Rain or shine – it’s all in the game

You’ll have to forgive me for the lack of specific scientific explanation, but the human brain is conditioned to forget things for self-preservation. If you don’t believe me, Google it – plenty of respected people with all sorts of letters after their names agree.

Anyway, why am I writing this? Because, huddled under an umbrella as the rain lashed down at a 45-degree angle on Saturday afternoon at Galgorm Castle, it flashed through my mind.

The relentless rain was no anomaly, of course. It’s practically a tradition in Irish golf for the weather to become one of the focal talking points and to test the players resolve every bit as much as the golf course they are playing.

Standing just in front of me at the time were Ian Woosnam and Peter Baker, both of whom were huddled under umbrellas of their own, and looking thoroughly miserable. To be fair to them, it was hard not to. After one of the best summers in recent memory, Saturday’s weather at the Black Desert NI Legends, as Murphy’s Law dictates, was always coming.

Once the rain started, it only ever briefly stopped, and because you can’t play shots and hold an umbrella at the same time, most of the players resembled drowned rats as they trudged in and out of the scoring hut after their days were done, exchanging grimaces and shakes of the head as they passed each other in states bordering on post-traumatic shock.

When you’ve been playing professional golf as long as Woosnam and Baker have, you get these days every now and then – and those every now and thens are usually during an event in Ireland.

Both of these have spoken in length about how much they love playing golf here. They’ve both won tournaments on the island, and they always reference the people, the golf courses, the knowledgeable fans, and the golfing tradition, but there’s one thing that never gets mentioned – the weather.

South African, James Kingston and his caddie share an umbrella (Photo: Mike Hyde/Legends Tour)

Of course, it’s not always like this. For most of this year’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush, the weather played ball, but who can forget Shane Lowry’s sodden victories at Baltray in 2009 and at Portrush in 2019? Who can forget Woosnam’s own crowning Ryder Cup moment as the winning captain at an even more sodden K Club in 2006? Who can forget players donning woolen caps and in early-July for the Arnold Palmer Cup at Lahinch?

We could go on and on, but I’ll tell you who can forget. The players, that’s who. They forget because they have to, because they need to, because focusing on the winds and rains of past experiences is not conducive to having a positive mindset going into a tournament.

But, huddled under an umbrella on the third tee, the wind in your face and 16 holes to go, it’s like a hypnotist has tapped into the recesses of your mind and it all comes flooding back. You’re allowed to look thoroughly miserable right then. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t.

But that’s the game. You take the good with the bad, the rough with the smooth, the sunshine with the torrential rain, and what makes these players legends in more ways than one is their ability to push through those barriers and to still put on a fantastic spectacle and an excellent tournament.

As we watch them soldier on at Galgorm Castle, you’re reminded that the weather is just another part of the challenge. And one that’s easily forgotten.