Burger king Johnston stakes his claim with help of a fanfare
THE romance is almost dead in one charming tale but it lives on magnificently in another.
Andrew Johnston is the storm of hair, belly-laughs and burgers that simply will not calm down.
While 36-year-old Spaniard Sergio Garcia was watching his latest run at a major tournament stumble to a painfully familiar halt, Englishman Johnston stepped out of his huge shadow and delivered a brilliant round of 70 to be five under overall.
He did it to the chorus of ‘Beeeeeef’ — his nickname — and the clatter of fistbumps from the delighted crowd.
They love him. He loves them and with that almighty racket at his back, he was blown into the final round of The Open, staring at something quite extraordinary.
The distance to the front still makes the ultimate fairy-tale unlikely but then he is the 27-year-old optimist who revels in doing the unexpected.
Who could have expected this run, given he was broke on the Challenge Tour less than three years ago and only found out he had qualified for this tournament in the past month? At 104 in the world, none of this seemed plausible when he rocked up as the 16-stone guy with the beard and famous for hitting a burger with his driver.
Now he could achieve what seemed the impossible after a round that saw him play a bogey-free
front half with birdies at seven and nine.
He dropped shots at 10 and 14 but sent a huge roar around the whole of Royal Troon after superbly chipping in at the 13th. That moment resulted in his mother breaking into tears.
Johnston said: ‘It’s amazing. I absolutely love it. On 13, it was funny. I chipped in and I walked over to see my mum crying, which was even funnier. But that got me going a bit.
‘I was like, “Oh my God. I can’t look at my mum”. But it’s great. That’s what you dream of. To have that reception is amazing.’
Wrestling with nerves is now a key part of the battle going into a Sunday shootout in what is only his third major.
He said: ‘If you don’t have nerves, it doesn’t mean that much to you. You must embrace them.
‘If I can concentrate on what I am doing, then I seem to be able to deal with it.’