TROON, SCOTLAND — Thai teenager Phachara Khongwatmai will never forget his maiden Major appearance at The Open.
The 17-year-old Asian Tour prospect was left battered and bruised by wild and windy conditions at Royal Troon on Friday as he stumbled to a 10-over-par 81, 10 shots higher than his opening day’s effort.
For a long while, Phachara fought gallantly against cold, windy and rainy conditions late in the day but a quadruple bogey eight on the par four 15th hole blew him off course in his hope of a memorable debut in the world’s oldest tournament.
“Today was a very bad day, windy, raining, cold – everything was coming,” said a shivering Phachara, who was in the second last group off at 4.05pm.
“Golf was very difficult. First time in my life I faced this sort of situation. My back nine was very bad, seven over there.”
Despite a six on the 11th hole nicknamed the Railway and dubbed the hardest on the course, Phachara was still only one shot outside the halfway cut mark but his Open dreams were dashed four holes later.
After an errant drive required a penalty drop, his subsequent third shot with a three wood couldn’t be found, and he needed to reload and staggered off the green with a “snowman”.
“Number 11 wasn’t a problem as I was five over then but 15 killed me. Conditions then was very hard as it was raining heavily,” he said.
He hopes to play his way back into The Open but knows he must be better prepared to tackled treacherous conditions so often associated with links golf.
“I need to learn how to hit the ball when it rains and when the wind blows like this. The good thing was that I hit it good in the last three holes,” he said. “I want to come back but don’t know when I will have the opportunity.”
He plans to fly home on Sunday night and intends to watch some of the third round’s play.
“I’m going to rest up for the King’s Cup on the Asian Tour in two weeks’ time. My goal is to keep my Asian Tour card this season. But this week, I will always remember how hard golf can be.”
