Memories to savour from a week full of wonder
Carly BOOTH’S OPEN DIARY
THE last week has flown by like the mini hurricanes that sabotaged play at The Open over the weekend. It seems just like yesterday that I was opening the GolfPunk Clubhouse at the Rule in St Andrews with World No 23 Bernd Wiesberger.
It has been a brilliant week for me. It was my first outing as the GolfPunk Golf Nurse and my job was to challenge the patrons to ‘ Nearest The Pin’ and ‘Longest Drive’ competitions on the golf simulator (I only lost a couple of times!) — and then generally have a great time dancing the night away.
We had a lot of VIPs over the week including Scotland football captain Scott Brown, Olympic curler Eve Muirhead, lots of tour players including Open Champions Darren Clarke and Tom Lehman, plus Scottish rugby stars Duncan Weir and Greg Laidlaw. They all came down to see us, enjoy a nice drink and a chat.
When I wasn’t at the Clubhouse, I was up early and down to the course and, when I walked into the entrance at the 17th yesterday, I couldn’t have been more excited.
I had already witnessed some incredible golf and, despite the fact that I’ve never been to an Open which has been so ‘ stop start’ with all the weather delays (it has often been difficult to remember quite what we were doing), when the players got back out it was a veritable birdie fest, and by the time the leaderboard was set on Sunday night, it couldn’t have been tighter.
It was so amazing to see Paul Dunne at t he very t op of t he le a der board with Jason Day and Louis Oosthuizen, and everyone was wondering i f Paul could hack it if it came down to the wire. I guess we got our answer, but it was a wonderful week for the Irishman.
When I headed out on to the course, 27 players were within five shots of the lead.
As the day began to unfold, it seemed anyone of them could win.
That we ended up with a three-way play-off was no surprise, given how close and classy the leaderboard was.
The fact it was between Marc Leishman, Zach Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen was more of a surprise.
Many of the big names such as Jordan Spieth, Padraig Harrington, Jason Day and Sergio Garcia challenged at one stage or another, but couldn’t force their way into the play-off.
By the time Zach Johnson was crowned Open Champion 2015, after a terrific performance on the last day, many of us could be forgiven for being a little snow blind. This was, seemingly, The Open that didn’t want to end.
I have to say that the biggest thrill of the week, was meeting one of my heroes Tom Watson.
It was sad to think it was his last Open as a competitor but, at the same time, the incredible outpouring of emotion and appreciation that encapsulated Tom on his walk up the 18th on Friday night was testament to the wonderful career he enjoyed and the stunning moments he gave us.
It is a moment that will stay with me and inspire me forever. Thank you, Tom.