At the British Open, the influence of a mother looms large for many golfers

In the beginning there was old Tom Morris and his son Tommy, both from St Andrews. The father won the British Open – the only championship at the time – four times and his eponymous son also won it four times. Yes, wet wool, 19th century golf, in all its paternalistic glory. The men marched off the first tee into a heavy sea wind and no one knew when or if they would return.

And ever since, fathers have raised sons in the game, both generations dreaming of hoisted trophies. OB Keeler spilled barrels of ink when he wrote about Bobby Jones and his little boy-blue start in golf at the behest of his golf-loving father, Robert Purmedus Jones (aka “The Colonel”), who was a wealthy Atlanta lawyer.

If Arnold Palmer said it once, he’d say it a thousand times: His father, Deacon, the instructor and head pro at Latrobe Country Club in western Pennsylvania, taught young Arnold how to handle a club once. Palmer never changed it.

The father of pharmacist Jack Nicklaus, Charlie, a three-sport athlete at Ohio State, started his son Jackie in golf as an oversized 10-year-old in Columbus, Ohio, in the summer of 1950, at their club, Scioto Country Club. Mid-country, midcentury – middle class, at the northernmost level. Donald Hall’s “Fathers Playing Catch with Sons” is largely about baseball, but Charlie and Jackie on the court in the 1950s could have fit right in.

Twelve years later, Jack Nicklaus defeated Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff at Oakmont Country Club to win 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 elementary part of the winner’s life story.

This next phrase is known throughout the gulf: Tiger and Earl. The green hug between father and son after Woods won the 1997 Masters Tournament is one of the most 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 caddy’s arms after winning the British Open at Royal Liverpool, 10 weeks after Earl Woods died aged 74.

But in 2014, Royal Liverpool became the scene of an evolving story when Rory McIlroy, aged 25 and the only child of working-class parents from outside Belfast, won the British Open. It was his third major title and in a nice, old-fashioned gesture at the awards ceremony, with thousands of fans ringing the 18th green, McIlroy dedicated the victory to his mother.

“This is the first big one I won when my mom was here,” he said. “Mom, this one’s for you.”

Rosie McDonald McIlroy, who helped pay for her son’s overseas junior golf trip through her shift work at a 3M factory, was beaming. Later, she hesitantly placed a few fingers on the winner’s burgundy jug as her son gripped it tightly.

Five years later, Woods won the 2019 Masters. It was quite a shock: He hadn’t won a major in 11 years. In the win, his mother, Kultida, who was born and raised in Thailand, stood in a grassy knoll about 10 yards from the 18th green. She couldn’t see her son’s winning putt, but she could hear the thunderous reaction to it. Her face was painted with pride. In the win, Woods spoke in a low voice about how his mother would get up at 5:30 a.m. to drive Tiger in a Plymouth Duster to nine-hole Pee-wee tournaments, 90 minutes there and 90 minutes back.

Last year, when Woods was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, “Tida,” known in Woods’s close circle, was tough and direct, front row, radiant just like Rosie McIlroy in 2014.

Woods recounted, without notes, the many times his mother took him to a par-3 course near Tiger’s childhood home in Southern California, giving him 50 cents for a hot dog and 25 cents for the call home at the end of the day. Woods staked his early and successful putting games on the quarters his mother gave him. Tiger, sharing personal stories about his mother, and Tida, laughing with cameras pointed at her, was a rare personal moment for both of them.

This year at the Los Angeles Country Club, the final round of the US Open fell, as usual, on Father’s Day, but the day belonged to a mother and her son.

The winner Wyndham Clark had heard Woods talk about his own mother at Augusta National during the Masters and at the Hall of Fame induction. It stuck with him.

Breast cancer had taken the life of his mother Lise Clark ten years ago, when Wyndham was still a teenager. He almost quit golf after she died. He said his mother had a nickname for him – “Winner” – and had a two-word mantra for him: “Play big.”

The technical aspects of the game were not her forte. Nor were they for Rose McIlroy or Tida Woods.

When Clark was in high school, his mother came to one of his games. She watched him make an eight-foot putt and applaud enthusiastically for her son.

“Mom,” Clark said to Mother as he came off the green. “I just made triple bogey.”

Mama didn’t know and Mama didn’t care. Her son had holed a putt.

Minutes after winning the US Open, Clark said, “I felt like my mom was watching over me today.” Mother’s Day, so to speak. A wistful one.

And now the British Open is in high gear, once again at Royal Liverpool. After two rounds, English golfer Tommy Fleetwood was in second place alone, five shots behind the leader, Brian Harman. Everywhere Fleetwood comes onto the track he is greeted as ‘Tommy lad’. Even McIlroy went out of his way to find Fleetwood, after an opening round 66, to call him a “Tommy lad!” of his own.

Fleetwood, one of the most likeable players in the game today, grew up in humble circumstances about 30 miles north, in Southport, where his mother was a hairdresser. Fleetwood has a distinct appearance, an upturned nose that is often sunburned, blue eyes that look almost tucked in, and long, flowing hair. Sue Fleetwood longed to cut her son’s hair, but Tommy boy wouldn’t have it. Sue Fleetwood died last year at the age of 60, two years after being diagnosed with cancer.

“She took me everywhere,” Fleetwood said Friday night, on the one-year anniversary of her death. It started to rain and the air cooled.

“She was always the driver. She used to take me to the shooting range. To the golf course. To wherever I wanted to go. She was always a very supportive influence. She was a very tough woman, but she never said no to taking me everywhere. She was great to me.”

There was nothing sentimental about his tone. Fleetwood talked about golf and his mother and he smiled. Another Mother’s Day arrived, so to speak. Win, lose or not, another Mother’s Day arrived for another golfing son.