How Justin and Co got this one off to a tee
Justin and Co silence the critics
WHEN it comes to ranking the miraculous in golf, the four days we’ve just witnessed might be right up there with what happened at Medinah.
How could something so brilliant emerge from the most unpromising circumstances imaginable? Wasn’t golf meant to stick out like a sore thumb as the unwanted new offspring of these Olympics?
It certainly looked like being the case during the build-up months when the narrative was one long depressing epistle.
If we weren’t being assailed by news the course wouldn’t be ready, another leading player was pulling out. Even The Open last month was submerged for a while by all the bad tidings regarding Olympic golf. Naturally, all those who think the sport has no place in the Games couldn’t wait to weigh in as well.
How do you explain, therefore, the four days that produced one of the real feelgood stories of these Olympics? I went to the athletics on Saturday night as a paying spectator to watch Mo Farah and Co, and the difference between the vibe at that half-empty stadium and all the happy, enthralled faces at the sold-out golf the next day was positively startling.
So can we please give the tired old line a rest that it shouldn’t be here because it’s not the pinnacle of the sport? Here we’ve just seen wonderful competition, 60 players who put their heart and soul into it and walked around with smiles on their faces and spectators whose unbounded enthusiasm was totally infectious. If a sport that brings that intoxicating mix to the party doesn’t belong, what does?
Heck, it was so good even Rory McIlroy switched over from the gymnastics or whatever to watch, and duly sent a congratulatory text to the gold medallist.
‘Rory said he had been rooting for me and how pleased he was that I won because he could see what it meant to me, so obviously he was watching,’ said Justin Rose, with a mischievous grin. ‘It won’t sit well with the guys who didn’t turn up because they will have seen how good it was and they’re competitors at heart, that’s why they’re great golfers. You’ll see them all in Tokyo next time.
‘Until then, though, they’re going to have to put up with me having bragging rights. When you win a major the rights don’t last very long until the next one comes along but little old me with my gold medal is going to have them for four years, and I’m going to have fun on the range.’
Rose said one of the things that struck him about last week was the unanimous feeling of positivity emanating from the locker room. ‘Obviously you’d expect me to say good things about the event with the gold medal around my neck but even the players who were not in contention were saying how much they enjoyed it,’ he said.
You had to feel pleased for Peter Dawson, the former chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, who became the focal point for golf’s inclusion. At The Open he put on a brave face as he answered a barrage of uncomfortable questions regarding how the thing was going to be an unmitigated disaster.
Yesterday he sat next to Rose and reflected on a week that exceeded all his expectations. ‘We had one of the best events I’ve ever been involved with, and I think we did some good for golf,’ he said.
‘The spirit and the enjoyment will be the things I’ll take away from it. That and, speaking personally for a moment, the fact we had not only a British winner but such a strong supporter for golf in the Olympics.’
Actually, Rose is just a great ambassador for golf, full stop. His press conference was full of lovely stories, including the moment when he explained how he made his little seven-year-old boy cry.
‘I’ve never seen a win of mine resonate so much with him,’ said Rose. ‘Leo is just beginning to understand what sport is all about, he started crying when I spoke to him and I might myself if I’m not careful. He just won a medal at a football camp and told me before I left that I had to win a medal to go alongside his.
‘But the reaction generally has been quite amazing, and totally different to what happened after I won the US Open. It’s quite clear this one has resonated way beyond the golf world. I had three or four messages from people in the deep, dark recesses of my phone book who told me about how their kids were just gripped watching it, and that’s just what the game needs, to reach out to that audience.’
Speaking of Leo, he might have felt like crying again when dad explained that last night’s Chelsea game was suddenly off the menu. The Roses had been due to fly to London on Sunday night but put it back a day. As Rose’s wife Kate said: ‘If you’re not going to properly celebrate after winning a gold medal when are you?’
As for Leo, Rose smiled and said: ‘I’ll make it up to him.’
The good news is we’re not done yet. The men might have moved on to prepare for business as usual and the start of the FedEx Cup next week but it’s time to bring on the girls.
Their competition starts tomorrow with the exceptional 19-year-old Lydia Ko — here’s a world No 1 who has turned up — playing alongside Team GB’s Charley Hull. I can hardly wait.