Shepherd determined to enjoy the good times
HAVING feared for his golfing future due to injury and a loss of form, Laird Shepherd is determined to enjoy the good things when they come along.
He has got plenty of them heading his way, of course, after his startling win in the Amateur Championship at Nairn on Saturday ensured him invitations to July’s Open and next year’s Masters and US Open.
Shepherd mounted the kind of hefty recovery job usually reserved for acts of maritime salvage as he fought back from eight down after 17 holes, and four down with just four to play, to beat fellow Englishman, Monty Scowsill, on the 38th hole of a thrilling tussle.
The Open at Royal St George’s is now looming on the horizon for the St Andrewsbased 23-year-old, who is a graduate of Stirling University.
Shepherd will certainly savour that experience, and the other major moments that are set to come his way over the next 12 months.
“It’s never nice as an athlete when you feel like you are going backwards, like I was,” reflected Shepherd of that period of painful toil and trouble this year. “So it [The Open] is just going to be really special. It’s the closest one to my home address in Sussex in terms of The Open venues. I went there as a kid watching Opens. And whatever happens in the events I’m now going to play, nobody can take that experience away from me.”
Shepherd’s Amateur Championship final experience, meanwhile, had been a fairly ghastly one as he fell eight holes behind but he managed to win the final hole of the morning’s round to give himself something to cling to.
“Looking back, winning that 18th was so important and I just managed to get into a bit of a groove in the afternoon,” he said of that catalyst for a momentous comeback.