Golfing Heaven

Avid golf watcher and fan though I am, I must admit there are several weeks throughout the year when I struggle to raise even an eyebrow in interest, let alone a finger to click the remote on to the golf broadcasts.  I put it down to overload and reaching saturation point with so many tournaments delivering the same old, same old.

Not so this week.  This week will be all about following the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down (RCD), one of my favourite golf courses on this earth.  I played it a lot in my youth and won either two or three Ulster Championships there.  I always wanted to write a sentence like that last one!  It’s the way Mary McKenna speaks when she really, genuinely can’t remember how many Irish titles she won in her heyday.  Sometimes if you ask how many Curtis Cup caps she has, she has to start counting them off on her fingers.  That’s what I call having a career.

But back to RCD.  If pushed (it was an awfully long time ago, in fairness) I think I won two titles there because I’m pretty sure I won one at Clandeboye….and I certainly didn’t win four.  I played the redoubtable Claire Nesbitt in the final each time at Newcastle and I got an incorrect ruling from the referee on the 16th when, despite my objections, he gave me a free drop out of a bunker.  I knew I wasn’t entitled to it but he was adamant and as they say, the referee’s decision is final.  I managed to lose the hole anyway and the ref did apologise to both players after the match.

The second time I won round this glorious links I had a local caddy on the bag and there was a picture of us both on the sports pages the following day.  We were coming up the last in the final and the caption name-checked us both.  My caddy was furious at being in the picture, worried about his weekly visit to the dole office.  All seemed to turn out well, however, as the person in the DHSS office merely glanced at him and, with a slow smile as the envelope was slid under the grille, asked if he’d enjoyed the golf.

In 2007 I returned to Royal County Down working at the Walker Cup for the BBC.  This was my first proper meeting with Rory McIlroy, who made history at the opening ceremony by raising the Irish flag.  An Ulsterman raising the Irish flag in the north of Ireland was an historic moment and it underlined to me how golf – along with the majority of our sports – has always been an all-Ireland affair.  There never have been any borders in Irish golf.

During that Walker Cup one of my colleagues arrived at the course in the morning and realised pretty quickly that he had left some essential gear back at the hotel.  Mid-morning he nipped back to collect the forgotten items and found his things neatly stashed and another suitcase and set of clothes in the wardrobe.  Not having time to enquire as to why someone else’s stuff should be in his room he returned to the course.  At day’s end we all returned to base and things were as he had left them first thing in the morning – no other suitcase or clothes hanging up in the wardrobe.  Seems there was a bit of double booking going on……!

And folk think it’s glamorous working for the BBC!

Today (Friday) when this blog is posted things are due to become a tad more tricky.  The Solheim Cup starts in Gainesville, Virginia, at the Robert Trent Jones golf club.  If you’re thinking it can’t possibly be two years since the last one, you are right.  The pandemic caused the Ryder Cup to shift from the even to the odd years, so the women are moving to the evens to avoid future clashes, hence the Solheim Cup in consecutive years.  This is the second occasion that this has happened with the same course of action being taken after the postponement of the Ryder Cup in 2001 after 9/11.

As holders Suzann Pettersen’s team retained the trophy last year when the match was halved.  (Please don’t get Patricia started on that one – oh, too late.)  If they can pull this one off, they will have been undefeated since 2017.  it’s absolutely extraordinary how one of the most seemingly lopsided international sporting contests has so quickly established itself as a close encounter nearly every time it’s played.  And, of course, it’s hard to beat the drama and excitement of match play.

The last Solheim I attended was at Gleneagles in 2019 and it was also the last time I sat alongside the great Peter Alliss in the commentary booth.  That was the year of Suzann’s putt on the last to win and her epic mike-drop of retiring on the spot after the ball found the bottom of the cup.

I always think these sorts of scenes can never be repeated but that is seemingly not the case.  New stars will undoubtedly step forward this week and we’ll be on the edge of our seats.

Just hope there are no wrong rulings.