Open Championship diary day two: Matt Cooper reports from Royal Troon

Open roads lead to Elvis

I opened yesterday’s entry with the details of my own journey to this year’s championship and, as long-winded as it was, it pales in comparison with the efforts of many others.

A few years ago at Carnoustie, I met an Australian couple who were in the middle of a voyage around the world undertaken by train and cruise ship. “We’re not interrupting the round the world trip, mate,” they said. “We just took our time getting here and we’re taking more time getting home. The Open was always the destination.”

Last month I was taking a wander along the beach at Fine Finger Strand during the Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin when I bumped into another Aussie couple, this time completing a circuit of Ireland prior to journeying from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Again, it was all just a fancy trip to and from the golf.

This afternoon I met a couple from the Sunshine Coast (brilliantly, they hail from round the corner from a good friend of mine) who are very excited about the Open debut of their fellow Queenslander Elvis Smylie of whom they said: “We don’t exactly know him, but we know people who know him. We’ve been chatting to them and we like his chances. We’ve got a few quid on him.”

The 22-year-old is the son of the tennis player Liz Smylie and considers 2022 champion Cameron Smith as something of a mentor but his connections with this week go much further. My new friends were keen to let me know that the Smylies are close to the Baker-Finch family (Ian won the 1991 Open) and also the Grady family (Wayne lost a play-off at Royal Troon in 1989). In fact, Grady was the first person to text Smylie when he turned pro. “And from what we’ve heard he’s been texting him some tips for this week, too,” they said. I decided to dig deeper and discovered that Smylie first came to the Open as a kid. Where and when? It was 2016 here at Troon.

Ridiculously, I was able to add a few connections of my own. Smylie was, of course, named after Elvis Presley. And Troon’s near-neighbour Prestwick Airport was the scene of the one and only visit of Presley to the UK, when he touched down briefly in 1960 during national service. Only 200 people were witness to this. Bizarrely one of them was the uncle of a friend of mine who was an air traffic controller there and the father of a friend who works in the media centre interviewed the great man. Connections, connections, everywhere.

A Smylie win would be utterly remarkable but maybe he has the potential to have a good week.

Monty putting his foot in it

I was asked to guest on TalkSport a few months ago to talk about Colin Montgomerie’s opinion that Tiger Woods should quit the game. It’s worth pointing out for any future talk radio researchers that I am one of the worst-ever potential guests, possessing zero capacity to offer a harrumphing opinion about anything other than the really important things in life.

The real highlight of my 10 minutes of middle-of-the-night-fame came when the host suggested that “a golfer in the 1950s won a major with two wooden legs”. I suggested that he might be thinking of Ben Hogan, who had a car crash but didn’t have wooden legs. “No, I’m pretty sure he did,” the host insisted. “I think,” I said, “that you might be muddling him up with Douglas Bader.”

I’ve not been asked back. I’m just not sure whether for impertinence or just using ancient popular culture references.

Monty has been at it again this week and it’s not gone unnoticed. I heard an American voice in the galleries today say: “Who the hell does Monty think he is? Why does anyone care what that man thinks?!” TalkSport would have loved him.

Woods himself was asked about the subject and was very entertaining. “Do you feel it’s a bit hurtful and that you’ve earned the right to make the decision?” he was asked. “Well,” he said with a grin. “I’m exempt until I’m 60. Colin is not. He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.” Tremendous fun.

Bunkering down

The extent to which the sand traps here at Royal Troon are hidden threats is demonstrated by a walk around the course. At times it appears as if a hole has no players on it whereupon balls suddenly land on greens and it becomes obvious that a player has been below ground, heaving himself from a pot bunker like a Chilean miner smelling fresh air.

It’s also true that the course’s championship history is liberally sprinkled with golfers whose hopes have been dashed by these hazards.

Walter Hagen watched Arthur Havers hole from a bunker on the 72nd hole to pip him in 1923 and 37 years later German amateur Herman Tissies (literally Herman the German) made 15 at the Postage Stamp with one tee shot, one putt and 13 bunker shots.

In 1982 Bobby Clampett led by seven shots with 31 holes to play but then found three bunkers at the par-5 sixth, took eight and his challenge was spent. Greg Norman had bunker woes in 1989, finding two on the final hole of the play-off.

Beware the sand and perhaps note that Sahith Theegala holed out at least twice from sand during practice today.

Super stat

The Open’s resident stat expert has unearthed some terrific numbers about Phil Mickelson’s performances at Royal Troon. The American has played only four bogey-free rounds in his entire championship career and all four have been at Troon – two when he was third in 2004 and the other two when he was second in 2016. He’s also gun on the front nine, going bogey-free to the turn in all eight rounds he has played this century.