It’s been a quite a year for amateur golf in Great Britain and we asked some our leading players what were their stand-out moments and also asked them to look ahead to 2022
‘You know you have played a really special round when you hole only 52 feet of putts but shoot that score’
1) Your best round of the year and why?
Shooting 62 (-9) at Nairn in the Amateur Championship. Why? It is the biggest amateur event this side of the Atlantic, with all the history of the event, the course it was held on and knowing the number required to top qualifying for almost all of the round. You know you have played a really special round when you hole only 52 feet of putts but shoot that score. It’s a course I love and the changes are fantastic adding length and creating issues off the tee that weren’t as relevant before the redesign. I was fortunate that both of my playing partners, Jamie & Luke, played nicely too which helps with rhythm and momentum and we got a break with the weather as the wind died down a bit with the tide coming in. In almost any great round you still have your moments where things go your way and I had my two poor shots on seven and eight. On seven I was thankful for the tide being out as I ended up on the beach with a shot to the green and made a great up & down for par and then at eight I missed the green from 40 yards and holed a six footer to keep the bogey off the card at that point. But other than that it was a faultless round where everything clicks and looking back I could have easily been four or five shots better off with all the narrowly missed putts… but that would have been greedy.
2) Your best shot of the year and why?
My second shot into the last during the second qualifying round at Amateur Championship which set up a two-putt birdie. Why? The situation; the decision making; the importance of the shot. I had just made my eighth birdie on 17 knowing I needed two birdies to finishing top in qualifying by hitting a wedge to a foot from 130 yards which never looked like being any further away. Then at 18 I hit a poor drive, the position of the bunkers on last and lack of wind by this point in round gave me an issue off the last tee. I was between a very easy driver and three wood. Under any form of pressure I would ordinarily hit the shorter club hard but driver is my favourite and best club in my bag. It was the wrong club, I couldn’t carry the sand down left and driver was always going to at least reach the front of the sand on right and I knew it so I came out of the driver and missed the fairway into a depression of longer rough with wispy grass all around it 263 yards from the pin. On arriving at my ball I was happy to see the rough was growing toward the hole so thoughts were more about what do I want to do rather than what is the best I can achieve from the lie. My immediate thoughts were ‘you are 8 under, likely to win qualifying with a par or better so don’t do anything daft’ and I reached for my eight iron. I then considered the ‘fast’ lie and thought the club could bring in bunkers right or left so I went down to a six but decided that was too straight a face without a particularly big sole to help ease through the rough and went back to the eight iron. My caddy Alan was pleased to see the change in club selection. He wasn’t saying anything but his face told the story. As I was setting up to play the shot I looked at the lie again and told myself that I might never have this opportunity again. My qualifying for the matchplay was assured, unless I made about a 15, so just hit the shot that I thought gave me the best chance to reach the green. Back to the bag I went and pulled the three iron. My Srixon three iron is the driving iron sort, with a very wide sole that goes through rough easier than a traditional three iron would. I thought if I could make a nice easy swing and get it gliding through the rough growing with me, I could sweep the ball up and try to let the ball bounce and run on from 50 or 60 yards short of the green. It was as pure a shot as I hit all year. It came out perfectly and as it first hit the ground it immediately felt like a case of ‘how close might it go to going in’. My caddy. who was silently panicking and questioning my sanity, enquired where it was pretty early (he doesn’t see too well over longer distances). And I replied that it was right at the pin, a second or two later I said it could go in and then it just missed the flag by a matter of inches, settling 12-15ft past the pin. I think Alan started breathing again at that point!
3) The best shot you saw and why?
Angus Carrick’s drive down the 18th at Hankley Common during the foursomes for Scotland v Wales at Home Internationals. Why? We were two down playing he hole – we had started off the fifth tee due to a delay for visibility issues early morning. The tee shot is a tough one. The tee is tucked away into the trees and naturally aims you to the right of the fairway. I play foursomes the way I ask my team to – I currently captain Scotland – and that is to trust your playing partner and leave them to it. So I walk 280 yards off down the fairway rather than walk back to be on the tee with Angus. I’m talking to a spectator who comments on my confidence in my playing partner. I answered that the Scottish Amateur Champion deserves my confidence and he’ll produce the shot we need him to. Angus proceeded to drive it 375 yards right down the middle with the most picturesque ball flight you can wish to see. It was incredible. Shots I marvel at are ones I can’t do myself. That ball was a good 50-60 yards past where I might have got it to that day and was just what we needed. We made birdie and won the fourth (our last) to earn a half but that drive set the tone for the rest of the round.
4) Your favourite moment of 2021 (this could be personal or something completely random but golf related)?
My favourite moment of 2021 was the Scotland team’s effort at this year’s R&A Home Internationals. I’ve captained the team at the last four stagings of the event alongside maintaining my playing place on the team. It’s a huge honour and a role I love and have grown into it during that period, adding influence year on year and I believe the team environment is improving year on year too. We have a coach with us each year too and my relationship with them has evolved too which manifests itself into more coherent decisions being made and we are becoming more of a unit. Obviously I am reliant on Scottish Golf seeing me within the role again next year and the years ahead but it’s one I believe, if given the chance, I can prove a real benefit to the players coming through. This year the team really bonded as an entire group. We had some incredibly exciting individuals coming through alongside some players readying themselves for turning pro after the event and it’s moulding these changing priorities together and bringing the best out of each other to benefit the team. We finished second for the second year running but even though we were runners-up again, we improved. It was a proud week and a standout for me for two reasons. Firstly the process continues to evolve and improve but also because I saw a group of young men really do themselves and Scottish Golf proud.
5) Your hopes and ambitions for 2022?
I want to make it 10 consecutive Home International appearances so my golf needs to stand up well through the year to earn that selection. I don’t know the exact numbers but it’s been mentioned to me that the number of Scottish players playing 10 consecutive stagings of the event is a pretty small number and the names are legends of the amateur game. I am nowhere near worthy of being in such illustrious company but it’s a very cool group to be mentioned alongside and with the way golf has gone, with the career amateur becoming so rare, it’s something I can be incredibly proud of trying to achieve. I believe I am still improving as a player and still have ambitions of winning regularly and a big individual title too. WAGR dictates entry into many bigger events and it’s current format isn’t overly helpful for someone playing events in Scotland in the main so entry to some events may need me asking for invites but the system is what it is and is the same for all so I just need to work out a way to get back up the rankings which means playing great golf whenever I tee it up. I can do that if I get everything right from balancing my work commitments to my fitness and my attitude on and off course. So plenty to look forward to next year.
Ultimately my ambition currently is to be involved in the Walker Cup as player or captain. Traditionally you have to be a player to be considered for the captaincy. I would love to play on the team in St Andrews in 2023 but need to win something significant individually to try and really catch the attention of the selectors. If that’s not to be then I have made my interest known in the captaincy to the R&A and hope they can see the impact I have had with the Scotland team and perhaps that can lead to some debate about a captain who has played at Eisenhower – but not Walker Cup – being a contender next time the captaincy is vacated.
6) One thing you would change about about golf for next season?
I would like the professional tours to properly clamp down on slow play. I believe everything stems from the top in terms of behaviour etc and if the top pros can ‘get away’ with slow play then it becomes so hard to manage down to elite amateur and then club golf. The length of time taken at times for rules and decisions is crazy. When Rafa Cabrero-Bello hit it on to the path on last hole in Spanish Open last weekend it took about six or seven minutes to take the drop and eventually hit his shot. Nothing much is made of it as he’s playing in the last group of his home open but the rules do not allow for that length of time to deliberate. For me taking that length of time to decide on your shot is no different to taking seven minutes to find a ball when you only have three. The two main tours are merged closer together than ever before and whilst they worry about player reaction and the possibility of rival ‘leagues’ starting up, I believe, for the good of the game, they really need to tackle this issue as it’s a hinderance to the game’s appeal and growth.