TROON, SCOTLAND | On Saturday afternoon, we saw such angst among the leaders that you had to wonder what on earth this 152nd Open was doing to their mental health. The links were well-nigh impossible, the weather was vile and, for the ticket-paying public, most of whom stayed to the bitter end, it would have added up to a pretty weird form of entertainment. How on earth could a Jenny Roe, an environmental psychologist from the University of Virginia, have come to the conclusion that stress in golf was good for you, and that it could even improve a person’s mood?
The players were not beginning to interact with their fans as they might have done on another day. Instead, they cared only for themselves and their survival. To Justin Rose, it was a case of “hanging on by my fingernails.”
Photographers were getting soaked to the core as they seized the chance to capture an unlikely collection of crazed facial expressions.
Rose’s minor wrinkles turned into angry furrows which stayed put until he posted his third-round 73, at which point he returned to his good-looking self.
Lowry, a jolly Irishman when he won the 2019 Open at Portrush, was forever showing one of gritted teeth or pursed lips, with his beard doing nothing to soften the look. (In truth, he had seemed to be on too much of a high since the last few holes of his opening 66 when his fans started cheering as if he were about to win his second Open.)
“It’s really easy to get disheartened when you feel you’re hitting really good shots and they’re not turning out as you expected. It’s vital not to lose your head and to keep on executing your process.”
Adrian Meronk
Yet maybe the incident which occurred at the 11th hole in the second round did rather more to suggest the half-way leader might struggle to stay on the rails for 72 holes. He ranted at the cameraman who had disturbed him as he played his second and, by way of a next step, he upset the refereeing contingent by declaring his ball lost and saying he was going ahead with a provisional. (Under Rule 18.3c, that had to be stopped after the original was found by a spectator within the statutory three minutes.)
How the leaders needed a good caddie by way of a companion, and how that showed with Daniel Brown, who had his brother, Ben, winner of the English Amateur at Ferndown last year, on his bag. The pair were doing their best to ignore their improbable arrival among the elite by telling themselves they were playing with friends back home. They would discuss their next shot and an anxious-looking Daniel would deliver it before the two disappeared back under their umbrella.
Intriguingly, Daniel was no different when he walked into Royal Troon to prepare for his final round. Where everyone else on the 210 mark (a shot behind Horschel) was walking tall and looking like a potential champion, he had his head bowed.
Rose was working in tandem with long-term friend Mark Fulcher, the caddie who was with him when he won the 2013 U.S. Open and the 2016 Olympic Games gold medal. They know each other so well that Rose can get away with every grimace that suggests Fulcher was partly to blame for a shot that had failed to match his high standards. Fulcher never reacts.
People noticed and, at his press conference, Rose confessed that on such a difficult day, there was “a lot of niggling” going on.
“He [Fulcher] was patient with me. I probably want things immediately – a new ball or a towel – and I’ll say, ‘Come on, Fooch. Where’s the umbrella? Hold it over me when I’m teeing up the ball.’ I say all of that, but he did a brilliant job today.”
In 2020, Steve Williams spoke tellingly with GGP about being under an umbrella with Tiger Woods.
“Usually,” he said, “you’re not standing or walking too close to each other, but all that changes when the umbrella goes up. Suddenly, you’re in your man’s space. You can hear him breath; you can hear him muttering to himself, and you can sense what he’s feeling.
“At this point,” Williams continued, “a caddie needs to proceed with caution. He has to pick his words as carefully as he picks the clubs. If he’s going to say anything, it had better be something that’s going to be well-received. Anything less is not a good idea.”
When you consider what is involved for the caddying fraternity, it’s not too difficult to understand why there are plenty of players – they include Ian Poulter – who believe caddies should be no different from rowing’s coxswains in getting medals.
What a difference a day can make to the Scottish weather.
After an apologetic rainbow had marked the finish of that Saturday to forget, there was a touch of sun to revive the smiles of Lowry and the rest. If there is such a thing as a Richter scale of golf’s stress levels, the number would have plummeted.
Maybe Virginia’s Roe was right about the condition doing more good than harm.
Adrian Meronk, the 2022 Irish Open champion, and one of the earliest starters, was inclined to agree. In his opinion, the more a golfer exposes himself to stress, the better he will learn to handle it.
“Psychology is so important,” Meronk said. “It’s really easy to get disheartened when you feel you’re hitting really good shots and they’re not turning out as you expected. It’s vital not to lose your head and to keep on executing your process.”
Mind you, the Daniel Brown way of telling yourself that you’re at home playing with friends is going to have a more-than-certain appeal after how well he performed over his first three rounds.
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: Shane Lowry was among those left gritting their teeth in Saturday's conditions.
JANE BARLOW, PA IMAGES via GETTY IMAGES
