Well, only six days to go until the 148th Open kicks off at Royal Portrush Golf Club heralding the end of a 68-year wait for the return of the Championship.  The excitement is building across the world and everyone’s preparing in their own way.

A week or so ago Tiger Woods began getting into the zone, the time zone, that is, by setting his alarm clock in Florida for 1 a.m.   Why is he doing this?  “It is now 6 a.m. at Royal Portrush,” he said.  “I will be playing the Open Championship there.  And in order to be prepared for the time change, I am getting up.”  Meticulous or what?

I suggest you, too, get up early to watch arguably the greatest player ever to take on Portrush.  He’ll undoubtedly opt for those preferred, quiet, early practice rounds of his and that may be the best time to catch him.  The tussle for a good view of him on Thursday and Friday will be immense and I’m not overly confident he’ll be around at the weekend.

I know he won the Masters in April and I know many feel he is back at the top of the game but, remember, this is a man who has played only three tournaments since that magical Sunday in April.  With a missed cut at the PGA Championship that is a paltry total of ten competitive rounds.  Hard for anyone to be competitive when that lightly raced.  So, don’t think you’ll definitely be able to catch him on the weekend – and don’t say I didn’t warn you!  (Of course, Tiger exists to confound, astound and do the impossible.)

My own Open preparations are gathering pace as hubby, sis and I ready ourselves for a Tuesday arrival back in the wee North.  Brian and I are ferrying over, Patricia flying a few days ahead of us.  Having said that, Patricia has done her usual trick of secreting her passport away so securely she can’t find it.  Ditto her driving licence.  We’ve been through this before and waiting for the triumphant text declaring all is well and said documentation has been located is akin to waiting for the white smoke to go up from the Vatican.

The other inconvenience is that Patricia’s phone is grumbling with the effort of sending any text, triumphant or otherwise, since she dropped it down the loo ten days ago.  And to think this woman once held down a responsible job….!  However, she remains relatively unfazed as she operates on her favourite life principle that it’ll all turn out all right in the end.

This will be a very, very different Open for me.  I decided after Carnoustie last year that I definitely wasn’t going to do the BBC TV highlights this year – too many hours locked away in a tiny studio having to concentrate and too little time to see my friends.

No, I’ve been a member of Portrush for more than 50 years and I’ve far too much socialising to do and this will be a fun, grand, celebratory spectacle that I intend to enjoy to the full without the responsibilities of having to be across every nuance and every storyline over the week.  So far I’ve stuck to my guns and have surpassed double digits in terms of the number of gigs I have turned down.

My husband says I won’t know how to watch an Open from outside the ropes (I’ve done 21 inside the ropes) but he forgets that I was a seasoned golf watcher long before I started working in the media and Patricia and I were at the last Ryder Cup as paying customers.  My periscope – the most essential piece of kit of all – and binoculars are laid out and ready.  So are my waterproofs, thermals (it IS Ireland, remember) and  sunscreen.  The car will be full to bursting with a few essentials for our hostess and fellow guests and if Patricia doesn’t find her passport we’ll be able to squeeze in an extra case or three of wine.  Every cloud………!

One group of people who are pivotal to the success of the Open and who will have a much more arduous week than me are the talented and tireless greenkeeping staff at the club, headed by Graeme Beatt, the course manager.  I have been following Graeme’s blog over the last three years as he has been keeping the membership informed and up to date with all the course work and preparations required to host the largest and most prestigious golf tournament in the world.

The course staff of around a couple of dozen has expanded to nearly three times that size with volunteer greenstaff from other clubs being drafted in to help during the last ten days or so.  Never mind the relentless demands of the past few years since Portrush was awarded the Open, the routine during the actual Championship week for the team is a challenge.

“We will start at 4 a.m. and work until set-up is complete,” Graeme said, “before returning for evening set-up at around 5 p.m.  The volume of work is really dictated by the weather and possible rainfall.”

By all accounts the course is looking absolutely superb and all I ask is for a few frisky breezes to allow the greatest players in the world the opportunity to showcase their skills on a piece of turf I am so very, very proud to call home.

We’re in for a great week.

Golf has taken me to many wonderful places and spending a week at Pebble Beach is always going to be hard to beat.  Spectacular, jaw-dropping scenery and the opportunity to commentate from inside the ropes on every single round of Brooks Koepka, world No 1, as he attempted to become only the second person to win three consecutive US Open Championships, was a privileged and unforgettable experience.  It’s not too difficult to roll out of bed in the morning when that is what constitutes your working day.

Those of you who are members of courses that have hosted, or are about to host, a major will have some appreciation of the staggering amount of infrastructure and resource required to stage such huge events.  The overall broadcasting and media set-up alone requires the building of a mini, temporary city which becomes home to us for a week. This inaccessible, secret world, however, is unseen by the thousands of golf fans actually present at the tournament and by the millions of global television and radio listeners and watchers.  I am still somewhat surprised at finding myself part of it all.  Even after 22 years of involvement in broadcasting I sometimes feel it’s a little dream-like and I’ll wake up one day and discover I’m an accountant like Dad or my husband!  Perish the thought!

At each event we have a nerve centre from which the whole broadcast is managed.  Sometimes it’s secreted away in a portacabin in the TV compound, sometimes it’s a broadcast booth constructed out on the golf course, usually somewhere within sight of the 18th green.

Thankfully, that is not where I am closeted for the duration of the tournament.  This is the domain of the producer, the host and the analyst.  No, on arrival in the morning I beat a path from the media centre to the driving range and short game area, the office of the players for the first part of their day.  Here it is possible to witness all manner of weird and wonderful things.  All sorts of gizmos, gadgets, sticks, measuring devices and computers are pulled from the mysterious depths of huge golf bags, rather as a magician will pull a rabbit from a hat.  This signals the start of the pre-round warm up, which varies considerably from player to player.  Some are very mechanical, precise and measured in every action they take; others freewheel a little more – but they all have the same aim:  to prepare the body and mind for the best golfing performance possible for the player on that particular day.  It is a tense, watchful place.

After watching the players in my assigned group and formulating a few opinions on how they are swinging and moving it is time for me to move to the course and hope that my own preparations may lead to some insightful and entertaining commentary.  This year I was assigned the Koepka group each of the four days – the first time ever, I believe, that I have shadowed one player for the entire week of a major.  So, I suppose I’m a bit like a legalised stalker with the added bonus after each round of getting to interview Brooks and, within reason, ask him whatever I like.

On these weeks I certainly don’t have any problem keeping up my number of steps on the ole fitness tracker but at the day’s end the media centre is always a welcome sight.  I feel a little like a ship safely making it back to harbour.  Well, what a treat was in store on one of the days that I made it safely back to base!  The USGA (United States Golf Association) had set up a display of some of the most priceless items in their museum, all relating to the history of their 119-year old national championship.  The oldest item was a club made and used by Horace Rawlins during the inaugural US Open, which he won, in 1895.  Rawlins, an assistant professional at Newport (Rhode Island) Golf Club, remains the only US Open Champion to win on a course where he was employed as a professional.  For me, however, the most eye-catching item was the 1-iron that Ben Hogan used on the 72nd hole at Merion in the 1950 edition of this championship.  It’s the club featured in the iconic picture of Hogan playing into the final green and is familiar even to today’s players because it was used for years in the promotion of Hogan golf clubs.

Tucked away in another corner of the media centre were two large massage chairs – not the ones you sit astride while someone gets to work on massaging your back.  No, these were two huge armchairs with all-enveloping folds for each of your four limbs and every part of it whirred and vibrated, the whole performance being operated by a hand-held device like a TV channel changer.  “Just the ticket,” I thought at the end of one particularly gruelling day.  Positive this would revive me I climbed onto the chair and set the massage button to medium.  What a mistake!  It was like being eaten by a giant, aggressive amoeba and three minutes was all I lasted before finding the relevant “abort” button on the remote.  What a relief it was to be spat out of that chair!

I didn’t sit in it again.

And so, with glorious Pebble Beach now behind us, the major season is rattling on apace and we are already three quarters of the way through the 2019 edition.  All that remains is the Open Championship to be held at the incomparable Royal Portrush.  That will be another week to savour, in so many ways.  Can’t wait.

Well, I’ve enjoyed my first visit to the famed Bethpage Black, an awesome public golf course on Long Island, where keen golfers sleep in their cars overnight to have the chance of procuring an early tee time.  With a cranky back and advancing years I’m not sure I’d be flexible enough to manage that before attempting to negotiate a course that seriously challenges you mentally and physically no matter which tees you play off.

Last week Bethpage Black hosted the 101st PGA Championship, the first time for a few decades that it wasn’t necessary to fight high August temperatures and threatening thunderstorms.  Hooray for the new date in May, even if it did mean wearing a few extra layers.  The players still had plenty of battles on their hands, the first being how to cope with a penal A W Tillinghast design that favours diagonal hazards (because it challenges the better players the most), angled elusive greens that repel golf balls as opposed to gathering them and brutal rough.  Throw in to the mix gusting winds and raucous New York sports fans and it becomes a mental test just to survive, never mind contend and ultimately triumph in a major championship.

That was the examination paper that the 156-man field faced and it was Brooks Koepka who dominated, then wobbled slightly with four consecutive bogeys late on Sunday before regaining his balance and clinching his fourth major in less than two years.  To say he was impressive would be an understatement and despite his final round lead shrinking from seven to one his immaculate play over the first 64 holes afforded him enough of a cushion to outlast the fast-finishing Dustin Johnson.

Matt Wallace, a 29-year old Englishman, was the best of the European contingent, finishing joint third with Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay.  He had thrust himself into the Ryder Cup conversation last year with three wins in very short order in 2018 but was overlooked in favour of players with more proven pedigree.  Well, he’s set about polishing up his credentials very nicely indeed.  He has already proved he has a winner’s mentality.  He won five consecutive events early in his career on the Alps Tour, then won on the Challenge Tour before graduating to the European Tour where he now has four victories.  Mind you, he missed a golden opportunity to add to that total a couple of weeks ago at the British Masters at the glorious Hillside golf course where he finished runner-up to Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult.  He seemed a little jumpy and fidgety that week but this was a much more polished performance on a grander stage.  Of course, it does help to have the vastly experienced Portrush man, Dave McNeilly, on the bag.

Wallace couldn’t have played in front of two more different galleries in the last two weeks.  Firstly, the hugely supportive, knowlegeable and respectful golf fans at Hillside and then, well, then there’s the New York sports fan.  There never seems to be actual silence during any shot.  The best you can hope for is a low level buzzing but this can lead quickly to jeers and chanting if you produce a mediocre shot or look, as Koepka said, “as if you’re half-choking it away”.

They cheer madly for good shots no matter which quarter they come from but your eardrums are constantly at risk from random shouts bellowed out by individuals seemingly trained to develop enormous lung capacity.  This could get seriously out of hand at the Ryder Cup which is scheduled to be there in 2024.  I asked Matt was he ready to pencil his name on to the team sheet for 2024 knowing now what the atmosphere was likely to be.  His response?  “I looked in the mirror this morning and told myself I belonged out here.  I didn’t necessarily feel that at the start of the week, but now I do.  I want to be there.”

Don’t forget your earplugs.

The only other notable finishes from a European perspective came from two of Ireland’s best, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, who finished in a tie for eighth spot with four other players on 1 over par.  Lowry opened with a lacklustre 75 but was 4 under for his final 54 holes, an effort bettered only by runner-up Dustin Johnson who was 5 under.  That was a heck of an effort and Lowry is bubbling with confidence again and the pep is back in his step.

McIlroy too can take a lot of pride in sticking in so well in the face of adversity.  I followed him the first two days and he was 7 over after 29 holes and well out of reach of making the cut.  At that time a top eight finish would have seemed unfathomable but a 69, 69 weekend was impressive.  Realising that his best stuff is oh-so-close he is choosing to be encouraged by that and keep his frustrations at bay as best he can – more evidence that this phenomenally talented player is continuing to mature.

And so the major caravan will roll in to Pebble Beach in a little over two weeks’ time when we will do it all again.  And after that…..Portrush!

 

At the moment all my thoughts are turning to my next broadcasting stint, the PGA Championship which bounds into the May section of the calendar, as opposed to the August part, next week.  Seventeen majors have come and gone since Rory McIlroy added to his total and in that time only four Europeans have managed to get over the line in one of the “big ones.”  So, what price a European victory at Bethpage Black next weekend?

You’d think it’s certainly time that the world No 2, Justin Rose, added to his slimline total of one major, the 2013 US Open.  A third place finish last week is evidence enough that the missed cut at the Masters was an uncharacteristic aberration and I expect him to contend strongly.  He must be wondering, though, just what he needs to do to double his major tally.  He’s in the prime of his golfing life and he needs to take advantage of that fact, converting his form into the currency by which great golfers are judged – majors.

There was also an encouraging fourth place finish for 2017 Masters Champion, Sergio Garcia, last week.  The mercurial Spaniard has all the physical tools to win another major, but his frequent and repeated mental walkabouts cast a huge doubt over his ability to stay the course and, sorrowfully, I have concluded that that one major triumph is it for Sergio.  Who’d have ever thought the young, effervescent, leaping Spaniard of 1999 fame would still only have one major win two decades later?

One of the European contingent currently playing the best golf is the Italian metronome Francesco Molinari.  Winner of the Open Championship last July, hunter-gatherer of five points out of five at last September’s Ryder Cup and serious contender for the green jacket last month, Molinari seems to have found the answers to most of the conundrums thrown up by this sport.  His work with performance coach Dave Alred has elevated his mental toughness and resilience, allowing him to produce his best under the severest pressure.  He is not finished with winning majors yet and I feel 2019 will yield another for him.

One name never far from the major conversation is Rory McIlroy.  Such is his talent and star power that his 2019 results, which read as follows – tied 4th, tied 5th, tied 4th, 2nd, tied 6th, 1st, tied 9th, tied 21st, tied 8th – is producing, not the universal admiration you might expect, but, rather, exasperation and endless questioning of his ability to finish things off.  McIlroy is stubborn – it’s part of what makes him so good – but he’s no fool.  He is working tirelessly to find the missing pieces for his jigsaw and engaging in meditation and mindfulness can only be helpful to his performance.  It will also be vitally important in not letting the constant undermining criticism, which is the bane of every really great player, worm its way into his consciousness.  I do expect another spurt of major victories from the Irishman – I’m just not sure when they’ll arrive.  Soon, I hope.

And don’t forget Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Casey, Jon Rahm and Ian Poulter.  None of them would be a surprise winner and, with a green-jacketed, striped Tiger back in their midst hogging all the limelight, it’d be a great time to fly under the radar and snatch the biggest prize of their lives.

Once again, I’m lucky enough to have a front row seat when a player has an opportunity to join the five who have already achieved a career grand slam – the winning of all four majors.  At Augusta it was Rory’s turn to have a go; now at the PGA, it is the turn of America’s Jordan Spieth.  Can he join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in this most exclusive of clubs?  Current form would suggest that it isn’t going to happen this year…..but, you never know.  And, of course, speaking now of American players, what price a Tiger Woods 16th major win?  It’ll depend a lot on how well he has recovered from that stellar effort at Augusta and whether he will be ring rusty not having teed it up at all between majors.  Then there’s the defending champion Brooks Koepka who is already up to an impressive tally of three majors, accrued from his last seven outings.  Or Dustin Johnson – surely far too talented to remain stuck on a single major?  And isn’t it about time Rickie Fowler ditched the “best player never to have won a major” tag?

So many interesting back stories and potential history to be made.  Here’s hoping the PGA delivers at Bethpage Black.