Carey’s hoping the cap fits as he bids to match up to Hogan’s heroics
TWO men in flat white old-style caps, as championed by their hero, Ben Hogan, played the back nine at St Andrews yesterday. One a them is former US Open champion, the other is an Open rookie.
Bryson DeChambeau was easily recognisable, David Carey less so. But both will start the 150th Open on Thursday level. Of the two, Carey is less likely to be around in the white-heat of battle on Sunday but he certainly isn’t lacking in self-belief.
‘What I hope for? I hope to have the Claret Jug in my hands on Sunday. I’m sure a lot of people will say that, but I’m not sure how many really believe that they can. Yet Carey does? ‘Of course. I know I can do it. If I don’t do it this year then it will be some year in the future,’ he said. Bold words, indeed from the Dubliner, who turned 26 last month and led the qualifiers in Fairmont St Andrews with rounds of 68 and 69. So how did his practice round with DeChambeau come about? ‘I looked at the sheet and I was looking to play the back nine in the morning and there was a spot free, it just so happened that’s who it was. ‘His first two questions were: Did I qualify? ‘And when I said
“Yes”, he said
“Congratulations.”
‘And his next question was,
“Have you had any wins?” I said, five professional wins.
‘After that we just started talking golf, that seemed good enough for him.’
Carey can smack a decent ball, as does ‘The Scientist’.
Did he lose much yardage to the 2020 US Open winner? ‘No, we were beside each other. I have no doubt if he were playing in the States and it was wider he would open up more, but out there he wasn’t even hitting many drivers, he was keeping it in play.
‘He hit a second ball off 17 that he ramped up a bit more.’ Carey is an intriguing character. A piano-playing historian of golf who turned pro at 18, he has the number ‘57’ on his cap, in recognition of his stunning round in his Cervino Open win on the AlpsTour in 2019. ‘No one has ever beaten 57 in an actual world ranking event, not in professional golf,’ he said.
‘That’s pretty cool, to have that record. I always look back and remember I missed two putts from inside 10 feet on the last two greens, and so it could have been even lower but it wouldn’t be golf if you didn’t think, “Oh, I could have done better than that.” Along his journey, Carey has taken inspiration from Hogan’s heroics.
‘Mr Hogan’s life story shows that if you put enough work in and you keep trying it can be achieved. At my lowest point of my professional career, I just happened to listen to an audiobook by Kurt Sampson, the biography of Ben Hogan. ‘And it just really resonated with me, the amount of times he failed and didn’t make it, he lost all his money and went back teaching, he tried to save up and tried and failed and tried and failed. ‘He just kept going and through grit and determination, and with basically not a whole lot of help, he made it on his own.
‘By chance I went home one day and ‘Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons’ was sitting on the bookshelf. ‘That book in particular and the work I put into my game, that was really the turning point.
‘Being the 150th Open and at St Andrews, that’s kind of a very special occasion. ‘Everything about it, it is kind of unique, the whole experience,’ he said.
Seven years after Paul Dunne, an amateur, turned heads at the Open in St Andrews, might Carey leave his own imprint on the famed Fife links this week?