NO PAIN, no gain has long since passed into the lexicon of sporting cliches, but for Sam Torrance the meaning will be all too real when he stands on the first tee at Royal Troon on Thursday. If Ayrshire's finest wants to break his Senior Open duck in
his home county, he will need to grimace and bear it.
Once a dominant force on the Seniors Tour as he topped the Seniors Order of Merit in 2005 and 2006, the mustachioed one has been a pale imitation of his former self this year, thanks largely to a degenerative hand injury that has blighted his campaign. So sore has it become that at one stage he wondered whether he would be able to complete any tournaments on the Seniors Tour. Only the belated intervention of an Auld Enemy has allowed him to arrive in Troon with a glimmer of hope for the first time this year.
"It's been absolutely horrific," said Torrance, "and it's been getting gradually worse for the past two years. The worst thing about it is that it's a muscle injury caused by wear and tear, so there's not much I can do about it. Physio helps but most of the time it needs rest, which is incredibly frustrating. It comes down between the two middle fingers, so if it's bad I just can't play. I suppose I'm just going to have to learn how to live with it, but it's really difficult to explain how painful it can be when it flares up."
Help may be at hand, however, thanks to a tip from Englishman Carl Mason. At the most recent Seniors Tour event in Russia, Torrance was struggling to stay the course before he was lent a wrist support by Mason. He felt no more pain from a hand which had been almost unbearably sore before that point. It has, he admitted, given him renewed hope as he contemplates a series of key Seniors Tour events.
Torrance will need to be on top form to have any chance of making an impact at Troon. This may be a course at which he has excelled in the past – his second best finish in a major, ninth place in 1976, came on the grand old Ayrshire links – yet not only has he never put in a realistic challenge in the Senior Open, but he also faces a stellar cast of opponents this time around.
For a start, Sandy Lyle, Bernard Langer and Ian Woosnam, three of the "Big Five" from the Eighties and Nineties, will be making their Senior Open debuts. Woosnam has been in majestic form this year, challenging in every Seniors Tour event and winning in Poland and Russia to lead the Seniors Order of Merit table. In addition it seems certain that there will be a strong challenge from a rejuvenated Greg Norman after an Open in which he was riding high after the second day. Tom Watson, who also belied his world ranking of 199 at Royal Birkdale, has won the ?1.5m first prize in three of the past five years and looks set to lead a powerful American contingent that includes Craig Stadler, Jay Haas and Hale Irwin.
Torrance, though, insists he is up for the challenge. In fact he says that he still has much to prove when it comes to the big events. A look through his record suggests he may be right: he has won 21 times on the European Tour and has nine Seniors Tour wins to his credit, the last coming in London in 2007, yet he has never threatened to make an impact at the very highest level. Despite playing in eight Ryder Cups, hitting the winning putt in 1985 at The Belfry and being the non-playing skipper of a winning side, also at The Belfry, in 2002, his record remains mixed in that competition, while in the Majors it is nowhere near as good as you'd expect for a player of his undoubted quality. That eighth place at Troon in 1976 was his second best finish after a fifth-place at Royal St George's in 1981, but after that there is little to shout about in an Open record that includes 12 missed cuts.
Torrance, though, reckons he knows exactly why he has underachieved on the biggest stages. "You could say I wasn't good enough because I'd say myself that I wasn't good enough!" he says, before ruminating on the real reason for his Majors failure. "Or if you were being charitable you could say that my problem was that I didn't play often enough in the American majors – I only played in the Masters three times, the USPGA six times and the US Open twice – so I wasn't used to that big-game pressure. Learning to live with that is a skill all in itself, a skill that guys who played more regularly in America got more chances to develop."
Torrance is, however, quietly hopeful that he can finally challenge front runners like Woosnam, Watson and Norman on level terms when it comes to this week's Senior Open in Troon.
"Troon is a wonderful course which has stood the test of time and which includes iconic spots like the Postage Stamp," he says, "but just as importantly it's a course where I tend to do well. I was ninth in the Open there and always seem to play well there. I don't know why, because it's not really a course that suits my game, but I've played there many times since I was a boy and invariably score pretty well there."
Torrance should certainly arrive in Troon in a relaxed mood. He will have come directly from a visit to his coach, mentor and father Bob up the Ayrshire coast in Largs, but it is his week working at the Open at Birkdale, a role which he says has proved to be an unexpected pleasure, which has put him a cheery frame of mind.
"If you'd had said to me 10 years ago that I'd be able to go to an Open and not play but enjoy it I'd have laughed in your face," he said. "But I've found a real vocation in commentating. It's not work to me: what could be better than sitting around talking about the game I love and which I know inside out? It's relaxing and fun and I get paid for it – perfect!
"And besides, this always had the potential to be a great Open simply because Tiger wasn't there. Jack Nicklaus dominated my era and I never thought I'd see a player like him again, but Tiger is another level altogether. He must be an enormous pain in the arse for the rest of the guys, but they all knew before the first round that this could be their big chance to win a Major. Sure the winner will always be the guy who won the Open when Tiger wasn't playing, but that won't matter to whoever lifts the Claret Jug."
Being at the Open also gave Torrance the chance to reacquaint himself with some of the Ryder Cup hopefuls for September's bunfight at Valhalla. Torrance has proved himself a master at Ryder Cup tactics, with his wildcard picks in particular proving spectacularly successful. Did he, I asked, have any tips for Ryder Cup skipper Nick Faldo? What should Faldo do about the Monty conundrum? Did he think that guys like Ross Fisher and Daniel Chopra who have won in America should be parachuted in?
Torrance stopped for a second and thought about my gaggle of questions. His reply was straight out of the commentators' straight-batting playbook. "I think he should be his own man. That is, after all, one of the best things in life you can be."
On second thoughts, it may not be that bad a mantra. It's served Torrance well enough for all these years.
SENIOR SERVICE AT TROONGREG NORMAN
After making such a startling impression at Birkdale, Norman will be back in competitive action on Thursday at the Senior Open Championship at Royal Troon. The two-time Open winner is still seeking his first major title in the over-50s category, and returning to Troon will conjure up some mixed emotions.
In the 1989 Open, the Great White Shark lost in a three-way play-off with eventual winner Mark Calcavecchia and fellow Australian Wayne Grady, after he made six consecutive birdies to shoot a course-record 64 in his final round to join the pair in the sudden-death decider.
Norman, 53, who lifted the Claret Jug in 1986 and 1993, is the only golfer in history to be Number One on both sides of the Atlantic, winning The European Tour Order of Merit in 1982 and topping the US PGA Tour Money list in 1986, 1990 and 1995.
This is only the second time Norman has played in the Senior Open Championship, after he finished third behind winner Tom Watson on his debut in 2005 at Royal Aberdeen.
TOM WATSON
No golfer has mastered Scottish links courses in the modern era like Watson. Four of his five Open triumphs came north of the Border, and the man from Kansas City took up where he left off when he joined the seniors circuit, winning the Senior Open in 2003 on the Ailsa course at Turnberry, in 2005 at Royal Aberdeen and last year at Muirfield.
Now 58, Watson can look on an illustrious career where he and Jack Nicklaus where kings of the game. As well as his five Opens between 1975 and 1983, Watson won three other majors; the Masters in 1977 and 1981, and the US Open in 1982. His best finish in the US PGA was second place in 1978.
SANDY LYLE
Pilloried for quitting midway through his first round at Birkdale this week, Lyle will look to atone at Troon where he will also obviously be hoping for more clement weather.
It is the Scot's first season on the Seniors circuit and Lyle has played in several events on the lucrative US Champions Tour. A double major winner, Lyle is aiming to become the first European winner of the Senior Open since the turn of the millennium.
IAN WOOSNAM
Woosnam, who won the Masters in 1991 and captained Europe to Ryder Cup victory in 2006, has made a superb start to his European Seniors Tour career after turning 50 in March and goes to Ayrshire as leader of the Order or Merit.
He clinched his maiden title at the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship and followed that by finishing runner-up on his homecoming at the Ryder Cup Wales Seniors Open before lifting his second trophy at the Russian Seniors Open at the European Seniors Tour's last tournament.
The Welshman is also confident that one of the European players can mount a strong challenge at Royal Troon.
BERNHARD LANGER
Germany's Langer, winner of the Masters in 1985 and 1993 and Ryder Cup winning captain in 2004, is challenging at the top of both the European Seniors Tour Order of Merit and the US Champions Tour Money List.
"I like to win any tournament I enter but the Senior Open Championship would be a very nice thing to have alongside my name," he said. "I will be trying very hard to have one Open title to my name, seeing as The Open Championship itself eluded me.
"Royal Troon is a very good golf course, a demanding golf course, and you have to hit the ball well. It just depends on the conditions whether it is bouncy or not. I remember playing with Tiger Woods there in the early stages of his career. It is a good links course where you have to avoid the bunkers and hit proper shots in the wind."
The full article contains 2010 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
