Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
AN EMOTIONAL RYDE THAT I’LL NEVER FORGET
CADDY Billy Foster will never forget being reduced to tears by Darren Clarke’s heroic performance at the 2006 Ryder Cup.
From carrying the bag of the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia, Foster has seen it all in golf.
But it is being alongside Darren Clarke at the K Club that stands out for the 54-year-old Yorkshire man.
“It’s the only time I have ever cried on a golf course,” he told the Sky Sports Golf Podcast.
“Walking to that first tee with Darren Clarke in 2006 – six weeks after his wife had died of breast cancer – the noise levels were like Wembley Stadium.
“I got on the middle of the first tee and the noise just went through the roof and I started crying.
“It was sensational and how Darren Clarke hit that tee shot I’ll never know.
“If I had to hit that tee-shot, I would have hit a foot behind it and swissrolled a divot just enough to skew the ball off the end of the tee peg.
“And he got up there, hit it 310 [yards], hit wedge to eight foot and made a birdie.”
That was on a Friday morning and by Sunday afternoon, Europe was in control and Clarke was in control of his singles match against America’s Zach Johnson.
But Foster has told that by the back nine the emotion and the weight of the week got to the Dungannon man.
Foster said: “He actually holed a 100ft putt on the 12th hole to go four up and walking to the 13th tee, he was looking to the skies and I could tell he was thinking about Heather and about winning – thinking too far too ahead.
“If I was a jockey I would have been done for excess whipping on those last few holes because I knew he’d gone.
“Zach Johnson gave him a two-and-half footer to win the match on the 16th hole. And I think there was more chance he would have put it in the River Liffey than hole it. There was no one more relieved than me, probably only Clarkey, to see that putt given.
“If I had to choose the one moment in my caddying that will stay with me, it is on the 16th green and Darren Clarke winning his match against Zach Johnson, winning the Ryder Cup, and ultimately winning it for Heather. Hugging him in tears on the green (below) will stay with me forever. It was an incredible
experience.”