The Open 2011 - Roe

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JULY 2011 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM 1 THEOPEN ROYAL ST GEORGE // 10-17 JULY 2011 INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE GOLF IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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On the threshold of realising a boyhood dream in the 2003 Open Championship at a sun-kissed Royal St George’s, Mark Roe suffered one of the cruellest injustices in golf when his third-round score of 67 – a four under par effort witnessed by millions around the world – was disqualified on the grounds that Roe and his playing partner, Jesper Parnevik, had failed to exchange cards on the first tee. To his eternal credit, Roey accepted his fate with a grace rarely matched in all of sport. He shared his memories of that eventful Saturday with editor Richard Simmons

Transcript of The Open 2011 - Roe

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JULY 2011 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM 1

THEOPENROYAL ST GEORGE // 10-17 JULY 2011

INTERNATIONALMAGAZINE

GOLFIN ASSOCIATION WITH

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FEATURE MARK ROE

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JULY 201178

Sealed with a kiss: havingplayed the round of his life,England’s Mark Roe left the18th green on a high. Ten minutes later his dreamturned into a nightmare

On the threshold of realising a boyhood dream in the 2003 OpenChampionship at a sun-kissedRoyal St George’s, Mark Roe suffered one of the cruellest injustices in golf when his third-round score of 67 – a fourunder par effort witnessed by millions around the world – was disqualified on the grounds that Roe and his playing partner, Jesper Parnevik, had failed to exchange cards on the first tee. To his eternal credit, Roey acceptedhis fate with a grace rarely matchedin all of sport. He shared his memories of that eventful Saturdaywith editor Richard Simmons

KEEPCALM

CARRY ON

AND

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Gi: Let’s rewind to Saturday July 19, Royal St George’s...

MR: I’d battled hard to make the cut with a 70 on Friday for a

total of 147. Funnily enough, that second round contained

signs that something special was happening. I started

3,3,3,3,3,3 – six threes out of the blocks. I think I had a putt on

the 7th for another three and I’m thinking, ‘I wonder if anyone

has ever started the Open with seven threes...’. Totally lost my

focus and missed it, obviously. But made the cut OK, and that’s

always the primary goal at the Open. I just remember thinking

that everything just felt right that week – it all just suited my

eye. I liked the way the course was running, hard and fast, you

had to land the ball 30 yards or so short of the green. The put-

ter felt good. Silly things you remember – like on the practice

green the holes just looked to be beautifully cut, inviting. I love

the atmosphere at the Open and felt good about my game.

Gi: So you’ve achieved your first goal – making the cut –

and now you’re revved up for the weekend?

MR: Absolutely. And as was typical for me I was on the 1st tee

in good time on Saturday. I always liked to have a chat with

Ivor [Robson, the starter]. After a couple of minutes I’m think-

ing ‘Where’s Jesper?’. I’ve just seen him on the putting green.

He was cutting it fine. Ivor’s given me my scorecard, which was

always the protocol on the 1st tee. Ivor hands you your card

and you exchange and so on. Anyway, Jesper eventually arrives

and it’s all a bit of a rush. ‘Sorry Roey, been to the loo.’ Ivor an-

nounces us onto the tee and we hit. There was hardly time to

shake hands. We just banged it down towards the fairway and

we were off.

Gi: Jesper wasn’t in for the best of Saturdays?

MR: After all that rushing around he got off to a poor start – in

fact we both did, five apiece at the 1st. I have the original cards

right here [produces them from his desk]. There you go – I

made a three at the 2nd and settled myself. Jesper parred two

and three, and then the thing I remember quite clearly is that

at the 4th I knocked it on in two and three-putted and he has

missed it short and right, then pitched up to about 30 feet and

canned it for a birdie. The hole was a par-five then. I three-

putted for a par. So he’s basically up-and-downed it from the

bundi to make a four and I’ve played two great shots and

walked off with a five. Anyway we carry on...he bogeys six,

eight and nine while I birdied 7 to be out in 35, one under. I

then started to get hot on the back nine: birdied 10 and then

holed my second shot at 13, the slinging right-to-left dogleg. It

was only a sand-iron – 114 yards, one bounce and in. I can re-

member standing in the fairway raising my arms and thinking,

‘Wow, this is now turning into something special’. I was four

under for the round. And the course is playing tough.

Gi: Presumably you're on the leaderboard by now?

MR: On it? I’m on top of the leaderborard. I pick the ball out of

the hole at 13 and see my name being put up there – leading

the Open Championship. In the meantime, things were going

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bad to worse for Jesper, who has bogeyed 10, 13, doubled 14,

bogeyed 15. As I am closing out my round, feeling so calm,

which was unbelievable, I remember coming down 18 and hit-

ting a lovely shot to the green, while Jesper has gone through

the green and OOB. He had to go back to hit another. I’m there

standing on the green looking at a putt for a 66, a putt that

could well see me leading overnight. He’s taking forever. Any-

way, he makes a six and I miss the putt and tap in for a 67. I

remember thinking that’s one of the best rounds of golf I’ve

ever played. I looked and blew three kisses to the camera – one

for my wife Julia and one each for the girls.

Gi: What are your recollections of the next five minutes?

MR: I remember walking to the scorer’s hut and on the way

asking Jesper what he had taken at 18 – a six for a back nine of

43. It had been a horrible day for him. Then I called over the

lady scorer who had walked with us and asked her to go

through my card – because I am not making a mistake today.

This is one of the best rounds of my life and I’m not taking any

chances. A chance of winning the Open. No mistakes. As you

can see on the scorecard, I ticked off my scores as she ran

through her own account. Check, check, check....all 18 holes.

Done. So I know the numbers are right and they add up to 67.

I’ve been through them a thousand times. All I’m focusing on

is the score along the bottom of the card.

Gi: So you've checked it, double checked it, and signed it?

MR: Yep, been through it now at least a million times. And at

this point I hand the card to first scoring official in the scorer's

office. Blue blazer and red rosette, usual drill. He checks it and

puts a black tick on the card next to the totals (look, you can

see the marks right here!) and then passes it to the second

scoring official. He looks through it, and then says: ‘35 - 32 –

congratulations Mr Roe, excellent round of golf, you are free to

go.’ So that’s it. The scorecard’s in. I stand up – ‘Sorry you’ve

had a crap day Jesper’ – and I’m out of there to talk to the

media, Hazel Irvine and the BBC, ESPN, the lot. Just after the

first round of interviews someone comes over and tells me I’m

wanted back in the scorer’s hut. Apparently there’s a problem.

Gi: And your immediate reaction is?

MR: I’m as calm as you like. It’s not me. I’m thinking there

must be a mistake on Jesper’s card – after all I can still hear the

second official scorer’s words ringing in my ears: ‘35-32 – con-

gratulations, Mr Roe, excellent round of golf, you are free to

go’. So it isn’t me. So now I know I’ve made a mistake some-

where on Jesper’s card. He’s taken 81 shots so I’m thinking (a)

I’m going to have to apologise, but (b) you know what, he shot

81, he’s not going to be all that bothered about it. I go in and

there’s David Pepper, chief Rules official. I look at Jesper and

say ‘What’s up – have I made a mistake?’ He didn’t look up: ‘It’s

worse than that Roey’, he said. I looked down at the two cards

sitting there on the table and I see it straight away – the names

in the top left-hand corner of the card don’t tally with the

scores. It’s staring me in the face. “Shit, how have I done that?”

It all flashed back: the rush on the 1st tee, taking the card and

stuffing it in the ball pocket on the bag without thinking. Not

exchanging cards and I’ve signed for an 81. My brain’s going at

a million miles an hour and I’m thinking, ‘Hang on, he’s played

so poorly he hasn’t improved my score on any hole...but one.

The 4th, where he holed across the green for a four. That’s the

only hole he beat me on. Otherwise I could have signed for an

81 and played on. The lady from the BBC was in tears. David

Pepper was trying to find the words. ‘We have looked through

the Rules of Golf to find anything that gives us a way out of

this but we can’t,’ he said. I walked outside and then had to go

and face the BBC for a second time and then the media in the

press centre. All of that time I just kept telling myself to react

and behave in a way that would make my mum, dad and fam-

ily proud of me. Too many people kick and scream and make

excuses in sport.

Gi: I think you’d have every right to kick and scream given

the circumstances? What is the point of two officials check-

ing a card if they don't look at the rudimentary details?

MR: Well, the thing is at the time it’s all happening around you

FEATURE MARK ROE

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JULY 201180

Clockwise from left: Ernie and his son Ben enjoy the spotlight at theEls for Autism Charity Pro-Am, held annually near Ernie’s new homein Florida; with wife Liezl and manager Chubby Chandler at theWGC/CA Championship; Ben hops in delight as dad works on hisdriving

The numbers add up...but thename’s and scores on the originalcards don’t tally. While JesperParnevik endured a torrid Saturday on the Kent coast, MarkRoe shot the low round of theweek, a 67 for a three-round totalof 214, which should have puthim in the penultimate match onSunday, playing with Tiger Woods.Should have, but didn’t

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and you try to handle it in the best way you can.

Gi: Fair enough, but if either of the officials had spotted a

mistake they could have corrected it?

MR: Yeah, that’s all it needed. And I would have been playing

with Tiger Woods on the Sunday. It’s Boy’s Own stuff. I might

have shot 70 and won the Open, who knows. Or I might have

blown it and shot 80. As it was I had to pack my suitcase and

drive home to Bookham. I stopped in the local off-licence,

bought a bottle of champagne because all I wanted to do was

get drunk. Julia didn’t know what to say to me. But she was

brilliant. I basically just drank myself to sleep that night.

Gi: Could you bring yourself to watch the final round?

MR: I watched the last hour or so, came in just as Thomas Bjorn

was imploding in the bunker at 16. And what happens at the

end of it all? A total unknown – Ben Curtis – wins the Open.

That’s when it really hit me hard. I could have been that un-

known who won the Open. My 67 was the lowest round of the

week – nobody shot lower. Who knows? As it was I just went up-

stairs and cried my eyes out. You work your whole life as a pro-

fessional golfer for that one chance – great players have more

than one chance. But a golfer of my calibre, that one opportu-

nity, every child’s dream: this for the Open. I know the Rules are

there to protect the game, but I felt robbed of the opportunity.

The R&A provides scoring officials – one walks with every game.

Are they your scoring officials? Yes they are. They are employed

for the week by the R&A as scoring officials. The two of them

checked the card, ticked it, and both confirmed my score. If a

Rules official on the course gives a ruling that is later proved

wrong, the Ruling stands. So afterwards, that thought crossed

my mind and I think that’s why the Rule was changed some

three years later. They have changed it to say the name at the

top doesn’t matter, as long as you have signed for the correct

score on the card. I actually had a very nice phone call from

David Rickman at the R&A to say for what it’s worth we can’t

take you back to St George’s, but the way you handled it all was

exemplary, and you should be proud of the fact that no one will

go through that again. [As a footnote to this whole episode, a

high-ranking rules official in America emailed Roe’s manage-

ment company to say the same thing had happened at the Mas-

ters and the Masters committee put a line through the two

names on the card and the players concerned carried on.]

Gi: Even if they [the R&A] had found a loophole you would

have been placed in the invidious position of possibly playing

on Sunday knowing that a rule had, possibly, been infringed?

MR: Absolutely right. Somebody asked me this very recently.

Would I have felt comfortable playing in the final round of the

Open with Tiger Woods knowing that the Rule had been broken

and that a sub-ruling had been found to enable me to continue?

Well, it’s a simple answer: No, I couldn’t have played. I would

have to have said ‘Look guys, great gesture but I cannot play on

like that’... my respect for the Rules wouldn’t allow it. But if

they had come back to me with an official line and Rule that en-

abled me to continue I would have played.

Gi: Did the events of 2003 accelerate your plans for retire-

ment in 2006?

MR: No, not at all. I carried on and played and enjoyed the tour-

naments and years after that. But I’d always promised myself

that as soon as I began to resent the taxi ride to the airport on a

Tuesday morning to the airport, that’s when I would call it a

day. If I stopped wanting to give it 100%. My passion for the

lifestyle had just gone out of it. The girls were growing up. I’d

played for 22 years and played 520-odd tournaments. I wanted

a change – I wasn’t sure what that change was but media was

certainly one avenue. I knew I had to stay in touch with the

game I’d been passionate about since the age of 13. So it had to

be within the framework of the game. When I did retire at the

Dunhill Links Championship in 2006 – it was always my dream

to retire at St Andrews – I finished with a 67.

Gi: That’s something of a coincidence....

MR: Yeah, isn’t it just? Once I make a decision I stick to it. I

have never once thought of going back. I was contacted by Se-

tanta Sports on the Monday after I’ve finished playing. They

had just bought rights to the PGA Tour golf and so I talked to

them for a while. But in the end I chose to go with Sky Sports

because I really like the team they had put together and I had

worked with them before. They always looked after me tremen-

dously well as a guest, their facilities were marvellous and they

offered me a contract. It’s a job I love, I work hard at it and try

to give 100% every time I go in.

Gi: What’s the best aspect of it?

MR: I like the whole process, whether in the studio or behind

the microphone. It’s a job you work at and grow in to with ex-

perience. I’m much more comfortable now than I was in the

early days. I still do a lot of research, try to keep myself ahead

of the game, which you have to. And the coaching side of

things has helped me because I am in touch with the players at

grass roots level. I know what’s going on.

Gi: Is there an edge between you and Butch [Harmon]? There

has been some fantastic jousting between the two of you,

particularly during the Ryder Cup?

MR: No, I get on great with Butch and think the world of him. I

love working with him. That piece to camera, when we were

speculating on the singles line-ups at the Ryder Cup on what

amounted to a giant iPad, was great fun and we loved doing it.

Once the cameras are off us we kill ourselves laughing. The

Ryder Cup was a crazy week, incredible viewing. I think it’s

wonderful that we now have the Masters and Sky do golf so

well. Better than anyone. From the editing, the opening and

closing sequences to the team’s knowledge and passion for the

game, they are the best in the world. For me, head and shoul-

ders above all of the other networks.

Gi: Take Peter Alliss out of the equation and it’s increasingly

difficult to see what the BBC have left to offer regarding cov-

erage of golf.

MR: Peter is an icon, we all know that. He has the voice that is

synonymous with BBC golf, he’s a wonderful narrator and ter-

rific commentator full stop. But he’s not in touch with the game

today. People at home watching are not stupid and they love

their golf. They want to know some inside knowledge, they

want to know details on each player, they want to feel like they

are a part of the action, not listen to stories about ducks on the

pond, kids eating ice creams and so on. That’s all nice and adds

colour. But you know what, it’s about the golf. And the viewers

want to watch and learn about golf.

FEATURE MARK ROE

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JULY 201182

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Gi: You had a great short game as a player – was that some-

thing you were particularly aware of?

MR: Like most professional golfers, you just do it. I spent the

bulk of my time as a kid growing up on the chipping and put-

ting green. I would spend all day at Hallowes Golf Club, near

Sheffield. There was a big stone gatepost near the green and I’d

take my flask and sandwiches and I sit my picnic on the post

and settle in for the day learning how to chip and putt. I spent

my life on and around that green – in the bushes, in the thick

grasses, the bunkers. You don’t think about it, you just do it.

Out on tour I knew that I had this skill, I could see the right

shot and found it relatively easy to do. My short game never let

me down. A good friend in the States once called me up and

said: ‘You know what, for the last three years you’ve been the

best bunker player in the world.’ He followed all the stats on all

the tours wordwide. I hadn’t even thought about it.

Gi: How did the coaching career come about?

MR: By accident, really. I was in media, happy as could be. It

was up at the Scottish Open and I walked into the locker room

and there was Lee Westwood. I had been commentating with

Ewen [Murray] up in the box. I told Lee that I had been watching

him and that he was very close to swinging it like he did in

2000/1. He said: ‘Yeah, but I can’t chip, can I? If I could chip

like you I’d be alright.’ I told him that he’d never chip like me

and walked away! He then came after me and said, ‘No, I’m seri-

ous, can you give me a chipping lesson?’. Anyway we arranged

to meet up at Carnoustie on the Tuesday of the Open. This was

2007. And I remember thinking to myself, ‘Why the hell did you

agree to do that? You are talking to

one of the best players in the world

and now you have to think about

what you did and how you can

help.’ So I spent the best part of

the next week with a wedge in my

hands just trying to figure out my

chipping. Anyway, I arrived

at Carnoustie and I was

bloody nervous, to be

honest with you. I

watched Lee hit a

few shots, told

him what I

thought, gave him the reasons why he didn’t control the flight

and the spin of the ball, and outlined why he was limited, tech-

nically, in skills of spinning the ball. Almost straight away he

began to see thuings differently.

Gi: Is it awkward when a player has a different long-game

coach – in Lee’s case a long relationship with Pete Cowen?

MR: Lee has been coached off and on by Pete over the years,

and he is a magnificent long-game coach. I knew him as a

player on tour, a great ball striker. But he was not a great chip-

per or putter. That’s the way I saw it, anyway; we each have our

own area of expertise. And a wonderful knowledge of the long

game doesn’t mean he knows the short game. Equally, I can cat-

egorically state that I do not get involved in the full swing – I

leave that to people like Pete and my Sky Sports colleague

Denis Pugh, another swing coach I rate as one of the best in the

world. But here’s the quote on my website – “It was a eureka

moment.” - Lee Westwood. After an hour I had asked him for his

thoughts on what we had discussed and he told me it was the

best short-game lesson he’d ever had. I thought he was taking

the piss, but he meant it. In fact, he asked if we could do an-

other half-hour. We went to a spot a few feet below the level of

the green, and he was pitching up – six or seven feet up – and

spinning it for fun. I’d never seen Lee do that before. I knew the

information I’d given him was good. And he knew it, too. The

rest of that week he kept coming up to me saying, ‘You

wouldn’t believe the shot I played here or the up and down I

made there.’ We worked together for about a year and a half. I

knew that I could not make Lee a more prolific winner, because

he was already a prolific winner. But I believed – and still do –

that the improvement in his short game could help him win a

first major. The lovely thing about short-game coaching is it’s

an art form. Once you have given someone the basic technical

skills, it’s about teaching them how to address all situations

defined by lie and slope. As their technical prowess im-

proves, so their visualisation changes, because they see shots

differently. I should add that one of the important elements of

what I do is that I demonstrate all of these skills. I can still beat

most of my players on the chipping green. Not all the time. I

think Francesco Molinari has beaten me twice in seven months.

And when he does he’s high-fiving all around the green. Com-

petition is important because a player has to be comfortable

under pressure. Ross Fisher I rarely beat now. He’s exceptional.

Gi: Why did you and Lee part company?

MR: I still don’t really understand it. I had been up to see him at

his house, where he has a fantastic short-game area, and we had

a good session. We finished off pitching short-sided over a

bunker and he holed out to win a fiver. He texted me as I was

driving home – great session, etc. This was in ’09, and the follow-

ing week I called to ask what his plans were coming down to the

PGA at Wentworth. His reply knocked me sideways – he said

thanks for everything, really appreciate it but feel a bit un-

comfortable with one or two things, let’s have a break for a

while. It felt like someone had hit me on the back of the

head with a baseball bat. Don’t get me wrong, the

friendship is still there, always will be. But I

couldn’t understand it. Everyone

in the game was remark-

ing on how he

THEOPENROYAL ST GEORGE // 10-17 JULY 2011

As a short-game coach, Roehas forged a reputation for ex-cellence – here with England’sRoss Fisher, one of a growingband of tour players eager toimprove in the one area of thegame guaranteed to producelower scores

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FEATURE MARK ROE

GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JULY 201184

was finally getting his short game to match his long game. He

went from 56th in the world to 8th. What I didn’t know at the

time was that after not working with Pete [Cowen] for a few

years he had gone back to him. I don’t know for sure. One thing I

do know is that Lee’s long game is now about as good as it gets –

Pete has taken him back to where his swing was in 2000-1. But I

think I can be very honest about this and say his short game has

not gone forward with it. I feel for me there was a job unfinished.

But I thank Lee just about every day because out of that experi-

ence working with him I created The Art of the Short Game, my

coaching business. Next up was Richard Finch, who, at 129th in

the Order of Merit was on his way to losing his card. We did a lit-

tle work, he kept his card, and within seven months had won the

New Zealand and the Irish Open and was 10th in the OOM with a

million euros. I’ve watched Ross [Fisher] win the European Open

at the London Club by seven shots – his short game was stun-

ning that week. Nicolas Colsearts is another, and I’ve just started

working with Justin Rose, which is exciting. And I truly get more

pleasure coaching than I did playing the game of golf.

Gi: You were pretty close to Seve in your 21 years on tour.

Tell me about his influence and impact.

MR: I was 13 and had just started playing golf when Seve hit

that chip shot through the bunkers at Royal Birkdale in 1976.

He captured my imagination – along with that of just about

every kid in the world who saw him that week. Around that

chipping green at Hallowes I would ask myself, ‘What would

Seve do here?’ And, like I’ve said, it was my short game that en-

abled me to achive what I have in golf. It wasn’t easy. I went to

Tour School four times before I eventually made it through in

1985. Those were golden days on the European Tour and I can

remember the first time I played with Seve. It was the Dutch

Open at Hilversum. When I put my score in for the third round

I noticed I was tied on the same total as Seve, so there was a

chance I might be paired with him on Sunday. Sure enough, the

draw broke my way. I barely slept that night, arrived at the

course early to prepare. I can remember telling myself not to let

him see how nervous I was. Getting the ball on the peg on the

1st tee was a trial in itself, my hands were shaking that much. I

made a horribly quick swing and prayed for some sort of con-

tact. It was all a blur. Seve hit off and I can remember not know-

ing whether to walk with him or let him go and walk behind. I

decided to walk ahead, slowly. And then I felt his presence at

my side, shoulder to shoulder, and he says: ‘It’s no easy playing

with me, huh?’. That’s all it took to break the ice. When we

came to the 18th we were level and I had a putt of 10 feet or so

to finish one ahead and third in the Dutch Open. I knocked it

three feet by and then missed the return. Meltdown in front of

my hero – not to mention costing me what was a fortune in

those days. ‘You play well,’ Seve said, putting his arm round me

as we left the green. ‘It’s OK, There will be many more three

putts in your career, but you will be a good player.’ That was

Seve for you. He went out of his way to make you feel better.

Gi: Remind me of the Augusta practice round.

MR: I played nine holes with Seve in practice at an Open, I think

it was ’93 at Lytham, and he started talking about Augusta. He

started telling me just how brilliant it all was – you could tell he

was enthralled with the place. ‘When you get there,’ he said, ‘we

play a practice round.’ Anyway, in 1995 I finished in the top-15

in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, leading European. That got

me into the Masters. The invitation came through on Christmas

Eve. So off I went in 1996. I arrived at the course early on the

Sunday, walked out to the range mid-morning and who is there

hitting balls but Seve. He wanders over. ‘You remember, I prom-

ised you a practice round – we go?’ And we played 18 holes to-

gether at Augusta, no crowds at all – they were not allowed in

until Monday – and so it was a unique atmosphere. And that

round of golf will live forever as the greatest moment of my

life. Without doubt the fondest memory in the game of golf. He

challenged me to play all of the shots around the green and I

held my own. He was a genius. Generous to a fault.

Gi: To be in his company makes you feel something special.

MR: David Feherty summed it up as well as anyone in the Euro-

pean Tour’s tribute Hasta Siempre Seve.... He was recounting

the Ryder Cup at Valderrama, and it’s worth repeating:

“I remember looking at Seve in the team room at the 1991 Ryder

Cup and thinking to myself that he seemed physically smaller

than when I saw him on the golf course or on television. Any

other week other than the the Ryder Cup, he didn’t know me very

well. But that one week he cared so much that he went out of his

way to make me feel like I was a friend of his. I only realised in

retrospect that it wasn’t that he looked smaller – it was that he

made me feel bigger.” - David Feherty

That, for me, is always the way I always felt around Seve.

Playing or talking golf with Seve, he made me feel like a giant.

www.theartoftheshortgame.co.uk

Mark Roe is a studio analyst and commentator

for Sky Sports HD. During the Open at Sandwich

he is commentating for Radio 5 Live.

A splash of genius:nowhere more so than atAugusta was Seve’s short-game magic a thrill to be-hold – especially for thoselucky enough to accom-pany the master on a tourof Mackenzie’s layout

Page 9: The Open 2011 - Roe

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