disease.  Strict attention to her diet and fitness has helped her regain her strength and control of her life but it seemed as if playing on one of the major tours might well elude her.  She played on a number of mini tours but suffered a huge disappointment as recently as last year when she missed out on her LPGA tour card by one stroke at the Q-series.

She almost gave up but family and friends persuaded her to keep going and with commendable resilience she turned her attentions to the Symetra Tour for 2020, judging this main feeder tour to the LPGA as her best opportunity to get back to where she felt she belonged.

And then Covid happened.  And the Symetra Tour, like almost all sporting organisations, closed down.  And we were in to lockdown.

I think at this stage, if it had been me, I might have thought the universe was trying to tell me something.  But Sophia Popov, thankfully, isn’t me, and I, unfortunately, am not her, which is why I’m sitting here blogging and she, I hope, is with all her loved ones in Heidelberg (or her American home in Arizona) having a riotous, week-long party to rival that of Shane Lowry.

During the lockdown period there was one small tour that kept its doors open and kept giving players the opportunity to compete – the Arizona-based Cactus Tour.  Several of the LPGA players availed themselves of the chance to try and retain a little bit of sharpness in their games and it was against this backdrop that Sophia recorded her first professional victory of any sort – and she didn’t stop at one win either!  In a little under four months she had three wins and a host of other high finishes.

Popov exited lockdown and turned up at the first tournament on the new, revised LPGA schedule in Toledo, Ohio, not as a player but as a caddy for her great friend and European Solheim Cup star, Anne Van Dam.  Assessing the course and risks with a caddy’s eye, as opposed to that of a player, really helped her with her course strategy, she said.  She realised that often her aggressive attitude was a little gung-ho and that playing the percentages may serve her better.  What a lesson to learn a month before a Women’s Open!

At this point fate intervened to provide a rare helping hand.  So many overseas players did not travel to the States for the resumption of the tour that a spot opened up for Sophia in the Marathon LPGA Classic, so this time she was inside the bubble as a player, not a caddy.  A top-ten finish, her first ever in an LPGA event, earned her a cheque for a little over $27,000, her biggest-ever payday but more importantly she secured exemption into the field at Royal Troon two weeks later.  Then she made what seemed to some a strange decision:  she elected to stay in the States to play in a Symetra Tour event instead of going over to Scotland in plenty of time to prepare for the first major of the year.  She admitted she was utterly focused on the Symetra Tour and achieving a top-five ranking at the year’s end to regain her LPGA tour card. The AIG Women’s Open was a “bonus event” for her.

As it happened, a second-place finish, which meant another week at the sharp end of a tournament and a late arrival at Troon, with time for only one practice round added up to her own personal recipe for success.

It just goes to show that winning and being in the mix at any level is a great habit to acquire.  It armoured Sophia to deal with holding a 54-hole lead in a major for the first time in her life;  it gave her the confidence to play down the stretch like a seasoned veteran; and it gave her the courage to seize this stupendous opportunity with both hands.

Sophia’s bank manager will be very happy.  Her winner’s cheque of $675,000 is six times more than she has banked in the whole of her career but the “add-ons” are exceptional, not least membership of the LPGA Tour and unlimited choice for the next few years to play wherever she wants.  The winnings are great but the benefits are priceless.

At this point it’s worth a nod to the inimitable Dame Laura Davies who was so entertaining with her commentary throughout the week.  Laura was not a member of the LPGA tour when she won the US Women’s Open in 1987 and there was no provision for major winners to be offered automatic membership of the tour.  This caused the LPGA a bit of a headache as they certainly did not want the winner of their national Open potentially having to attend the end of season qualifying school.  I seem to remember that Laura had said she would not be going to the Q-school so it was over to the tour to make the next move.  They took their time but the rule was born that stated any major champion not already an LPGA member would be offered membership accordingly.  So many over the years have benefited from this “Davies rule” and Sophia Popov is a welcome addition to that list.

Finally, you will have noted, no doubt, that Sophia has dual citizenship – of Germany and America.  I was heartened to see a German flag opposite her name in the US tournament lists as I’d love to see her in the next Solheim Cup – wearing yellow and blue, of course.

What a joy it is to welcome top-class women’s golf back to these shores.  There are a couple of huge events coming up for the women’s game starting this week with the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies’ Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club near North Berwick.  After that, the (hopefully) securely bubbled tour will head westwards to Royal Troon for the newly named AIG Women’s Open – formerly the Women’s British Open.  I must admit I’m not a fan of the decision to drop the word “British” from the title.  I get that the R&A steadfastly protect “The Open” from having an adjective sneaked in there.  It was, after all, called exactly that from its inception in 1860, but that is not the case with the female equivalent and, to me, dropping the word “British” robs the title of some of its gravitas.  It makes me think of a club event, not one of the world’s premier women’s golf championships.  Be that as it may, I’ll be glued to my TV screen nonetheless.

The Ladies’ European Tour (LET) players are champing at the bit as the last tournament on their 2020 schedule was a whopping five months ago.  Were it not for the timely intervention of Justin and Kate Rose, supporting wholeheartedly the fledgling idea of tour player Liz Young to provide some of the LET members with competitive play, it is conceivable that none of the European Tour players would have hit a ball in anger for almost half a year.  Ring rusty doesn’t begin to describe it.

As it turned out, an amazing collective effort from event managers, sponsors, clubs, players, the tour and, of course, Justin and Kate, resulted in The Rose Ladies’ Series, an eight-week run of ten competitive rounds, each on a different course.  It seems, however, that nothing runs smoothly for the women and the final round over Wentworth’s famed Burma Road course had to be abandoned because of a wildfire that originated on Chobham Common.  The club was more than willing to conclude the golf the following day but with the blaze raging well into the night that proved impossible and reluctantly the round had to be abandoned.

As Justin Rose said, “Our mission was to serve the ladies and provide an opportunity for them to play and sharpen up for their respective seasons. So the last thing we want to do now is create a burden for them having to fit in the final round at a later date.”

Always thinking of the players, Rose is a gold medallist off the course as much as he is on it and how fortunate are we in our sport to have a supporter of his stature.  Thank you Justin.

The LPGA players on the other hand, have two full-field events under their belts – both won by Danielle Kang, a member of the defeated US Solheim Cup team on her last visit to Scotland.  No doubt she will be attempting to create happier memories on this visit to the land of the home of golf.  There is no question that she is the form horse at the moment – her last seven outings have yielded three victories, one second-place finish and two thirds and she is the highest-ranked American player at No 2 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Major winners litter the field – Ariya Jutanugarn, Hannah Green, I K Kim, Anna Nordqvist, Lydia Ko, Morgan Pressel, Stacy Lewis, Brittany Lang, Angela Stanford, Catriona Matthew, Georgia Hall, Laura Davies and current AIG Women’s Open holder Hinako Shibuno mean this will arguably be the strongest field ever assembled for a Ladies’ Scottish Open.  All I want to do is jump in my car and hurtle up to The Renaissance Club but, alas, when Christina Kim feels the need to travel in a full hazmat suit, the world is telling me that that is definitely not a sensible thing to do.

Next week is the first time a women’s professional major will be held over one of my favourite courses, the links at Royal Troon. The club has already hosted the Open on nine occasions, most recently that thrilling tussle between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson in 2016.  The resident pro is already warning that the course is playing much more difficult than for the men four years ago so it’s a given that the whole range of skills of these top players will be tested – another feast for those of us who love the women’s game.  And another feast through the medium of a screen as opposed to having the joy of being able to attend in person.

This will be the second of golf’s majors to be played without fans or fanfare, following in the wake of last week’s PGA Championship at Harding Park.  I don’t suppose Collin Morikawa cared a jot about the lack of atmosphere and paucity of watchers and perhaps the champion at Troon won’t either.  The winning moments will be captured for the millions of viewers worldwide and digitally enshrined for posterity.  It may well be a dream come true for someone but it won’t exactly be the picture they have nurtured and imagined in minute detail over the years.  But will that really matter?  Somehow I don’t think so, and I for one am delighted that Scotland is stepping into the spotlight for the next couple of weeks in support of the women’s game.  Nothing could be more fitting for the Home of Golf at a time like this.

It’s been quite a year!  Twelve months ago the cheers of Ole, ole, ole were ringing out around the Golf National Golf Club near Versailles as Europe romped to a terrific Ryder Cup victory.  April meant Augusta in the spring sunshine and the extraordinary 15th major win for the injury ridden Tiger and then……. well, then July and the Open at Portrush – for me, arguably the absolute pinnacle of all my years of playing, watching and working in golf.  But the game has kept on giving and last week Europe squeaked home in the Solheim Cup at Gleneagles, against the US, by the narrowest of margins.  Ole, ole ole indeed.

That was the 16th edition of the Solheim Cup and between us Patricia and I have been present at 14 of these encounters.  Our roles have altered over the last 30 years.  Patricia has morphed from a supposedly unbiased, sensible, considered golf writer for the Times into a bona fide European supporter, actually (whisper it quietly) sporting a Scottish ginger wig one day.  Of course, that WOULD be the day she chose to drop in to the TV compound, popping in to the BBC production office to say hello to Peter and Jackie Alliss.  I, meanwhile, have moved from being fellow tour player and friend of the players to broadcaster, member of the back room team and then back to commentator.  My own blue and yellow wig is not far away, I think.

You have to accept that at the moment Europe and the US are not exactly the powerhouses of women’s golf.  That accolade lies a little further east but you don’t necessarily need the best teams to get the best contests and I don’t agree with those who say the Solheim Cup is no longer relevant.  The BBC highlights programme peaked at over 650,000 viewers.  Add in Sky’s live coverage averaging 250,000 and that’s considerable interest for what some commentators have called a second rate contest.  And let’s not forget the 90,000 spectators actually at the match.

I confess I still find it difficult to get past the R&A’s decision to remove the Open, the Women’s British Open, the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup from terrestrial TV.  Obviously none of us was party to the behind-the-scenes discussions that took place but the net result is golf on television is only available to those who can afford a hefty monthly subscription.  Those people tend to be avid golfers and already hooked on the game.  Slim chance of inspiring interest in non-golfers.  Funny way to “grow the game” isn’t it?  If the R&A felt the BBC coverage of the Open was tired and dated, why not make more stringent demands on the Corporation?  Was it REALLY only ever about the money on the table?

I’d like to emphasise here that I think Sky do an excellent job but their reach is small and I don’t believe that is good for golf.  It certainly won’t help the Ladies’ European Tour who will be desperate to capitalise on this great win in a very uncertain commercial climate.

One of the downsides to doing a highlights programme is that I do not get much of an opportunity to get out on the golf course during the matches.  I’m buried away in the TV compound commentating from a TV monitor.  I do, however, get to sit next to Peter Alliss for a straight eight to ten hours and I can tell you that is never dull!  I do, occasionally, escape to do a small piece to camera with Eilidh Barbour, our presenter, and it’s great fun getting prepped for the camera by one of the make-up artists.  They are magicians!

Opportunities to bump into old friends from tour days are therefore limited but a great week came to a perfect conclusion for me when I spotted a familiar figure as i was leaving our hotel on the Monday morning – the always elegant Swede, former European Solheim Cup captain, Lotte Neumann.  Lotte had been supporting the team all week and was looking forward to a few rounds of her own in Scotland.  She was off that day to play at St Andrews and had Muirfield on the list for later in the week.

I came away reflecting yet again on all that golf has given me across most of my life – competition, fun, friendships, principles and a living, to name but a few things.  All I really want is for others to have a chance to know and love this game as I do and it’s imperative we keep striving to be all-inclusive and welcoming.  Time to ditch the exclusivity label that sticks to our sport and the outdated views that hold us back.  Time to welcome all with arms outstretched.

I was standing behind the 8th tee at Gleneagles last Saturday – yes, I was there – waiting for Lizette Salas or, more specifically, her coat, when I spotted a text.  The phone, on silent, was poised to snap said coat – I’d been tracking it for two or three holes with a marked lack of success – and as I read the message I nearly exploded.

The text, from a friend in the county of Antrim who is not renowned for restraint or political correctness, read as follows:  “Hi.  Will you FFS take a hot poker to some well upholstered backside out there and tell them to get a bloody move on.  Three hours for 9 holes?  Yer da is spinning in his grave.  I can play 18 holes in that time.  It’s a shocking advert for women’s golf and will only produce a circus of jokes about ‘female indecision’.  Never mind losing one hole:  three strikes and you’re out.  Loss of match and point.  Yours, Bored of Portrush.”

I responded (I had plenty of time):  “Your message arrived just as I was behind the 8th tee watching Lizette Salas!”

“How appropriate.”

“Nearly burst out laughing at v inappropriate moment.”

“Wonderful!  As it says in the Good Book (The Rules of Life by the R and A):  And the Lord said:  ‘Lo, I shall smite the po-faced and the over-cautious while they go about their putt putt’.”

Don’t worry, once this friend gets on a roll, no one has a clue.

Salas wasn’t the only slowcoach on display – Carlota Ciganda’s habit of backing off, as though hoping to take the ball by surprise, is beyond irritating – and if as distinguished a fan as Rory McIlroy is moved to admit he found some of the golf unwatchable, there’s a problem.  Golf nerds will, despite themselves, come back regardless, the less committed will switch off or over and go elsewhere, probably for ever.

The players claim to be keen to improve the pace of play but they’re not; they don’t give a toss; after all, it’s their job, so what else do they have to do all day?  Anyway, they say, it’s up to the officials to enforce the guidelines but that’s just refusing to accept responsibility.

They’ve forgotten that golf is a moving game, it’s not static, despite the fact that you do stop to hit a ball that is lying there waiting for you to give it a skelp.  They’ve stopped calculating on the move, assessing the conditions, considering their options as they approach the ball, almost making a decision on the type of shot, even the club, before they’ve come to a halt beside their ball.  It’s the old paralysis by analysis, by the very people who should, given the hours they put in on the practice ground and their ridiculous levels of skill, know their capabilities inside out and be the speediest of us all.

They’re looking for perfection but didn’t someone once say that “golf is not a game of perfect”?  Didn’t someone write a book about it?  And can we blame the advent of another book, the yardage book, for slowing things down to start with?  Gene Andrews, an American amateur, who disliked the fickleness of “feel”, played by yardage and had a little book for all the courses he played.  Deane Beman, who became commissioner of the US PGA Tour, picked up on the idea and so did Jack Nicklaus, who could also turn to stone over his putts.  Trouble was, he holed most of them and players all over the world gave up missing ’em quick in an attempt to emulate Jack.  At least he knew what he was doing; most of the rest of us don’t have a bloody clue.

 

 

Come Sunday, Gleneagles was at its glorious best and the golf couldn’t have been more compelling.  Most of the matches were too tight to call and the thousands of spectators who pounded their way round some challenging terrain were on tenterhooks.  Europe edging on top?  No.  USA all the way?  No.  Advantage Europe?  No, Stars and Stripes for ever, heading for an unprecedented three Solheims in a row.  A European BBU (brave but unavailing).  We’re fecked (as they say in Ireland), all impartiality ditched.  The USA, the holders, only need a half to retain with three matches still out on the course.  Europe still have a glimmer but they can’t do it, surely?

Anna Nordqvist, playing in splendid isolation, more or less, in the last match, always had the better of Morgan Pressel and won on the 15th, away from the mayhem that was brewing further ahead.  Bronte Law, all passion and bounce, shrugged off some shocking frittering to finish with a flourish that Ally McDonald couldn’t match and they then stood on the 17th green and watched the denouement on the big screen.

I’d been following Bronte with two friends from Cheshire who’d known her since she was a wee lass and after we’d stopped clapping her victory, we and hordes of others stood looking at Suzann Pettersen standing over a putt on the 18th green.  “What’s this for?” we said to the man next to us.  “It’s for the match,” he said.  “It’s for the whole thing.”

“What!” we said.  ”You’re joking!”

I thought of Bernhard Langer at Kiawah but Pettersen had left herself an uphill putt and in it went, right in the middle, no messing.  Cue more jumping up and down, screeching, general mania and disbelief.  Even Catriona Matthew, the calmest, least demonstrative of captains, went bananas.

Blimey.  How did that happen?  How did we do that?  How did Pettersen even hold the putter?  It was Killeen Castle without the rain. (I still don’t know how Europe pulled off that win in Ireland.)  Unbelievable.

The bottom line is that my boots (see top) are still unbeaten; whenever they tramp the fairways Europe win.  They made their debut at the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in 2010; sloshed their way around Killeen Castle at the 2011 Solheim; Maureen wore them at Gleneagles in 2014 at the Ryder Cup; and here they were again, back in Scotland, where Europe have now won three Solheim Cups.

I’ll leave the last word to my mate, transformed from Bored to Potty of Portrush:-

WOW!!