Broadhurst thanks son for success
PAUL BROADHURST thanked his teenage son Sam for the part he played in the biggest win of his career yesterday when he was crowned Senior Open champion at Carnoustie.
The 50-year-old Englishman produced a bogey-free 68 at the Angus links to secure a two-shot victory after Miguel Angel Jimenez had suffered a final-round meltdown.
Spaniard Jimenez led by four after carding a flawless third-round 65, but he took 10 more shots on the final day to drop to third.
But Broadhurst feared at one stage during the second round he would not even make the weekend when he was four-over-par after 27 holes before 19-year-old caddie Sam steadied the ship with some sound advice.
Broadhurst said: ‘I was concerned about making the cut but Sam, who also caddied for me at the 2012 Open and this year’s Senior US PGA Championship, tried to keep me patient, which is not easy as I am not a naturally patient person.
‘Sam plays off two and aspires to being a professional. His words of wisdom worked. We made a few putts down the straight. We came back in 30 and I carried that on yesterday.
‘But I had no real thoughts of winning the tournament. I was still quite a long way back and I thought it was too big a gap.
‘I was pretty much in control of my emotions until I went ahead for the first time at the 15th, and then my swing and my heart got a lot faster.
‘But some of my golf this week has been the best of my career, so all the hard work has paid off.
‘There was a period in my life when I didn’t play on tour for four years that I wondered what I was going to do — and I thought about turning to coaching. I had X amount in the bank but, with four kids to feed, it had gone down considerably and I was just hopeful my game would be good enough to compete on the senior tour.’
The ex-Ryder Cup player, who featured in Europe’s defeat at Kiawah Island in 1991, added: ‘It’s massive — beyond my wildest dreams and the biggest achievement of my career. It ranks above even the Ryder Cup. I feel very privileged.’
Broadhurst, from Nuneaton, bridged a 29-year gap by becoming the first English winner of the event since Neil Coles in 1987. He also completed a notable double at the home of golf 11 months after winning the Scottish Senior Open at Archerfield on his seniors debut.
Pocketing a career-best cheque for £213,040, he had to make three successive up-and-downs over the closing stretch to get across the line.
Jimenez, meanwhile, ran up two double-bogeys — at the 10th and 18th — and said: ‘I didn’t look like the same guy who played yesterday. I was hitting it bad at the beginning, like I wasn’t loose enough.
‘I didn’t feel tense. I had a four-shot lead and wanted to get out there and play. Of course you are going to feel some nerves and that’s important, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable.
‘But when I missed a good chance for birdie on the fourth, after that I didn’t have the help of fate and any time I missed a shot I got a bogey.
‘The breaks just didn’t go for me. It was a combination of factors and if I’d made the putt on four, it could have made the day go another way.’
His six at the last allowed American Scott McCarron to claim second spot with a 69 and Swede Magnus Atlevi to share third at eight-under.
Tom Watson, who won the first of his five Claret Jugs at Carnoustie in 1975, collected the Fred Daly award for the leading over-60s player after closing with a 71 for a one-over-par total.
It may turn out to be 66-year-old Watson’s Carnoustie swansong, depending on when the £1.35million event next returns to the Angus links.
He said: ‘There’s always a time when things have to come to an end and I’ll always have great memories of playing here.’
MARTIN LAIRD missed out on winning his fourth PGA Tour title by a single stroke at the RBC Canadian Open last night. The Scot shot a five-under 67 but lost out to Jhonattan Vegas, who fired a 64. US Open winner Dustin Johnson finished in joint-second with Laird and Jon Rahm.