The Open

If pressed I would nominate the Open golf as my favourite annual sports event. Please note it is THE Open not the British Open.

Years ago I used to book the first two days of the championship off from work and hide myself away at Bert's house in Handsworth with a store of Indian food and a stash of beer. The first two days are the best - eleven hours of coverage each day. I like the final two days as well but more so if someone I like is in contention. Those I have rooted for are a disparate bunch, including the boorish but brilliant Faldo and the plain brilliant Ballesteros. There was a genuinely moving little feature about Seve on the tele last night. He is fighting a brain tumour but retains his charisma and sheer charm. 

There has been little logic to my choice of golfers to support. As I have said I was always a Faldo fan despite his ill manners and gaucheness. There was something magnificently un-British about him in his single-minded pursuit of success. As a mantra I have always liked the old Oakland Raiders cliche 'Commitment to Excellence' and Faldo epitomised that. Quite why then I do not take to the even more competent Woods is puzzling but I think it has something to do with his cynical cultivation of an image, not something that one could ever accuse Faldo of doing. Faldo was rather of the Millwall FC school of PR - 'noone likes us, we don't care.' These days my eye first turns to the score of Paul Casey. He gives the ball an unearthly smack, walks after it, finds it and then smacks it again. Cool way of playing. My own method is to give the ball an ill-tempered smack, walk after it, fail to find it and give up in a foul temper. Uncool. Not that I actually play much these days. Golf has become something I watch and talk about. Last week I even chose not to play in the annual AOE v CHOE match which I had a hand in organising. I love the game but it has never loved me and somehow I can always find something better to do. At the moment my twin obsessions are running and reading. The running goes well by the standards of an elderly arthritic. I ran for forty minutes last week for the first time in years and repeated the dose a couple of days ago.

I am closeted away in Anglesey on my own for the duration of the golf and I am feeling pretty good at present, having been out for a run this morning and hit the bottle (chardonnay I found in the fridge) by 10.30. Bloody students.