Hoylake, England | Matthew Southgate’s career has been defined by Open Week.
This is a line you might expect to be written about a multiple Claret Jug winner or perhaps a surprise champion like Todd Hamilton or Ben Curtis. Maybe it’s not about a 13-year-old pro who hasn’t yet won a DP World Tour, however, it’s just as true.
On Friday, the 34-year-old Englishman was bowled for an eagle on the par 5 hole at Royal Liverpool’s 15th to complete a second round of 70, good enough for a 36-hole total of 1-under 141 and a place in the top 20 when he signed his card.
The smile on his face all week was wider than ever because for the first time since 2018 he was back playing in a tournament that meant the world to him.
“It’s my favorite week of the year, and always has been,” he said. “I would like to be a part of the World Open in any way, shape or form every day until the day I die, if possible.
“It’s an absolute privilege to play in and play well. But if all else fails, I’m more than happy to be playing around with a scoreboard or a radio mic because it’s been such a big part of my life. Probably the main reason I played golf this week.”
The mention of the microphone was a reference to last year’s tournament at Old St Andrews when he was working on the tournament’s radio channel, just one of several episodes in a life that has always been associated with the Open Championship.
The tale began with Southgate’s father, Ian, an avid golfer who fell in love with the World Open and in particular the exploits of Tom Watson. A decent amateur Southgate Senior, well enough to qualify for the European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in the late 1970s, was a member of Carnoustie although the family lived 600 miles away in Southend, a seaside town east of London.
“My dad knew the rangers, and they called me and my friends to sit on the Barry Byrne Bridge. My legs were dangling over the water as I watched everything happen.” – Matthew Southgate
In 1984, Southgate’s elder sister, Anna, was a baby in her mother’s arms in the stand behind No. 18 green at St Andrews when Severiano Ballesteros triumphed with his famous birdie.
In 1999, already an annual visitor to the Open Championship, one whose spectacle of the big yellow scoreboard made me ‘bother’, 10-year-old Southgate was in perfect view when Jan van de Velde suffered agony on Carnoustie’s final hole.
“My dad knew the bouncers, and they called me and my friends to sit on Barry Byrne Bridge,” Southgate said. “My legs were dangling above the water as I watched everything happen.”
The next day, he was carrying his father’s bag, and the group suggested that the young porter try playing the last hole in front of the now empty stands. “They said I had five shots to win the Open. I played less than burn, chipped and hit two strokes.”
By 2009 he was a promising amateur player himself – good enough to later win the 2010 St Andrews Lynx Cup – so father and son were at home in Southend when their champion Watson took an outrageous lead in the 54-hole Turnberry Championship.
“I grabbed my dad around 3am and drove him 500 miles north,” Southgate said. “There was no way we could let Tom win and not be there.”
Within five years he was making his Open Championship debut, a missed cut at Royal Liverpool with his old school friend Josh McColl, who played his father Bill in the 1980 Open, on the bag.
Southgate had dreamed of improving on the effort, but a year later life instead presented a very different test. The week of the Opening Ceremony, he was not practicing on the old course but instead in the hospital undergoing surgery for testicular cancer.
Although he was back on the tour in a matter of weeks, he said of that experience: “It proved to me how much I wanted to be a golfer. It’s a special week, and I had nothing to do but think about what it meant to me. I vowed to come back.”
He did it with style. He finished the stakes twelfth at Royal Troon in 2016, tied for sixth at Royal Birkdale in 2017 and made the cut at Carnoustie (where he’s also a member now) in 2018.
A year later he was runner-up at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Old Course. When he was watching his son play in it, Southgate Senior once sought to tell how he heard a spectator suggest that a close-range shot of 17 had been fouled.
“I really enjoyed last year, but the gameplay is a completely different dynamic.” – Matthew Southgate
“Matthew didn’t wear it,” he told me proudly. “He only knows how to play under the wind. This boy only knows how to play golf. He was born to play it.”
Probably born and (open) born.
Although Ian Southgate passed away in late 2020, he would understand (and be proud again) that when Matthew didn’t qualify for the 150 Open last year, he simply had to find a way to get involved.
He loved the radio commentary week, enjoying the different perspective I’ve gained on the sport, but he’s understandably excited to be inside the ropes with clubs, rather than a microphone, in his hands this time around.
“I really enjoyed last year, but playing is a completely different dynamic,” he said. “I would put up with the mistake and laugh at it when I was speaking. But when you play, even the smallest misstep can absolutely ruin your day, especially here where one bad strike can cost you two or three times as much.”
What is the difference between this week and the first appearance nine years ago?
“I was like a rabbit in the headlights back then,” he said. “This week, I know people are cheering and I know it’s my first championship in five years, but I’ve got work to do and I’m sticking to my gun.”
Seriously inside the ropes and smiling outside of them, Southgate is back in his happy place.
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