Down the road from me this so I'm looking forward to it. Great for the area and weather pending it should be a great week.
To make it even more interesting my mate Singo has only gone and qualified. He's been getting some decent coverage in the press but I like this one because of where it's coming from.
I'll be there following him on Thursday. Be amazing if he made the cut:
British Open 2014: John Singleton Lives His Fantasy as Golf’s Walter MittyHOYLAKE, England — In a break from his routine, John Singleton took his fiancée’s 6-year-old son to school Monday morning. It was his best drive of the day, at least until he arrived at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, a few miles from his home, and split the fairway with his first tee shot as one of his playing competitors, Darren Clarke, looked on.
Singleton, 30, is the Walter Mitty of golf, a mild-mannered man with a blue-collar job whose fantasy of competing against the best players in the world will become a reality this week when he participates in the 143rd British Open.
The last time the tournament was held here, in 2006, Singleton made it to the weekend — as a beer-guzzling spectator. Singleton, whose promising golf career was derailed by two knee operations, attended the third round, though his recollections are fuzzy.
“I got really drunk in the beer garden just to drown my sorrows,” he said, laughing.
Singleton forgot to enter qualifying for the tournament in 2006. He was living in the United States at the time, and the deadline slipped his mind. Eyeing a career in golf, Singleton had left England to attend Rend Lake College, a two-year college in Illinois.
As a sophomore in 2005, Singleton led the golf team to a second-place finish, its best ever, at the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II championship.
“That’s where I really improved as a golfer,” Singleton said of Rend Lake.
For a few years after his graduation, Singleton remained in the United States. When he returned to England in 2010, he left his golf dreams of grandeur behind.
Needing to support himself, his partner, Lucy Johnson, and her son, Theo, Singleton took a factory job two years ago as a production operator with a varnish-and-resin company in nearby Birkenhead.
“It was a last-ditch thing,” Singleton said. “I needed a job quickly.”
Referring to his golf career, he added, “Obviously, I thought that would be the end of it.”
There were mornings, Singleton said, when he struggled to make it to work on time. For much of his life, the promise of a day spent communing with nature on the golf course had been his motivation for getting out of bed. At the factory he found himself staring out the front door when the weather was nice, longing to be out on a golf course.
His shift starts at 8, which precludes him from spending time with Theo in the mornings, Singleton said. He gets off at 4:30. Last year Johnson, who is pregnant with their first child together, suggested Singleton resurrect his competitive career. She could see that he had unfinished business in golf.
“To me, that was quite a huge moment,” said Singleton, who began practicing after his shift and came up with the mantra “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”
He added: “I needed to get into the mind-set that failure is O.K. Because it is O.K. People fail all the time. It’s how you bounce back from it that matters.”
Singleton sent in his entry for regional qualifying for the Open, where he used his father as his caddie and fell short in a playoff. Or so he thought until he received a call saying he had advanced to the final 36-hole qualifier at Hillside Golf Club in Southport as a reserve. After opening with a 72, Singleton posted a course-record 66 in the afternoon and survived a playoff to earn an Open berth.
There was one remaining hurdle. Could he get the time off work?
Singleton’s employer, Advanced Electrical Varnishes, generously offered him two weeks off with pay so he could sharpen his game. His fellow workers were given an extra day off, which they can take Thursday to cheer Singleton on with tickets purchased by the company, or use later.
“I think it’s an amazing gesture by them,” Singleton said. “Obviously, it just shows how much they support me.”
He added, “That’s a little bit of pressure, because if I top it off the first tee, I’m going to be in real trouble, aren’t I?”
Richard Tweddle, Singleton’s supervisor and occasional weekend golf partner, said several employees planned to attend the tournament.
“I spoke to one man on Friday,” Tweddle said Monday by phone, “and he said, ‘I’m buzzing for John.’ That’s the word he used. I thought, ‘That’s nice.’ ”
The person traveling the farthest to join Singleton’s gallery is Dave Smith, his coach at Rend Lake.
“I can’t believe he’s coming all the way over here to watch me,” Singleton said.
Singleton has a new wardrobe this week, including shirts with a patch for Scottsdale Golf, a sponsor he picked up since earning his British Open berth.
“They’re giving me all my clothes because I obviously didn’t have any,” he said.
On his way to the first tee, Singleton was stopped by an autograph seeker.
“Got to get used to this, I guess,” he said cheerfully as he signed a pin flag.
Clarke, the 2011 British Open champion, was a late addition to Singleton’s practice group. When Clarke showed up at the tee box, Singleton’s golf mate, John Mallion, who was watching Singleton with a few other golf buddies in tow, could not believe it.
“Fancy that,” he said.
Martin Kaymer, who won the United States Open last month, watched Singleton tee off on the second. Was Singleton nervous?
“I was too busy looking at Darren Clarke,” he said.
Peter Uihlein, a 24-year-old American who is grouped with Singleton for the first two rounds and practiced beside him Monday, marveled at Singleton’s story.
“It is awesome,” he said. “You can’t make that up.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/sports/golf/british-open-2014-john-singleton-lives-his-fantasy-as-golfs-walter-mitty.html?_r=0