A victory on The European Tour International Schedule can often bring a lump to the throat, but Ian Poulter had one even before he began his first round in The Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open. In fact, he had two and he claimed they felt as big as cricket balls.
Tonsilitis is the medical term for the condition he took with him to the spectacular Wentwood Hills course, but anyone who witnessed the Englishman’s arrival would have diagnosed alongside it, a serious case of flamboyance.
He roared up to the luxurious hotel in a red, open-topped Ferrari, fashioning a personalised number plate with his tousled hair streaked red in honour of Arsenal’s victory in the FA Cup Final at the nearby Millennium Stadium in Cardiff 12 days earlier.
However, no-one could see the most vividly red part of his ensemble - his throat. One sight of it might have persuaded tournament officials to allow him to withdraw.
But Poulter had long been a martyr to his tonsils and since he had won the Moroccan Open in 2001 with the same glands inflamed, he felt it was worth the effort. It was. He won by three shots.
There was further English success the following week in The Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters at the Marriott Forest of Arden when Greg Owen claimed his maiden victory in his 11th year as a professional.
Typically, the modest and unassuming Owen did not forget the tutors when he started to sing his songs of praise afterwards. His caddie of five years, Richard Hill, he admitted, was brilliant. “He’s dedicated to me and his job, what more could I ask?” Coach David Ridley was also amongst the many singled out.
It had been Ridley who had not offered a shoulder for Owen to cry on after the pain of missing out on victory earlier in the season in Portugal, but a reminder that his job was as a professional golfer. There were going to be days that would not go to plan, he told him, no matter how well he played. “When I came back from Portugal, I did not want to play golf I just wanted to spend time with my little girl,” he said. Ridley shook him out of it and Owen stopped feeling sorry for himself.
At the start of the week, Owen’s CV offered no better than a string of third place finishes, but with the words of his caddie and coach ringing in his ears, he knew he was better than third rate. The Daily Telegraph Damovo British Masters allowed him the chance to prove he was first class.
The following week saw two events run simultaneously on The European Tour, the US Open Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois and the Aa St Omer Open at Aa St Omer Golf Club in France.
The former was won by Jim Furyk, his maiden Major Championship victory. If Furyk had a pound for every time some ‘expert’ recommended changing his unorthodox swing, every time he heard some wisecrack about his unique action, his riches would have doubled.
Instead he ignored them all in that kindly, understated manner of his. He drew upon examples such as Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino to hammer home the fact that desire and self-belief are more important than textbook technique. He concentrated on grooving his unusual method to the point where it could withstand the pressures of the game at the highest level.
Players seeking perfect swings say they are making changes because they want consistency, but how about Furyk's consistency? He came to Chicago having registered ten top tens in 14 starts. Since the US Open is by common consent the Major Championship that places the most emphasis on accuracy, everyone agreed in the build-up that Furyk possessed the hallmark of a Champion.
Furyk justified it with the performance of his career. Leading from the front is the hardest way to win your first Major, but he took a three stroke lead into the final day's play and never at any stage looked like losing it, winning in the end by three shots from Stephen Leaney.
While an Aussie finished runner-up in America, on the same day in France there was better news for his fellow countryman Brett Rumford, who won the Aa St Omer Open, a dual ranking event with the Challenge Tour.
More than half of the field was composed of regulars on the Challenge Tour, being given their chance to play for a much bigger purse than they are used to, on a stunningly photogenic golf course. The contestents were mostly young, mostly fairly inexperienced but all talented and all ambitious. That said, there were still ten former winners of full European Tour titles in the start list, so whoever won would have to beat plenty of good 'uns.
Such men as Paul Broadhurst and Philip Walton, former Ryder Cup players both, Mark Mouland and Andrew Sherborne, all of them with victories to their credit and plenty of miles under their experienced belts, were there to stake their claims. But of course there was Rumford, Ben Mason and Federico Bisazza, who just happened to show the experienced hands the way home in first, second and third places respectively.
The performances of the top three underlined the burgeoning skills of the up-and-comers in the Tour ranks and gave further credibility to the Tour's theme of Opportunity and Incentive. The words deserve their capital letters, for they form an integral and vital part of a corporate philosophy that needs only facts to support its validity.
One of the biggest success stories in recent years on The European Tour has been the emergence of talented Danish golfers and the following week saw the fifth Dane enter the winners circle, Søren Kjeldsen, with victory in The Diageo Championship at Gleneagles, following in the footsteps of Thomas Björn, Anders Hansen, Søren Hansen and Steen Tinning.
Björn, the ‘big brother’ of the Viking corps, had been helpful to Kjeldsen more than once, advising him only the previous month at Wentworth Club that, as he was a good Sunday shooter, all he had to do was to try and ensure he was in contention at the end of play on Saturday.
He managed that finally in Scotland and proceeded to play the last round rather like US Open Champion Jim Furyk had done the previous week, courageously but carefully. No one got closer to him than two shots, and that is how it ended, Alastair Forsyth holing a 15 foot birdie putt on the last green to claim second place ahead of Paul Broadhurst with Colin Montgomerie fourth.
The final event of the month brought one of the most heart warming tales of the season as England’s Philip Golding, in his 20th year on Tour, finally claimed his maiden title with an emotional victory in the Open de France at Le Golf National on the outskirts of Paris.
Had Robert the Bruce been alive today he could not have failed to recognise a kindred spirit in Golding. The old Scottish King harboured a distrust of anyone residing south of Hadrian’s Wall, but in Golding he would have surely identified a man of strong moral fibre, in whose dictionary the word failure did not exist.
Almost seven centuries have elapsed since Robert shivered in his cave watching the legendary spider “try, try and try again” to spin a web, imbuing him with the resolve to reclaim his kingdom. In a golfing context, few professionals have displayed a greater resolve than the man from Bushey in Hertfordshire.
Over the course of two eventful decades Golding pursued the Holy Grail of a victory on The European Tour International Schedule and, following an unwanted record of 16 visits to the Qualifying School Finals, he arrived at the summit of a life’s work by winning the Open de France.
Golding closed with a final round of 69 for a 15 under par total of 273, finishing one stroke ahead of fellow Englishman, David Howell - who also carded a 69. Another English golfer, Justin Rose, signed for a superb 65 to share third with Australian Peter O'Malley on 275.
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