Talk of the Toun
‘When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain,’ came the murmur as The Herald’s intrepid trio contemplated the portents over dinner in St Salvator’s Hogwartian Halls of residence on Thursday.
Well, something like that, albeit in less Shakespearean language and with rather less suspense since they knew they were re-gathering the following morning.
As had been foretold they awoke to cataclysmic golfing scenes as life lived on golf’s San Andreas fault once again proved perilous to those seeking to earn their living in these parts.
Here in 1970 thunder and lightning stopped an astonishing Tony Jacklin run. Then reigning Open and US Open champion he would never win another major.
Ten years before even Arnie’s bid – as he transformed the Open’s profile in its centenary year – was washed away, postponement of the final round bringing about the first ever Saturday of Open Championship play.
Last time here, too, past heroes were denied their moment when torrents forced cancellation of the eve of Open Champions’ Challenge and the thrusting young McIlroy, after a Open record matching 63, was literally blown off course. Watching from afar this time he must wonder if St Andrews glory will ever be his. As the drookit diarists traipsed towards the Old Course, there were optimistic scenes as two American visitors tentatively loaded their golf clubs into a waiting car during a brief respite from the downpours and were greeted by their local driver who cheerily declared: “Aye, we’re by the worst of it now lads.” He clearly didn’t see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse getting back into their sou’westers further down The Scores. Meteorological musings part 506: “The guy just told us there’s a weather warning but I don’t know what that means in Scotland,” said two-time Open champion Ernie Els. For we scunnered natives of Caledonia, the warnings are probably about a worrying spell of warming sunshine. Now that would be a shock to the system. As staff manning the entrance to the media centre meanwhile hastily arranged sandbags it emerged that their principal concern related to a nearby sewage pipe having burst. The observation from one cynic that it made a change from similar material routinely flooding out of said premises seemed a tad harsh . . .