Fulfilment? Some golfers have come close by finishing second-best

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Scottie Scheffler's existential ponderings earlier this week have got everyone talking. Or, more accurate to say that they have prompted the media here to ask every other player for their own ponderings on golf and the meaning of life.
'What's the point?' asked the world No.1 rhetorically when trying to explain how the game is not the centre of a universe that for him revolves around his family and his faith. It was an honest and open few minutes, if not an interaction he might regret.
Padraig Harrington suggested as much, the Irishman warning that Scheffler's Open press conference would be used against him in the future whenever he comes up shy of any goal. You would hope not but, well, Harrington may have a point.
The American's deep delve into the human soul actually brought to mind Charlie Sheen's character Chris in the movie Platoon: the college kid who volunteered to serve in Vietnam and wondered why it was that the poor kids were the ones always sent to war.
'Shiiit,' his buddy King said. 'You gotta be rich in the first place to think like that.'
There must be dozens of golfers here in Portrush this week who would gladly step into Scheffler's shoes. Or those of Rory McIlroy who spoke on Monday of the game's 'hamster wheel' when asked again about his struggles post-Augusta.
That's not being bitchy, it's just human nature.
Justin Rose has been to the top of the mountain. A former world No.1, the Englishman claimed a US Open title back in 2012, but there were six top tens in majors prior to that and another 16 piled on top of it since. He understands struggle.
Think of his loss to McIlroy at the Masters three months ago, and a similar playoff agony in 2017 when Sergio Garcia ended his years of suffering by claiming the green jacket. Or Royal Troon last year when Rose played as well as anyone but fell two short of Xander Schauffele.
For him, the road is reward in itself. It has to be.
'That's still to this day what keeps me going, really just kind of be better tomorrow as a person and as a golfer than I am today, and that's enough. Obviously you want it to manifest into tournament wins and ticking off your goals and your dreams, but really the journey and the process of getting there is where you have to try to find the enjoyment.'
Some people see a light in near-death experiences. Rose came so close to winning at Augusta that he could almost feel what it is like to win a Masters before a sense of deja-vu took hold when McIlroy, like Garcia before him, rolled in the winning putt.
Digesting that hasn't been straightforward but this is a player who, at the age of 44, continues to grind and eke out the 1% gains that could make the difference and comfort comes with the knowledge that he did all he could at the Masters.
In the build-up and on the day.
'Obviously you've got to look inward and understand how is there anything I could have done better in the moment? But, really, I hit two great shots into 18 myself, and the outcome was what it was.'
Rose has been inundated with praise and sympathy in the weeks since but if there are ways to lose out on a major title then playing your very best golf and coming second-best by the cruellest of margins may be actually a kinder way to do it.
Golf is littered with stories of men who crumbled at the wrong time. Think of McIlroy's collapses at Augusta in 2011 and in the US Open at Pinehurst. Shane Lowry spilling a four-shot lead at the US in Oakmont.
That's just the Irish. What about Greg Norman at the Masters in 1996? Jean van de Velde at Carnoustie three years later. Adam Scott carding four closing birdies at Royal Lytham 12 years ago when he had a three-shot lead.
If you're going to be frustrated then it's probably best not to have them mix in a cocktail with regrets. Like Rose, Robert MacIntyre has been able to step back from his own near miss and be comforted by what he surveyed.
The Scot posted a superb 68 on the final day of this year's US Open at Oakmont where conditions and the course itself made for an utterly brutal test. Clubhouse leader coming off the 18th, he could only look on from the scorer's hut as JJ Spaun squeezed by.
'I thought it was an absolutely brilliant effort,' said MacIntyre.
'When I finished, I thought if someone beats that, fair play, and JJ played better during the week. For me, that's as good a performance as I can put in a round on probably the hardest golf course on the planet that we play.'
No regrets. Not many can say that.