Golf is a Passion, Weather or Not
January 5th, 2007 | Written by Editor | Category: Golf News |
by Alister Nicol
Let’s put the record straight. Every time I have been on a golf course or at a golf tournament in bad weather in the United States for the past 20 years or so, folks have come up to me and said, “this should suit you” or “this should suit the European players.” Balderdash. Rubbish. Nonsense. Tripe.
I don’t know anyone who likes to play in cold, wet and windy weather. It just so happens that, at least in Britain and Ireland, we have to endure more than our fair share of these conditions.
But only once have I actually heard a player say he relishes lousy weather. That was at Augusta in 1983, when torrential storms interrupted play on the weekend and the Masters went to a Monday finish.
During a rain delay, Seve Ballesteros was one of the many people seeking the sanctuary of the clubhouse. The downpour was almost the sole topic of conversation, but the Spaniard was totally unfazed.
“I am the best wet weather player in the world,” he confided earnestly. “Rain? No problem.”
It was dry overhead come Monday’s final round and Ballesteros, who has lived all his life on the shores of the stormy Bay of Biscay � where howling Atlantic gales regularly sweep in foul weather � proved himself by ripping out a birdie-eagle-par-birdie start on the still-wet course.
That blistering beginning brought forth an unforgettable tribute from Tom Kite, in contention until the Spaniard took off like an Apollo mission. “It was like Seve was in a Ferrari,” commented Kite, “and the rest of us were driving Chevys.”
Ballesteros had several of the closing holes of his second round in deepening gloom, but that didn’t bother him either. He birdied three in a row.
“When I was a boy, I was not allowed on the course at Real Pedrena during the day,” he explained. “So I became accustomed to playing when it was getting dark.”
He didn’t like it, but golf was his passion. So he did it. And if it was raining? So what? He still played as if his very life depended on it. And if he was chased off the course, he’d hit shots from the sodden beach nearby.
I have many friends in Florida who will not contemplate going to the course when the temperature drops to around 60 or below. But to someone like myself, born and bred on almost the same latitude as Hudson’s Bay (thank goodness for the Gulf Stream), that’s comfortable.
When the mercury drops below 40 in Scotland, that’s another matter. But we still do it. It is not at all uncommon for Brits to go to the first tee clad in thermal underwear, topped up with three sweaters and a rain suit to boot. And I am talking summer here!
The morning of the third day of the 1987 Open Championship at Muirfield, in July, was a prime example. Three-time champion Gary Player, competing in his 33rd consecutive Open, insisted it was the coldest, wettest, windiest day he had ever experienced.
Scott Simpson had won the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco the previous month, yet after seven or eight holes at Muirfield that wicked Saturday he feared he might not break 90. He shot 82 and was happy to have done so.
Sandy Lyle, then at his peak, somehow found a way to get round in a par 71 without once reaching into his sopping wet bag to take out a wooden club (remember them?). Big Lil ironed his way to one of the smoothest rounds of all time in the most vile weather ever to be visited on a tournament. Even the seagulls were walking � in single file!
It was so bad that one bemused Japanese journalist kept asking all and sundry in the Media Centre: “Why not play Open in summer?”
Some years back, Lee Trevino offered his explanation of why European players have done so well in the Masters since Seve set the pattern in 1980.
“These guys are so accustomed to playing with five layers of clothing that when they come over to the States to play in good weather and in shirt sleeves, they can make a proper swing at the ball,” the Merry Mex quipped.
“Shoot, these guys can all play when they are wrapped up like Egyptian mummies � and they can really play when they take off all those layers.”
But as far as actually enjoying a round of golf when it is cold, wet and dismal? Forget it. We get so much of it, however, that we have learned to endure the hardships.
And those fortunate enough to have been born with natural talent, such as the Seves, Sandys and Nick Faldos of the world of golf, have adapted their God-given gifts accordingly However, they, in common with every other golfer professional or amateur, much prefer to play in shirt sleeves in a flat calm with the temperature hovering around the 70s.
Okay, I know that Jack Nicklaus, properly recognized as the greatest player of all time, is from Ohio where winters are more severe than at St. Andrews. But the summers are predictably long and hot.
As the widely accepted Home of Golf, Scotland is a beautiful land. But it is rarely blessed with week after week of endless hot sunshine, even in the best of summers.
Weather conditions are far from ideal for golf. Maybe that’s why we have produced so few Open champions in the modern era and only one since World War II.
So I leave you with this poser: Who was the last Scot, born and living in his native land, to have won the Open?
I’ll give you the answer next week � when I am back under Augusta’s southern sun and sipping a cool mint julep as opposed to a warming glass of single malt.
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