How golf can be a cruel game - as two sickened Scots can testify

Golf really can be a cruel game at times. Just ask Ryan Lumsden and Calum Fyfe after the home duo were left licking wounds following sore finishes in the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A at Newmachar on Sunday.

I’ll be honest by admitting that I was a bit reluctant to approach Lumsden at the end of his closing circuit at the Aberdeenshire venue as I could see that he was hurting and, therefore, I wouldn’t have minded if he’d politely declined my request for a quick chat but, credit to him, he didn’t.

Having made the journey up the A90, I’d been keen to get a word with him, having followed his career closely since he’d caught my eye as an amateur, particularly during his spell at Northwestern University in Illinois, where he shone playing for fellow Scot and head coach David Inglis.

Ryan Lumsden pictured during the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by the R&A at Newmachar Golf Club in Aberdeenshire. Picture: Paul Devlin/Getty Images.

Lumsden had arrived at Newmachar with a spring in his step after finishing joint-fourth in the Irish Challenge at The K Club and, after three-and-a-half rounds on the Hawkshill Course, was on course for another top-five effort that would have boosted his bid to make the Challenge Tour’s season-ending Grand Final in Mallorca in November.

It was gutting, therefore, that he eventually ended up having to settle for a share of 29th spot behind the event’s second successive English winner, Brandon Robinson Thompson, after dropping five shots in the final eight holes.

“I just feel completely sick, to be honest,” admitted Lumsden, who, in 2009, became the first Great Britain & Ireland player to win the Byron Nelson Award, a coveted prize awarded by the Golf Coaches Association of America. “I played well and had a short putt on 11 to get to five under, but (after missing it and then spilling shots at the 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th) I just feel awful right now.”

While I tried my best to try and make him feel a bit better by suggesting that he’d have positives to take from the week once the dust had settled, you could really tell just how much he was hurting when it became clear how it feels to put in so much good work in an event only for it to be udone in such a way.

Calum Fyfe in action during the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A at Newmachar Golf Club. Picture: Paul Devlin/Getty Images.

“This was a chance to get some good stuff done again,” he added. “Obviously I played well last week, just didn’t quite finish it off there. To then do this here, I don’t really know what to say. I’m just so upset as the goal is to get to the Grand Final, absolutely.”

Shortly afterwards, I found myself in the same position with Fyfe, having been in with a chance of finishing as high as third in the £230,000 event with two holes to play, after he went triple bogey-bogey to eventually end up joint-17th.

“A bitter pill to swallow at the end,” he admitted and, in fairness, some players wouldn’t have wanted to be greeted by my ugly face after seeing a potential £17,500 pay-day turn into one worth less than £3,000, so fair play to him, too, for agreeing to a chat.

“They were just two bad shots,” added the Farmfoods Scottish Par 3 champion of what had caused the untimely damage after looking set to finish as the leading home player only to be pipped for that honour by Craig Howie. “At 17, I pulled it, but we thought we’d find it as it pitched in the semi-rough. Then it was a pull hook at the last (that found the water on the tenth hole).”

In both cases, it wasn’t the end result either Lumsden or Fyfe were looking for on the Scottish stop on the second-tier circuit, but, at the same time, they should feel encouraged heading into the remainder of the season as the battle for 20 cards on next season’s DP World Tour continues in Finland this week before moving on to Sweden, Poland, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic and China before culminating in Mallorca.

“I feel my game is well good enough to be out here; I’ve just got to put it together over four rounds,” said Fyfe, who reckons he’ll get six more starts through invitations. “This week was just the same old story, unfortunately, but my game is really good and it is definitely a positive to know that I can compete out here. All it takes is one good week and it was looking like it was going to be this one for a wee while, but, hopefully, it can be sometime soon.”

Daniel Young, who sits 41st, is the top Scot in the Road to Mallorca Rankings, followed by Euan Walker(42nd), Howie (61st) and Lumsden (61st). All four are in the mix to take their campaigns the full distance by making it to the Grand Final at Club de Golf Alcanada.

“Obviously I played well when I first turned pro and then had an injury that forced me to miss a year and a half of golf,” said Lumsden, a winner on the MENA Tour in Jordan four-and-a-half years ago. “It was a bad injury as I tore two discs in my spine. It was a combination of things, but now I’ve fully healed and recovered, which is great.

“When I came back last year, I felt I had lost it and didn’t know if I was going to play well again. But, last week, it felt great to be playing good and this week was the same as I played really well.”

That finish was hurting like hell, though, and you really felt for him. “It’s a really harsh game,” he declared and lots of people at all levels in the game will know exactly what he means. Bloody golf!