Tim Barter surprised
Tim Barter reflects on some emotional interviews before and during The Open, with cheap canada goose Rory McIlroy, Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston and Tom Lehman all surprising him.
I’ve been interviewing players for 27 years now and it’s happened to me a number of times. Obviously, there are occasions when players are going to be emotional for a variety of reasons good and bad.
One I remember vividly was when Miles Tunnicliff won the 2002 Great North Open just a couple of weeks after his mother died. Her final wish to her son was “win one for me”, and I barely had time to canada goose outlet las vegas congratulate him before he burst into tears and was unable to speak for a while.
That was a situation I had anticipated because we all knew the story, and the same was true for Jose Maria Olazabal after the Miracle at Medinah was complete.
His close friend Seve Ballesteros, who died the previous year, was one of the big inspirations behind Europe’s memorable victory, so I had expected Ollie to struggle with his canada goose trillium uk emotions. canada goose uk official Even canada goose outlet canada before the final day, I asked him a question about Seve and he could not continue.
But there are occasions when you just don’t see it coming, and my interview with ‘Beef’ Johnston at the Scottish Open was a prime example. I knew about his mental health issues and the struggles he had been through since last year, but he seemed back to his old self in Scotland.
Even though he had put it all out in the open in his heartfelt and honest blog with the European Tour, I felt I needed to canada goose outlet ontario give the viewers a brief explanation of the troubles Beef had been going through in his life, without invading his private grief.
I asked him if that performance was evidence that he was well on the road to recovery, and the canada goose outlet real tears kept coming as he explained how hard he canada goose outlet jackets had been trying to get through one canada goose outlet website review of the worst periods of his life. https://www.londonbc.co.uk but it wasn all that it seemed!
Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston takes on the ‘148 yard challenge’ in the Open Zone at Royal Portrush. but it wasn’t all that canada goose factory outlet uk it seemed!
On to Friday, and I knew that Tom Lehman would be full of emotion when he came to the Sky Cart following the canada goose repair shop final round of his Open career. He had his son on the bag, and the waterworks started when he was given a great ovation on the 18th.
I maybe didn’t expect canada goose expedition parka uk sale him to cry to the extent he did after one question, but I think it just dawned on him that he would never get to experience playing at The Open again, canada goose outlet vancouver so it was a very special occasion for the 1996 champion.
And then, Rory!
I’ve known him since he was a youngster. I went to Ballyliffin years ago for one of the Faldo series events, when McIlroy was in the junior ranks. Nick Faldo actually picked him out as the one he thought had the most potential, so that was my first interview with Rory.
So I’ve known him since then, and never have I known him to react in the way he did on Friday evening. I’ve always found him to be stoic canada goose outlet online store review and incredibly honest, and even when I spoke to him after his Masters canada goose outlet meltdown in 2011, he was calm and composed and basically admitted he lost control of himself on that back nine. I was anticipating disappointment canada goose outlet eu and frustration at not being able to come here in front of his home fans and perform how he wanted to. But I didn’t expect him to get quite so choked up, I’ve never seen him like that.
All I could do was try to give him a moment to draw breath and compose himself, and we got through the interview okay. And, afterwards, the hug at the end was just instinctive.
Also See: ‘More to achieve from Lowry’ ‘Rory must eradicate inconsistency’ ‘Rory should give himself a break’ ‘What a performance canada goose stockists uk by Lowry’.
