Kevin McAlpine: Why we should remember golfer for his trademark smile

One of the great things about covering golf, as I was reminded by lots of hand shaking during both the Ryder Cup in Rome and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Scottish soil before taking a much-needed break, is that it is probably second to none in sport in terms of spawning friendships.

No matter where I’ve travelled in the world to report on the game over the past 30 years, there have always been friendly faces to greet me and, along with so many others right now, I feel deeply saddened that one of the brightest smiles of all has been taken from us way too soon.

I am referring, of course, to Kevin McAlpine, who passed away suddenly last week at just 39. “We are completely in the dark about what happened,” his dad Hamish, a Dundee United legend, told The Courier as the shocking news was revealed. “It is true that he was unwell, but we believed he was on the mend. As a family, we are completely devastated.”

Me, too, because, along with so many others I’ve got to know over the years through my job, McAlpine was part of what I’d term as my golfing family and it is truly heart-breaking to think we’ll no longer bump into each other again and feel as though it was just the day before when we’d last met.

Kevin McAlpine shows his delight as he prepares to embrace Anna Nordqvist after the Swede's success in the 2021 AIG Women's Open at Carnoustie. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

Like lots of others, I first came across McAlpine in the amateur ranks, reporting on his win in the 2006 Scottish Amateur Championship at Nairn, where the Alyth member beat Paul O’Hara 8&7 in the 36-hole final, then his triumph the following year in the Scottish Stroke-Play Championship - he landed that title two years before a certain Tommy Fleetwood also got his hands on the trophy - at Royal Dornoch.

A short professional career, which, on this side of the Atlantic at least, mainly involved playing on the now defunct PGA EuroPro Tour, didn’t produce the progress many of us expected - he’d also shot the Old Course amateur record of 62 in 2004 - and, who knows, it might have been different if the level of support some of his compatriots have subsequently benefitted from had been available at a time when a lot of promising tartan talent effectively went down the drain.

As it transpired, it was through caddying that McAlpine enjoyed some memorable moments in the professional ranks and that all led, really, from him being among a group of Scots - Edinburgh man Alastair Mackenzie, who recently took up a new professional’s post at Trump National Golf Club in Florida, was also in it - who set up a base for the winter at The Old Collier Club in the sunshine state. Through that move, he linked up with Lexi Thompson, helping the American record a win and five seconds in 2017 by the time they turned up at Kingsbarns, where McAlpine had done some looping when he was still at Harris Academy and also to fund his playing career, for the AIG Women’s Open. “Kevin is like my best friend, he’s always there to hear me out and hear me vent, and we laugh so much on the golf course,” said Thompson of the Scot that week.

Shortly afterwards, McAlpine laughed about being an ‘enemy’ in the US camp as he caddied for Thompson in the Solheim Cup, especially at it had become public knowledge that he’d started dating Swede Anna Norqdvist, who was on the European team in Des Moines, by then and seeing the pair together at an after-match party in a city centre hotel in the Iowa capital was one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a golf sense.

Kevin McAlpine had a spell working for Martin Laird on the PGA Tour, having once been team-mates at Colorado State University. Picture: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images.

As was the day at Carnoustie just over two years ago when Nordqvist, cheered on by a group of local fans, led by McAlpine, who’d become her husband by then, and also including the aforementioned Hamish and other family members, landed the AIG Women’s Open. “I think this is definitely my most special win,” she admitted of her third major victory while also acknowledging her “support” from outside the ropes that week. Alas, the couple had drifted apart since that fairytale day, with Nordqvist, who withdrew from last week’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea after the opening round following the news of her husband’s passing, revealing in August that they were going through a divorce.

In addition to his time with Thompson, McAlpine also enjoyed success alongside the Korean, Amy Yang, on the LPGA Tour before linking up with Martin Laird on the PGA Tour. As well as being compatriots, they competed against each other in a Scottish Youths’ Championship at Crail before becoming team-mates at Colorado State University. “He helped me get my scholarship there,” McAlpine once told me, joking that he sometimes managed to win the “odd five bucks” against the man who has gone on to land four title triumphs on the PGA Tour.

I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t get the chance to have a chat with McAlpine the last time I saw him, having only been able to shout “Hi, Kev” as I realised it was him sitting on the back of a buggy behind Heather MacRae as the duo joined forces in this year’s Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. “It feels so sad,” wrote MacRae on social media as she tried to come to terms with McAlpine no longer being with us. “It doesn’t seem right or real.”

Lots of people - and not just on either Tayside or throughout Scotland - will be sharing that sentiment right now, but let’s all try and remember Kevin McAlpine how he’d want us to and that, of course, is with a huge trademark smile on his face and making someone laugh. RIP, my good friend.