‘Golf is bipolar. When it’s going bad, it’s the pits’
Carly Booth hopes to emerge from a slump at the US Women’s Open, she tells James Corrigan
The story of Carly Booth is sometimes depicted as a salutary one, even though, at 25, her tale still has some way to run and she is competing in her second US Women’s Open this week. “I feel this is a new chapter in my career,” Booth said. “Time is still on my side and, even though it is slower than I’d have liked, I’m sure I’ll get there.”
That would be a turn-up for all those obituary books. In certain quarters, the Scot has been written off as the golden girl who had it all and then squandered it on the altar of fame. Indeed, only last month a columnist in Booth’s homeland accused her of being “naive” for featuring in a series of photoshoots – “including, most notably, posing naked for ESPN’S body edition” – and expressed sympathy with the viewpoint that Booth “concentrated more on increasing her profile than on her golf ”.
It is an easy, if somewhat lazy, connection to make when charting the rise and fall of Booth. At 11 years of age, she first came to attention by becoming the youngest club champion in the UK – at Dunblane New, the course where Andy Murray is an honorary life member – and so the headlines multiplied in line with her everexpanding potential.
The youngest player ever to appear for Great Britain and Ireland at the Curtis Cup … the youngest Scot ever to earn her card for the Ladies European Tour… the first trophy on the Tour as a teenager… the second following just a few months later.
Here was the young superstar, for which the Home of Golf had been waiting and, even if her “unveiling” in the American magazine was not quite in keeping with the traditions of the ancient game, the dissenters were drowned out by admirers. Until her golf went into decline.
Booth does not know exactly what went wrong, but then, how can she, how can anyone? All she knows is that her slump spiralled down golf ’s usual vicious circle of a lack of form, leading to a lack of self-belief, leading to even less form, leading to even less selfbelief… “Golf is bipolar,” Booth said. “When it’s going well, it’s the best game in the world. When it’s going badly, it’s the pits.”
Booth can accept the vicissitudes of her chosen profession, but what she will not accept is that her lust for the spotlight was detrimental. “People ask me if I regret doing those shoots and that one with ESPN in particular,” Booth said. “Why should I? The way I look at it is that it’s a privilege to have been asked. Have you seen some of the names who’ve appeared in those ESPN shoots? Others suggested that it distracted me and that it somehow led to my slide. Well, that shoot was done on Jan 4 when I was on a rest week.
“It had nothing to do with my game. I’ve been criticised for doing too much social media with people asking ‘do you want to be a model or a golfer?’ Twitter does not have any effect on my golf.”
Except it so almost did in May, when she was one of four female golfers selected by MVP Index – a sports social-media tracking firm founded by Jordan Spieth’s father, Shawn – to be part of a Twitter poll. Whoever attracted the most votes would be awarded a sponsors invite to the Shoprite Classic on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour.
In the event, Booth gained more than 25 per cent of the vote and was beaten by India’s Sharmila Nicollet, but only after an outcry which accused the Tour of “exploiting” the women for their looks. Booth now has her own misgivings. “No I don’t think I’d do it again,” she said. “Of the four of us, I honestly thought I was the most deserving because I have the most victories and am a full-time tournament pro. But I appreciate that’s not why they did it. They wanted publicity and they got it, whether good or bad. For me, it was a chance to play on the LPGA Tour and I wasn’t going to turn it down. That’s where I want to be.”
Booth will enter LPGA