Open Championship<\/a> is most often reserved for the players who let the game\u2019s oldest major slip through their grasp. But not always.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate to win 45 golf tournaments around the world with different players,\u201d Billy Foster admitted a few years ago. \u201cI\u2019ve said it on record that I\u2019d give them all away to caddie for the winner of the Claret Jug.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boy has Foster been close. The most desperate near miss was when the legendary caddie stood beside Thomas Bjorn when the Dane contrived to lose a two shot lead to Ben Curtis with three holes remaining at the 2003 Open at Royal St George\u2019s. Then there was Lee Westwood\u2019s golden opportunity at Turnberry in 2009, as well as near misses with Darren Clarke on two separate occasions.<\/p>\n
Yet still, Foster\u2019s love affair with The Open endures.<\/p>\n
The 62-year-old first caddied in this tournament for South African Hugh Baiocchi 42 years ago, and has since lugged it around the links for majors winners from Seve Ballesteros to Matt Fitzpatrick. He has only missed one since, at Royal Lytham in 2012. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a cruciate ligament injury,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I still went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Foster just can\u2019t stay away. <\/p>\n
It looked as if the Yorkshireman\u2019s record of caddying in every Open \u2013 when fit \u2013 since the age of 20 was going to finally end this year at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n
That was until the phone rang last week. Foster was picked up by Matthew Southgate, who finished in a tie for sixth on the Open\u2019s last visit to Birkdale nine years ago. The Englishman has now made it through the gruelling 36-hole final qualifier on six occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just called me and said \u2018I\u2019ve qualified, will you come and work for me?’\u201d Foster tells TG. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to miss the Open. I\u2019ve done every one since 1984.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will be Foster\u2019s 41st Open, surely a record, and he has memories here to last a lifetime. <\/p>\n
His finest moment, he says, was \u201cwalking up the last hole with Tiger Woods at St Andrews four years ago, and the ovation\u201d. Foster was working with his playing partner Fitzpatrick, hanging back as Woods crossed the Swilcan Bridge to take in the applause.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was thinking it was his last Open,\u201d Foster says. \u201cHe\u2019s shedding\u00a0tears and I\u2019m walking pretty much just at the back of him. It was an incredible experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster will return to his old pal Westwood\u2019s bag next week as LIV Golf makes its return at JCB Golf & Country Club in the Staffordshire countryside.<\/p>\n
But for now, there are more memories to be made at the tournament that means more than them all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Foster is back at the Open Championship this week, where he will carry the bag for an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-691560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}