‘I’ve made mistakes. The key thing is to learn from them’
SAM TORRANCE
He may not have won any Majors or any of golf’s biggest individual spoils, but Sam Torrance left an indelible print on the game of golf. More than 700 appearances on the European Tour and 44 career victories in all speak of a very fine and storied career, even before we touch upon his Ryder Cup heroics as both player and captain. So there are rich pickings for a career retrospective, and Torrance is very happy to look back on his six decades in the game and 67 years on Earth. “I’ve got four dogs, three kids, a wonderful family, nice home and I’m as happy as a pig in shit to be honest,” he smiles. “One thing I’ve always had is positivity, I’ve never been negative about anything. I’ve always looked on the bright side.” Duly warned, we begin...
When I was five, we moved from Largs to Manchester.
My dad (the legendary coach Bob Torrance) was the professional at Rossendale. That was where I really started playing. The first sign we had that I had any talent was when I shot 39 at the club’s nine-hole course, aged around nine. I told my dad and he said: “Don’t you be bloody lying.” I thought he was going to knock my head off because he was a very honest man. I said: “Dad, I did, I did.” He dragged me over to the 1st tee, walked with me… and I shot it again! I think he believed in me from then on.
I got a job at Sunningdale as an assistant in 1971.
I picked up a fiver a week. If you gave a lesson you had to give half the fee back to the head pro, and if you got a fee for playing with a member, half of that went back to him, too. But that was absolutely fine, it was one of the most exciting years of my life because it was just part of the journey. I’m now an honorary member there – one of the best things to happen to me. I’ve always loved the place.
I joined the European Tour at the beginning of 1972 and missed my first nine cuts.
In the John Player Trophy I was leading with nine to go and ended up finishing ninth, but that was fine. I managed to keep my card and ended up by winning the Lord Derby’s Under-25 Match Play Championship. The following week I won the Radici Open in Italy, so in my first year I won two events and I got a real taste for it. I was doing something I really loved.
We travelled so much in those days and it was extraordinary how the year went.
We didn’t start playing in Europe till April, and there wasn’t a tournament before the Masters. We’d go to South Africa for five or six weeks, to Asia for four or five weeks and then on to East Africa, including Kenya and Nigeria. It was just fantastic – what a life! It was so exciting and, aged 18 or 19, where else was I going to be, doing what I love and making money?
It was such a steep learning curve, and I was speaking to my dad every night.
Honestly, my phone bill would be bigger than my room bill! We’d go through every shot together and he was fantastic at sorting things out so that by the next morning, I was going out there brand new. My father was an incredible asset to my career. To have someone who loves teaching you is very special.
There was fantastic camaraderie on Tour in those days.
I travelled a lot with the likes of David Feherty and John
O’leary, almost 10 years with each of them. We forged great bonds and friendships that I’ll never forget. There are so many stories to tell but the ones that spring immediately to mind are the ones that shouldn’t come to mind, if you know what I mean. Absolutely nothing untoward, just funny shit that happened. We don’t want to go there, there’s plenty of other stuff to talk about…
My career highlight has to be my 2002 Ryder Cup captaincy at The Belfry.
It was beyond the best, such an honour it was beyond belief. Sitting eight times at the opening ceremony, always next to Woosie because our names were at the end of the alphabet, the atmosphere is just extraordinary. You’re a player and, of course, you’re loving it. Then they invite the captain up to speak and Woosie and I would always look at one another and think, we’ll never do that in a million years… The respect we held for every single captain was immense. To actually think that you could be that person was too much to imagine. It just didn’t seem realistic.
Obviously they were rare circumstances because the Ryder Cup was delayed because of 9/11 the year before.
The team stayed the same as it had been for 2001, which was a bit tricky because certain players, on both sides, didn’t have the game they had before. But that was fine. It was just an incredible experience and I learned a lot about myself.
Nothing scared me about being the captain… apart from the opening and closing ceremonies and making those speeches.
Thankfully, I got some help from David Purdy, a gynaecologist who I bumped into at a Sunningdale dinner. He was so funny, so I asked him for help. He looked at me and said: “But Sam, I’m an amateur.” I thought that was priceless. We got on like a house on fire and he taught me so much about public speaking.
I had two speeches ready for the closing ceremony, but I’d only memorised one of them.
I never looked at the losing speech, only the winning one. Beforehand, I had the Ryder Cup podium delivered to my house and I locked myself away in the garage with it for four or five hours a day, for a whole week. I had a tape recorder and I just kept reciting the speech, listening to it and doing it again… and again. By the end, I could practically do the speech backwards! It’s so true that the more you put in, the more you get out.
From the time I was asked to be captain, right up to about two weeks before it began, I was shitting myself.
You have to be nervous. It shows that it matters. But I’d done my homework and the other thing David Purdy told me to do was have a large one of whatever I fancied just before the opening ceremony… so that’s what I did. And I had four at the closing ceremony!
The 1985 Ryder Cup and making the winning putt obviously transformed my life.
It was just extraordinary, winning the Cup for the first time since 1957. Going back to 1983 when we lost by a point, we all swore on the Sunday night that we’d come back in ’85 and win it, and that’s exactly what we did.
It shouldn’t have come down to my putt to win it, though.
The cameras didn’t pick up that Howard Clark
‘While I was away on Tour, I was speaking to my dad every night for advice. Honestly, my phone bill would have been bigger than my room bill!’
had a putt on 17 from four feet to secure the Cup. Because I was on the 18th, with the crowd and everything, the BBC producer focused on my match and unfortunately for Howard, he missed the putt. Fortunately for me, I holed out and I got the glory, but it was a team thing. That said, that moment changed my life, with all the love I got as a result of it.
The Ryder Cup has been extraordinary for Europe over the past 30 years or so. You may think it’s tough to win in America but I actually liked playing over there and dealing with, let’s say, the partisan crowds.
The other biggest career highlight was winning the Dunhill Links with my son, Daniel.
To be honest, that was beyond special. It was the most incredible week and something I’ll hold dear forever. It was my second win at St Andrews, having won the Dunhill Cup there for Scotland with Andrew Coltart.
I know Miguel Angel Jimenez passed my European Tour appearance record (706 tournaments) last year, but I’m still breathing…
I can still get out there again and give that Spanish boy a wee fright! Seriously, it’s not going to happen and it’s a fantastic achievement by Jimenez. I was delighted by how long I held the record although, to be honest, I didn’t think it would be overhauled while I was still alive. But that’s fine.
I’ve made mistakes, but the key is to learn from them.
It’s all a learning process and disappointments are part of life. As my dad used to say, “If there aren’t any bumps in the road, it probably wouldn’t lead anywhere.”
My biggest disappointment was the Dunhill Cup.
It was a few weeks after the ’85 Ryder Cup and it was Scotland vs America in the semi-finals. It was three players per side and it was down to the last match between myself and Curtis Strange, funnily enough my opposing Ryder Cup captain in 2002. We were all-square coming down the last and he’s hit it in the Valley of Sin while I’m within 10ft. He putts it up about 5ft short and says “I’m finished”. If he misses, I’ve got two putts to win. But he knocks his in and I three putt to put Scotland out. I just wanted to crawl in the hole and die. But you learn – and I suppose I later got my revenge with the Ryder Cup captaincy!
I made 29 consecutive Open appearances, but I always struggled.
It was difficult for the European players in those days – we weren’t as good as our counterparts
‘From the moment I held a club, my dad wanted me to hit it further and further. “Forget accuracy, we can straighten you up later,” he’d say. But we never really did’
around the world and there was always so much hype that week. I loved it to death but I think I put too much emphasis on it, if that’s possible. But basically I wasn’t good enough to win it. That’s fine, I still had some great times and great memories…
When I turned 50 I went to the Champions Tour Q-school and got my card. I cried for an hour afterwards.
I was one of seven out of Christ knows how many and all I could think was this is where I want to be, because I’d missed my chance to go over to America. But I never really played well once over there. I lasted six months and decided that’s me, game over. So I came back and had a fantastic 12 years on the European Senior Tour. I’m a home boy, I like my home life. It wasn’t what I wanted to do for my family, uprooting them to the US. And I’ve no complaints. I won 11 times on the Senior Tour and won the money list three times – something that eluded me on the main Tour – and it was just lovely.
From the day I could breathe and put a golf club in my hands, my dad wanted me to hit it further and further.
He’d say: “Make as big a turn as you can and hit it as far as you can and we’ll straighten it up later.” Unfortunately, we never got to the straighten up bit! It’s a dream to watch the power hitters now: it’s fantastic and obviously it’s difficult to govern… but you can’t. What Bryson Dechambeau is doing to the game right now is just fascinating. Having all your irons the same length, for God’s sake! I don’t know how he does it.
If I was starting my career again now, the only thing that would put me off is the travel.
Then again, if I win the same number of tournaments as I did in my career I wouldn’t have to worry about travel, because I’d have my own plane! I loved my time and if I had to do it all over again I’d still start when I began. Although with today’s equipment, Christ knows how far I could hit it. I would have no fear about starting my career right now if that was the case.
Of my 21 wins on Tour, I was leading 19 times going into the final round!
So why would you worry when you’re leading? You’re obviously playing better than anybody else so just carry it forward and be positive, never negative. If you’re not nervous, it doesn’t mean anything to you.
In my view, Jack Nicklaus is the greatest player of alltime.
I’ve played with Nicklaus and he was fantastic. I once said to him “Jack, do you mind if I give you a compliment?” He didn’t know I was a wee bit of a reprobate. He said “Go on, then”. So I said “Well, in the 400 Majors I won in my dreams, you were the runner-up every time!” He loved that. Ben Hogan was my dad’s idol but Jack Nickalus was mine.