The start of either the Open Championship or the Women’s Open Championship week is always a nerve-jangling affair. On the Monday the final qualifying test is held to determine who will duck under the wire and secure a coveted tee time at one of the world’s greatest tournaments.
Last Monday it was the turn of the women and 92 hopefuls teed it up at Craighead Links at Crail Golfing Society, a stone’s throw down the Fife coast from the Old Course at St Andrews, venue of this year’s final major, the AIG Women’s Open. It seems almost cruel to tease the players by being physically so adjacent to the home of golf – a dream of playing there in a major so tantalisingly close, yet…… for most it was that bit too far. In all, twelve of the 92 survived the rigours of the test with three of that number prevailing in a 12-woman tussle of a play-off.Those three going the extra mile and clinching the final spots on offer were Jodi Ewart Shadoff, the American-based English Solheim Cup star, Finland’s Ursula Wikstrom, veteran of many campaigns on the LET (Ladies’ European Tour) and fellow club member of mine from Royal Portrush, Stephanie Meadow, who has called the States her home for over half her life now.

Stephanie Meadow, centre, kept her poise to come through the play-off at final qualifying. [aigwomensopen.com]
Whatever takes you to St Andrews it’s a wonderful place to visit, golfer or no. I turned up there nearly half a century ago as a very gauche, 17-year old student at the university. Have golf clubs will travel was already my motto in those days and the lure of the golf was evident in my choice of degree subject. I had a notion I might do law but, alas, there was no law faculty in St Andrews in those days – you had to travel a whole big twelve miles to Dundee to study the subject. There was no way I was going to study in Dundee, so I opted instead for French and English.

St Salvator’s Quad, St Andrews. I well remember attending lectures here – in the door on the right. [Remi Mathis]
It came as a bit of a shock to me, therefore, that I only spent four terms, fourteen months to be exact, in St Andrews. Once again, the lure of the golf trumped all and, along with a Welsh pal, I answered the siren call of a golf scholarship to Texas and duly transferred my studies out there. The only form of communication with home was by airmail letter and I honestly might as well have landed on the moon. Temperatures in the 90s and 100s were commonplace; accents were impossible to decipher (as was mine for the Texans); the golf courses were different and I certainly never had to deal with pulling the flag out at Portstewart and finding a snake having a snooze in the bottom of the cup!
At first I hated it and was so homesick. I had given up a lot in leaving St Andrews but it was always, for me, all about the golf. Sometimes in life you know you’re at a crossroads and, although still only 18, I knew I was at one when the offer of the scholarship arrived. I distinctly remember thinking I didn’t want to be 80 years of age, in my rocking chair, and wondering what would have happened if I’d taken the plunge and gone stateside.

LNER poster extolling the joys of St Andrews. How many lives, like mine, changed course after a visit to this special wee place?
Taking that leap opened up a world of opportunity for me and a life in golf that I don’t think would have happened for me had I stayed in Fife. Remember, there weren’t the opportunities then in the UK that there are now for those who wished to follow their golfing dreams. So, for me, St Andrews was a launchpad that has taken me round the world and afforded me endless opportunities – all because of this wonderful game.
I wonder if, come Sunday, it’ll prove a launchpad for one of the 144 competitors teeing it up in the AIG Women’s Open – or will it provide a career-defining moment for an already established star? One thing is for certain – more than one person will leave St Andrews with a magical experience that they’ll never forget.
Just like I did.