Early last week, Bradley Neil’s chief worry was that he had no-one to talk to.
In qualifying for the Amateur Championship, Brad was drawn with a Finn and a Frenchmanactually French boy, because he was only 14. The Finn rudely withdrew on Monday morning, too late for a reserve to be put in, so the 18-year-old from Blairgowrie and the French youngster played as a pair.
There was a lot of waiting around, as there always is with a two-ball among three-balls, in addition to the fog that blighted the first two days at Portrush and Portstewart. The French kid spoke no English.
“I mean, not a word,” confirmed Bradley later. “He just shrugged his shoulders at everything I said. And you know me, I like to talk.”
He certainly does. The new Amateur champion survived the trials of qualifying to come through and win so impressively at Royal Portrush, and he should get plenty of opportunity to chat now.
At Hoylake, Augusta and Chambers Bay for the US Open next year. At the Walker Cup, probably, and in the professional ranks, perhaps sooner than we thought.
Sometimes on the laptop screen, you read back Brad’s quotes and fear they might be taken as arrogant if they appear in print. They never sound that way coming from his mouth. It’s just he’s supremely confident.
This sometimes doesn’t go down too well in the modest and retiring world of Scottish golf. Some eyes roll when Brad speaks, some of his peers would delight in shutting him up.
But he’s not unpopular with them, far from it in fact. He’s not really full of himself either, justconfident, positive about himself.
That’s rare enough in Scottish golf too where too many players carry themselves with the downtrodden, hang-dog attitude, almost as if they fear the next calamity. Bradley has a rare commodity, even when he’s down on himself after a mistake, of looking at the positive side of it.
Hopefully, this attitude is going to help him. Winning this championship, and his big advances in the last 12 months, have potentially altered a few decisions.
He’s not 19 until January, but the trend is clearly toward turning professional younger if you’re good enough.
He has three majors to play in now that will give him a clue, and perhaps more invites to top order events as well. If he does well, the pro ranks could be a realistic option sooner rather than later. He has matured considerably both on and off the course in the last 12 months.
When it does happen, I fervently hope he keeps on talking. Not just from a professional point of view golfers who talk well make my job easier but because it’ll mean he’s still being positive and confident.
And there are few limits to what he can do if stays like that.
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Rory McIlroy’s decision to pick Ireland over Great Britain in the Olympics last week provoked predicted excitement, but the hysteria was from an unexpected source.
The assumption had been that the pointy-headed fraternities in the North might be those who got all worked up about “The Choice”.
But despite a few twitter morons and a couple of tabloids trying to turn them into a major story, the general view was best summed up by the voice of the province, the Belfast Telegraph, when it headlined “Rory chooses Irelandand everyone’s cool with it”.
Far from the Northern Irish getting incandescent about him representing the Republic – it was an obvious choice given he’d played for Ireland as amateur and professional – instead, it was those SOUTH of the border who got all worked up.
Their reaction to Rory’s statement a few months ago that he “felt more British than Irish” was far more hysterical. “The Choice” became the subject of an ongoing media frenzy almost as if he’d personally insulted everyone and maybe even convinced McIlroy to pick Ireland for the quiet life as much as anything else.
Up in the North, meanwhile, they know that Rory and Graeme McDowell, and Darren Clarke represent them and the province where they grew up in everything they do, no matter what flag or colour they’re wearing.
It’s indicative of the new maturity in Northern Ireland, where previously sworn political enemies like Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness share the same platform and say “this is what peace and stability looks like” as they prepare to welcome the Open to Portrush in 2019 or 2020.
However, sometimes they go a little far. The Telegraph declared in a leader that Portrush’s success, allied to their major winners, “makes us now the epicentre of golf in these Isles”.
St Andrews might have a word or two to say about that, guys.
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So almost without warning, Tiger Woods is back this week to play in his own event, the Quicken Loans National.
This is great, isn’t it? Ratings have slumped, interest had dwindled away to nearly nothing, golf is in death throes since his absence.
The game is better with Tiger, yes, but not under every circumstance. Golf is better with a fit and firing Tiger aiming at the greatest prizes again, not one marginalised by nagging injuries and raging against his ailments.
He’s way ahead of schedule in his return. Actually, he’s blown up the customary recovery schedule for a surgical procedure of this sort, which is minimum four months, not barely three.
Tiger wouldn’t come back if his “doctors” (always more than one for some reason, like bodyguards) didn’t approve? Piffle. He’s played for months in his career clearly against doctors’ orders, including winning a US Open with one leg hanging off. And anyway, if we learned anything about his great career, it’s that nobody tells Tiger Woods what to do.
I’m concerned about the underlying reasons for him coming back so soon (sponsor pressure?) but most of all I’m concerned that he risks more serious damage.
Play your charity event, Tiger, and take the rest of the year off. Get properly well, let’s see you as good as you can be.