Matt Cooper's Open Championship diary: Monday's notes from Portrush

First, a nod to Sadie and Wilby

On my journey to the course from Belfast this morning, I reminded myself of the 2019 Open via Ben Coley’s diary.

I was trying to remember the names of our saviours on the Saturday morning commute to the course. Sadie and Wilby were their names and I recommend you look them up in the Saturday section. They were the type of characters who made Portrush such a special place six years ago – and here’s hoping for more of the same this week.

It’s also worth a read for Ben’s first meeting with the Guardian’s Ewan Murray...

Not again, Rory...

I started my first trip out onto the course with a walk up the first. No sooner had I stopped for a close look at the rough than a ball landed at my feet which means, of course, that it was out of bounds and in the same spot Rory McIlroy found with his opening blow in the 2019 championship.

“Has this happened much?” I asked the marshal.

“First one I’ve seen,” he replied. “But my colleague was here first thing and Rory’s opening tee shot went out of bounds down the right and his second landed in this rough here.” He pointed in front of us – in bounds but not by much.

We peered down at the long grass which has a dry look at the top but which is green and damp underneath. It’s patchy, but there are spots where the ball is going to sit down and be tricky to move. Given Europe’s recent heatwave I was a bit surprised but was told the area had plenty of rain ahead of the last week.

The course generally looks magnificent. As with the wider region, which was used for the filming of The Game of Thrones, there is an epic look to it. Every hole feels wonderfully photogenic with rolling contours, crumpled greens and vivid colours.

Rory McIlroy made some good points about the course in his press conference. “It’s very well bunkered off the tee,” he said. “I can hit a 2-iron off the tee, but that brings this bunker into play. But if I hit driver, it'll bring this bunker in. Some courses on the Open rota you can take the bunkers out of play. So it provides a very, very good test off the tee.

“Then I’m always surprised how much movement there is on the greens. They’re are quite slopey here for a links golf course.”

From Mozambique to Portrush, via Tallin

One of the enduring images of Final Qualifying came courtesy of the 20-year-old Estonian Richard Teder. He’d played well for the first 35 holes of regulation only to stumble to a double bogey at the last (and even then he needed to drain a long putt). It left him in a three-way play-off for the final spot and he won it by holing a 50-yard pitch. His caddie nearly dropped to the floor in ecstasy before lifting Teder into the sky.

I’ve been bumping into Teder for a few years now on the amateur circuit and he’s always been chatty, always keen to talk about courses and how he’s playing. But it was only at this year’s Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s (Teder made the last eight) that I learned the extraordinary tale behind his arrival at the Open.

It starts with David Da Silva, a fellow who was born in Mozambique, brought up in South Africa and worked in the United States. His brother Daniel was the first Portuguese winner on the European Tour at the 1992 Jersey Open. David married a Finn and has an academy outside Helsinki.

A decade ago he began to notice six boys who were making regular visits from Tallinn. “I get emotional just thinking about it,” he told me. “I remember them coming over on the ferry from in the winter. It was dark and snowing. They’d wake at two in the morning to arrive on a Saturday morning. They’d travel with one parent every time, they’d work all weekend, and return in the dark on Sunday evening. They’d do that two, three times a month. I saw their work ethic, their spirit. They were pioneers for Estonian golf and I thought, ‘I’m going to help them.’”

He initially did so informally but the Estonian Golf Federation asked him to work with them and he demanded a long-term plan. “They’ve been as good as their word,” he said. “We had no indoor facility so they invested a lot of money in a state-of-the-art centre in the middle of Tallinn and it’s got everything. We’ve got a Challenge Tour event coming to Estonia next year, guaranteed for three years. That will be huge for us and it’s an amazing opportunity for those boys.

“It’s tough out there. All the European nations are investing. That’s what we’re competing with, but these boys will give it a good go.”

Five of those six boys have gone to college in the States. Teder was chased by the talent scouts, too, but Da Silva thought it was a poor fit for his personality. They all remain tight, though. At the Brabazon Trophy, Teder was out supporting Mattias Varjun. They will all be supporting Teder this week. They’ve come a long way from the Tallinn-Helsinki ferry.

An emotional return for 2024 star

Cast your minds back 12 months and a couple of days to that mucky Thursday evening at Royal Troon. It felt more like February than July. And then two brothers emerged from the gloom. One playing, one carrying. Daniel Brown with the clubs, Ben with the bag. Daniel carded a 65 and he was the Open’s first round leader. Tabloid journalists and Americans headed out to talk to him. “Have you read The Da Vinci Code?” they asked him. “No,” he said explaining that he wasn’t much of a reader.

He finished the week in tenth, knowing he had booked a return. “You earmark it, it never really slips your mind,” he told me in Munich two weeks ago. “It’s the biggest stage, the best players and I think I proved that I was capable of going toe-to-toe with them. Hopefully I can do it again.”

He added some intriguing info because he played Royal Portrush in the 2014 Amateur Championship. “I actually won the stroke play and then got to the quarter-finals. I was back a year or two later in the home internationals. My dad absolutely loves it there. He came with me when I was a kid so it will be a nice closing of the loop for him to return there to see me in the Open.”

Of course, Brown won the BMW International Open in Munich and it was an emotional experience because a close friend had died the previous weekend. His journey to the event had been horrible: “I was travelling on my own and that’s when the reality hit me. It was very difficult.” He felt numb all week and said that the final round was an “out of body experience”. His friend, he added, was: “Always the first to message me after a round whether it was good or bad. I did this for him.”

This could be another emotional week for the Yorkshireman.

• Read Matt Cooper's Open Diary every evening on Sporting Life