There is only one thing more nerve racking than being on the first tee with thousands of people waiting for you to shank one into the rough, and that is the best man’s speech at a wedding. Thousands of golf fans in the corner of your eye is child’s play compared to a few hundred hungry eyes, baying for blood, waiting like hyenas for the opening gag.
I went with: ‘They say a best man’s speech should last the same amount of time as it takes the groom to make love to his bride. So, thanks very much. Good night.’
That was followed by a ripple of applause and the key trick. I don’t know if you have heard of it? You plant a bunch of keys in the crowd and explain how the bride has had a chequered past, but she is turning over a new leaf, so could all her past acquaintances please hand back her spare keys. So I went round with a bowl and around twenty lads dropped these keys in, it was hilarious.
And then for the groom, I did the same thing, but gave one key to an old waitress, and after some hesitation she put her key in the bowl. The crowd were in stitches. It was like making a birdie on the first, you know it’s going to be a good day. The hyenas were instantaneously tamed licking the wedding cake of their paws.
Strangely, overcoming the best man’s speech coincided with a complete change in form with my game. I think it was the catalyst I needed to stop my mind playing the montage of missed puts and hooks over and over again.
There is no doubt, after missing five cuts in a row you start to doubt yourself. You need to sit down and start picking the weeds in your brain, or you can find yourself quickly forgetting why you even bothered in the fist place. Throughout this wedding I was driving round in my friend’s car, an Aston Martin Vanquish. What a car! I started telling myself; get your head down and in a couple of weeks you could own one of these. It was a good weekend to re-focus my game, remind myself what I can achieve and start working harder than ever. Because the way I have been playing, I can’t even afford to fill my car up with diesel, let alone buy an Aston Martin
After working on my swing and with a sports psychologist, I wanted the Welsh Open to be a new start. On the first practice day the heavens opened and I was in a taxi to the course thinking, its days like these that I wish I played snooker for a living.
But playing at Celtic manor was perfect timing for me as we were playing on the new 2010 Ryder Cup course. They used holes from some of the old course, but most of it was brand new and I was really impressed and enjoyed every minute of it. It is a very long course and in the wet it can be very challenging as the ball doesn’t run very far. But it is a great choice for the Ryder Cup.
The fact that we were playing a new course means everyone on the tour is starting from scratch, no pun intended. So, form doesn’t really come into it. It was the ideal tournament for me because it literally was a fresh start. Every player is in the same boat, it is not one of those courses that the tour has been playing for 20 years. You find with courses like Wentworth, the players who do well have been playing it for years.
But in Wales, my game just glued together and I started to strike the ball solidly and true. I really turned a corner and was ecstatic to finish fourth, plus if it wasn’t for a couple of the guys eagling the last, I would have got an extra £ 60 000 pounds. I am now 104th in the order of merit and I hope with a good effort in Austria I can break into the top 100 and keep going.
It was annoying to just miss out in the US Open qualifying but realistically I was quite tired from Wales and didn’t play to my best. When you are in contention every one wants a piece of you. It is really flattering but when you are not used it, especially after missing five cuts, you don’t get a moments piece.
During the Summer I hope I can win a tournament and climb the order of merit. And maybe, if my girlfriend lets me, buy that Vanquish…