Matt Cooper kicks off his daily Open Championship diary with a nod to the past, and some hints as to what might be to come at a firm Royal Birkdale.
Arrival
My journey to Royal Birkdale took me through the city of Liverpool this morning, prompting my feverish subconscious to start paraphrasing The Beatles: “It was 50 years ago today, when Sergeant Seve taught the band to play.”
Yes, it was at the 1976 Open (also hosted by Royal Birkdale), that a 19-year-old Spaniard called Severiano Ballesteros with an oh-so-emotive face and an outrageously arced follow through forever captured the affections of the British public.
Nor was it the only introduction that week. Nick Faldo, a few weeks shy of his own 19th birthday, made his debut and finished in the top 30. And the 18-year-old Bernhard Langer was also in the field, but he missed the cut.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Sandy Lyle was warming up to defend the Midland Open, a professional event he’d claimed a year earlier, and it was played at Hill Valley GC. By the end of the year Ian Woosnam, also 17, had turned professional and was living in a caravan in the car park at Hill Valley.
Some month, that. Like the Open’s fringe festival. Some youngsters thriving, others failing, all of them starting a journey to the top of the game that would end in style.
We’ll take a little bit of that this week, please. Just a little bit will be more than enough for a cracking week.
The other anniversary
There is more to this Golden Jubilee than the celebration of the Famous Five’s first steps because it is also 50 years since a 46-year-old crane driver from Cumbria who had never played a full round of golf in his life attempted to qualify for the 1976 Open.
His name was Maurice Flitcroft and he became infamous after carding a 49-over-par 121 (his actual score was almost certainly higher).
His story is wonderfully told in the book The Phantom of the Open by Scott Murray and Simon Farnaby, and was turned into a film too (currently on the BBC iPlayer by the way).
Flitcroft was difficult to pin down with a unique mixture of earnest endeavour, deadpan wit and naive trust in the notion of the Open being quite literally open to all.
He delivered some fantastic lines to a small but spellbound press corps after his 121. My favourite is: “I thought I putted pretty well apart from the five putts on the 11th. Actually I’d like to take the opportunity to praise Formby GC for the quality of their putting surfaces, as in texture and pace they resemble my living room carpet which I practise on every night.”
I thought of this line as my rattler passed the links at Formby (shortly after it had clattered past West Lancs where Faldo and Langer had qualified).
Flitcroft’s chaotic performance gave the press plenty of leeway, too, of course. Pat Ward Thomas in the Guardian wrote: “The details of his round can be spared but it was consistent in two halves of 61 and 60 marred by one only par at the 14th.” A wonderful line.
In time our hero was dragged into a remarkably comic duel with the R&A secretary Keith MacKenzie who found no humour in Flitcroft’s desire to compete in his championship.
It seems somehow rather lovely that, 50 years on, the R&A has introduced its new Last-Chance Qualifier.
I’d even suggest that it really ought to have been called the Maurice Flitcroft Memorial Last-Chance Qualifier, but I’m not sure the R&A would entirely approve.
The 156th man
And so to that new competition. I must confess that when I first heard of it I was sceptical and I remained so when I heard that the theory behind it was to “enhance the spectator experience”.
It sounded suspiciously like corporate speak and an excuse for increasing (or excusing) ticket prices, but I’ve changed my mind.
The eventual winner of the final spot in the Open was Joe Dean and afterwards the Englishman cast his mind back to the 2017 Open here at Royal Birkdale and what was then a rather quiet practice day. In contrast, he felt Monday’s galleries were actively engaged in the Qualifier.
I said to Dean that I thought the event reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – that the 12 players had received golden tickets and it was a question of who would last the day.
We had no chocolate rivers, no-one turned into a blueberry and no-one (not even YouTuber Wesley Bryan) ended up stuck in a small TV, but Dean did slightly resemble Charlie Bucket in that he has a pleasingly ordinary background.
His fiancee Emily was on the bag, pondering where they might stay after a bad night’s sleep in a Premier Inn room with no air con, and wondering if she had time to organise their wedding next Tuesday.
“I’m one of those people who can’t do anything until the very last minute so I’ve got lots still to go,” she said. Sounds like this diary, I nearly muttered.
Dean himself admitted he was yet to write his speech for the big day. “I think you’ve got your intro and that’s always the trickiest bit,” I said. He looked a little curious. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I was going to write this speech last week, but something came up.”
“Fancy writing the rest?” he said with a laugh.
Then Alex Fitzpatrick popped up to ask if Dean had any accommodation.
“Not yet,” he said.
“There’s always our place,” said Fitzpatrick. “We’ve got a big garden.”
Conditions
On that train journey from Liverpool it quickly became apparent just how dry it has been on England’s Golf Coast. Every fairway we passed was bone dry and bleached of almost any colour. Royal Birkdale almost looks like Augusta National in comparison.
Dean said that the course played firmer and faster on Monday than it had done on Sunday and added: “My feet are killing me. It’s very, very firm out there. Even if you’re hitting 54, 50 degree wedges, you’ve got to be landing 10 yards short of the pin and that’s if you’re getting a lot of spin.”
Matt Fitzpatrick was yet to play the course this week, but he was already comparing it to Muirfield in 2012, and he revealed that he has played here regularly over the last three years as prep for the Scottish Open and Open.
He last played before last week’s Scottish Open and reported: “I was surprised at how green it was but how firm it was. We played on a couple of really windy days, and I think my brother drove it just short of No. 11 (434 yards), like 30 yards short of that green, and that wasn’t downwind. Then we both drove it just short of 8 (459 yards).”
Repeat: that was two weeks ago!
- Read Matt's Open diary every evening on Sporting Life and follow him on X