At the British Open, a mum’s influence looms large for many golfers

HOYLAKE – In the beginning, there was Old Tom Morris and his son, Tommy, both of St Andrews. The father won the British Open – the only championship then – four times, and his namesake son won it four times, too.

Yes, wet wool, 19th-century golf, in all its paternalistic glory. The men marched off the first tee and into a heavy sea wind and nobody knew when, or if, they would come back. And ever since, fathers have been raising sons in the game, both generations dreaming of hoisted trophies.

If Arnold Palmer said it once, he said it a thousand times: his father, Deacon, the course superintendent and head pro at Latrobe Country Club in western Pennsylvania, taught young Arnold how to grip a club once, and only once. Palmer never changed it.

Jack Nicklaus’ pharmacist father, Charlie, a three-sport athlete at Ohio State, started his son, Jackie, in golf as an oversized 10-year-old in Columbus in the summer of 1950, at their club, Scioto Country Club.

Twelve years later, Nicklaus defeated Palmer in an 18-hole play-off at Oakmont Country Club and claimed the first of his record 18 Major titles, the 1962 US Open. It was Father’s Day. Since then (after a date change), most US Opens have concluded on Father’s Day and, most years, the father-son relationship is an elemental part of the winner’s life story.

This next phrase is known throughout golf: Tiger and Earl. The green-side hug between father and son after Woods won the 1997 US Masters is one of the iconic moments in golf history.

It was Tiger’s first Major as a pro and he won by 12 shots. Nine years later, Woods fell into his caddie’s arms, after winning the British Open at Royal Liverpool, 10 weeks after Earl Woods died at age 74.

But in 2014, Royal Liverpool became the scene of an evolving narrative when Rory McIlroy, 25 years old and the lone child of working-class parents from outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, won the British Open. It was his third Major title and in a lovely, old-fashioned gesture at the awards presentation, McIlroy dedicated the win to his mother.

“This is the first Major I’ve won when my mum has been here,” he said. “Mum, this one’s for you.”

Rosie McDonald McIlroy, who helped pay for her son’s overseas junior golf travel by way of her shift work at a 3M plant, was beaming.

Five years later, Woods won the 2019 Masters. It was kind of a shocker: he had not won a Major in 11 years.

In victory, his mother, Kultida, born and raised in Thailand, was standing in a grassy knob about 10 yards off the 18th green. She could not see her son’s winning putt, but she could hear the thunderous response to it.

Her face was painted in pride. In victory, Woods spoke in a soft voice about how his mother would rise at 5.30 in the morning to drive Tiger in a Plymouth Duster to nine-hole, Pee-wee tournaments – 90 minutes there, 90 minutes back.

In 2022, at a ceremony a year after Woods was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, “Tida”, known within his tight circle for being tough and direct, was in the first row, beaming just as Rosie McIlroy was in 2014.

Woods talked, without notes, about the many times his mother brought him to a par-three course near his boyhood home in southern California, giving him 50 US cents for a hot dog and 25 cents for the end-of-day call home. Woods staked his early and successful putting contests with those quarters his mother gave him.

And now the British Open is in high gear, once again at Royal Liverpool. After three rounds, English golfer Tommy Fleetwood was joint fourth, seven shots behind the leader, Brian Harman.

Fleetwood grew up in modest circumstances about 48km north, in Southport, where his mother was a hairdresser. Sue Fleetwood longed to cut her son’s hair but Tommy-lad would not have it. Sue Fleetwood died in 2022 at 60, two years after a cancer diagnosis.

“She took me everywhere,” Fleetwood said on Friday, on the anniversary of her death. “She was always the driver. She would always take me to the range, to the course, to wherever I wanted. She was always a very supporting influence. She was a very tough woman, but she never said no to taking me anywhere. She was great to me.”

There was nothing maudlin about his tone. Fleetwood was talking about golf and his mother and he was smiling. Another mother’s day, in a manner of speaking, was coming.

Win, lose or otherwise, another mother’s day was coming for another golfing son. NYTIMES