HOYLAKE, ENGLAND | Matthew Southgate’s life had been defined by Open week.
That’s a line you might expect to be written about a multiple winner of the Claret Jug or maybe a surprise champion such as Todd Hamilton or Ben Curtis. Maybe not about a 13-year pro who is yet to win on the DP World Tour, however, and yet it’s entirely true.
On Friday, the 34-year-old Englishman chipped in for an eagle at Royal Liverpool’s par-5 18th hole to complete a second round of 70, good enough for a 36-hole total of 1-under 141 and a share of 11th place.
The smile that has been on his face all week was wider than ever because for the first time since 2018 he was back playing in a championship that means the world to him.
“It’s my favourite week of the year, and always has been,” he said. “I’d like to be part of the Open in any way, shape or form every day until the day I die, if possible.
“It’s an absolute privilege to be playing in it and playing well. But if all else fails, I’m more than happy to walk ’round with a scoreboard or a radio microphone because it’s been such a huge part of my life. Probably the main reason I play golf is this week.”
Mention of the microphone was a reference to last year’s championship at St Andrews’ Old Course when he worked for the tournament’s radio channel, just one of many episodes in a life that always has been entwined with the Open.
The tale began with Southgate’s father, Ian, a passionate golfer who fell in love with the Open and in particular the exploits of Tom Watson. Southgate senior was a decent amateur, good enough to have qualified for the European Masters in Crans-sur-Sierre in the late 1970s, and he was a member at Carnoustie even though the family live 600 miles away in Southend, a seaside town east of London.
“Dad knew the marshals, and they called me and my friends over to sit on the Barry Burn bridge. My legs were dangling over the water as I watched everything happen.” – Matthew Southgate
In 1984, Southgate’s eldest sister, Anna, was a baby in her mother’s arms in the grandstand behind the 18th green in St Andrews when Severiano Ballesteros clinched victory with his famous birdie.
In 1999, already an annual visitor to the Open, one for whom the sight of the big yellow scoreboard “had me buzzing,” 10-year-old Southgate had the perfect view when Jean Van de Velde endured agony on Carnoustie’s final hole.
“Dad knew the marshals, and they called me and my friends over to sit on the Barry Burn bridge,” Southgate said. “My legs were dangling over the water as I watched everything happen.”
On the next day, he caddied for his father, and the group suggested the young bag-carrier experience playing the final hole in front of the now-empty grandstands. “They said I had five shots to win the Open. I played short of the burn, chipped on and two-putted.”
By 2009, he was a promising amateur performer himself – good enough to later win the 2010 St Andrews Links Trophy – so dad and son were at home in Southend when their hero Watson outrageously claimed the Open’s 54-hole lead at Turnberry.
“I more or less kidnapped my dad at three in the morning and drove him 500 miles north,” Southgate said. “There was no way we could let Tom win and not be there.”
Within five years he was making his Open debut, a missed cut at Royal Liverpool with his old school friend Josh McColl, whose father Bill played in the 1980 Open, on the bag.
Southgate dreamed of improving on that effort, but a year later life instead provided an entirely different test. In the week of the Open he was not teeing it up on the Old Course but instead in hospital undergoing surgery for testicular cancer.
Although back on tour within weeks, he said of that experience: “It proved to me how much I wanted to be a golfer. It’s such a special week, and I had nothing to do but dwell on what it meant to me. I vowed to get back.”
He did so, and in style. He finished in a share for 12th at Royal Troon in 2016, was tied sixth at Royal Birkdale in 2017 and made the cut at Carnoustie (where he, too, is now a member) in 2018.
A year later he finished runner-up in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course. Watching his son playing in it, Southgate senior once sought me out to relate how he had overheard a spectator suggesting that an approach shot to 17 had been duffed.
“I really enjoyed last year, but playing is an entirely different dynamic.” – Matthew Southgate
“Matthew hadn’t duffed it,” he told me proudly. “He just knows how to play under the wind. That boy just knows how to play links golf. He was born to play it.”
Maybe born and (Open) bred.
Although Ian Southgate died in late 2020, he would have understood (and been proud again) that when Matthew didn’t qualify for the 150th Open last year, he simply had to find a way to be involved.
He loved the week on radio commentary, relishing a different perspective gained on the sport, but he is understandably excited to be inside the ropes with clubs, rather than a microphone, in his hands this time around.
“I really enjoyed last year, but playing is an entirely different dynamic,” he said. “I could afford a mistake and laugh it off when I was talking. But when you’re playing, the smallest little slip-up can totally ruin your day, especially here where one bad shot can cost you a double or triple.”
The difference between this week and the debut nine years ago?
“I was a bit of a rabbit in the headlights back then,” he said. “This week, I know people are cheering and I know it’s my first Open for five years, but I’ve got a job to do and I’m sticking to my guns.”
Serious inside the ropes and smiling outside of them, Southgate is back in his happy place.