Joy’s Hoylake diary: Padraig Harrington’s tribute to Bob Torrance

Joy Chakravarty 11:14 20/07/2014
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  • Father figure: Harrington hailed Torrance as "the greatest golf coach in the world."

    Sport360's golf expert Joy Chakravarty is at Royal Liverpool for the ongoing Open Championship and each day will be providing his take on all the goings on at Hoylake.

    One of the logistical issues that needed to be solved for Saturday’s first-ever two-tee start at The Open Championship was who would do the starter’s duty on the 10th tee?

    Ivor Robson is the man with the microphone holding up his position on the first tee, but due to the two-tee start a deputy was needed elsewhere.

    In the end, Mike Stewart (pictured below with Tiger Woods), a European Tour tournament official, was handed the task. That was fine, but Stewart had already left for a family holiday in Yorkshire after officiating for the first two days.

    However, thankfully an official called him and he made the journey back in time to get behind the mic on the 10th.

    Harrington’s tribute

    Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington paid glowing tribute to Bob Torrance, the renowned 82-year-old coach and father of Sam Torrance, who passed away on Friday.

    Harrington said: “He was the greatest golf coach in the world and he was a father figure to me after my own dad passed away.

    “Every single player he worked with was a ball-striker and they won tournaments. My majors would never have happened without Bob. Not a chance. He was absolutely a critical part of me winning major tournaments.”

    Weekend off for amateurs

    None of the four amateurs in the field – Ashley Chesters, Cheng- Tsung Pan, Paul Dune, Bradley Neil – made it to the weekend round.

    That’s not unusual, although we have had some sensational showings by the amateurs in the last few years.

    Remember Matteo Manassero (below) in 2009 and Matthew Fitzpatrick last year?

    Chesters will take the low amateur honour with rounds of 70 and 77. He did warm the hearts by making two birdies in the last four holes and coming to one shot of the cutline, but six bogeys on the front nine ruined his chances. 

    The race to world No1

    At the start of the week, with so many top players so close together on top of the world rankings, a major reshuffle looked imminent, depending mostly on how world No1 Adam Scott performs.

    World No2 Henrik Stenson, No3 Justin Rose and No4 Bubba Watson all had a chance to end Scott’s reign with a victory this week at The Open.

    Obviously, Watson missed the cut and is now out of the equation. For Stenson and Rose, this is how it stands: If Stenson wins, he becomes No1 if Scott finishes outside the top-3.

    If Rose lifts the Claret Jug, he takes over at the top provided Scott finishes outside the top-six. Additionally, Stenson could become No1 if Rose fails to win and he finishes second alone and Scott is outside the top-17.

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