IT’S ROUGH ON TOUR!
Open qualifier Nick McCarthy on earning peanuts and having to sleep in a bunk bed . . .
NICK McCarthy was The Open’s newest qualifier and still on a high from events of 24 hours earlier when he arrived at his digs in rural Northumberland ahead of his next competition. If he needed a reality check, this was it.
‘Nine of us in one house, four in the same bedroom and all we have is bunk beds,’ says the 29-year-old, who will make his debut at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.
‘It certainly brought me back down to earth.’
McCarthy — a member of the PGA EuroPro Tour — lives with his parents in Moortown, Leeds. He earned just £5,093 on the tour in 2016 and, reluctantly, made plans to quit.
‘Still being at home is one of the sacrifices I have to make,’ he says as we sit in the clubhouse of Rockliffe Hall Golf Club in County Durham, where he has just taken part in the North of England Open Foursomes. Indeed, he has a chance of winning.
‘You watch the guys on TV and the contracts they have and everyone assumes, “Ah, you play golf, you must make a right living”.
‘But the level I’m at iss like the third division. You pay for r everything — food, petrol, accommodation. To get that back you almost have to finish in the top 10 out of 160 at every competition.
‘So you don’t have any money. Every penny you use for the next event. Last year I was ready to pull the plug.
‘I applied to the PGA to start a three-year course after which you can run a golf shop or teach. Thee course fell through at the e last minute and I carried onn playing. What a twist of fatee that turned out to be.’
On July 4 at Hillside Golf lf Club — next door to Royalal Birkdale — McCarthy led ed the field going into the final round of Open qualifying.
He was still in the hunt for one of three places at this week’s major when he teed off on the 17th. He winces as he takes up the tale.
‘I ripped my tee shot straight down the middle, perfect,’ says McCarthy, whose caddie is his dad, David, a former England amateur who was also on the bag of Howard Clark at the 1981 Open.
‘The next shot was so natural, dad handed me the three-wood. Somehow, though, I blocked it way, way right. I hoped it might be OK because there were 50 spectators there and surely we’d find it. Five minutes later I was still searching and there was no sign. Part of me was thinking, “I’m looking for my chance to play at The Open here”. It was a horrible feeling.’
He recovered from the lost ball to make bogey and figured he would need to make up for that with a birdie on the last. ‘It was a fourand-a-half-footer for that birdie,’ he says. ‘I do it every day. But I was looking at it and it was getting longerlong and longer and longer.’ McCarthyMcC holed it, hugged his dad and,and realising he was clubhouse leader,lead retired to the toilets, where he cried. ‘The emotion of what could be aboutab to happen all got a bit too much,’mu he confesses. Still,S though, he had a 90minutemi wait for the rest of the fieldfie to finish. One shot behind McCarthyM was his childhood friendfr Adam Hodkinson, anotheran fighting to make his way on the EuroPro Tour. The pair escaped to the car park. ‘We were constantly checking our phones. We were like, “He can catchcatc us, so can he”,’ says McCarthy. ‘When we finally realised we’d both qualified it was incredible. I remember being seven years old at St Andrews with my dad and brother and seeing John Daly win. Even then it was my dream to play at The Open. I missed out by two shots five years ago, so perhaps part of me did think my chance had gone. But this is why you keep going, why you keep believing.’ Not that he’s had a chance to celebrate. The day after qualifying it was off to Longhirst Hall in Northumberland for the Dawson & Sanderson Classic. A classic, however, it was not.
‘I shot a four-over first round, which was perhaps to be expected given how drained I was, and I ended up finishing 41st,’ he says.
That earned him the grand sum of £340, barely enough to cover the cost of those bunk beds for the week.
The Open, then, en, is more than a chance to merely mix with the stars.
‘I don’t want to go there just for the experience or even just to make the cut. . I’ve earned my place, why can’t I aim to be right up there?’ says McCarthy, Carthy, a 2,000-1 shot too lift the Claret Jug come Sunday.d
‘Of course, the most I’ve won is £ 10,000 and making the cut guarantees £18,000, so it’s a huge incentive. But I want this to be the start of something. A lot of lads still make it on to the European Tour when they’re older than 29.’ For now, though, all of his thoughts are trained on that first shot on Thursday. While his dad will be by his side, behind the ropes will be mum Sally, girlfriend Nicky, brother Duncan — a fellow professional golfer — and sister Lucy. ‘I will be seriously nervous,’ he says, although a practice round with his idol Rory McIlroy thithis week has helped calm those nerves. ‘ I’ve already told my dad I’m not using an iron off the first — I’m pulling out a wood and smashing it as hard as I ccan!’ With that, word reaches us that McCarthy and his partner have won the Foursomes att Rockliffe and a prize of £1,000. Add that to the minimum £3,700 he will earn at Royal Birkdale . . . at least he won’t have to spend this week sharing a bunk bed.