As the golfing world descends on Royal Birkdale this week for The Open, commentator Richard Boxall will be walking among the sand dunes with painful memories.
Boxall was a participant in one of the biggest freak incidents in major championship history on the Merseyside-based course, long before he became a beloved commentator.
Back in 1991, the Englishman arrived at Royal Birkdale having secured his breakthrough victory at the Italian Open the previous season.
Boxall was looking confident as opening rounds of 71 and 69 left him sitting just two shots off the lead at the halfway stage.
He was tied in 10th place and was placed in the fifth-to-last group on ‘Moving Day’, paired alongside a formidable young Colin Montgomerie.
It felt like it could be a weekend to remember.
Warning signs were there
However, he had been feeling twinges down his left leg since the practice rounds earlier that week.
He recalled: “I practised with Gary Player and every time I went for something quickly, I had pain in my left ankle.
“After the second round, I had a funny feeling down my leg and spoke to Chubby Chandler, my manager at the time. He said I was probably just a bit edgy.”
During his warm-up on the Birkdale range, Boxall was unable to commit to his usual swing.
After shanking two shots and finding himself unable to crouch down to read his putts, he hobbled his way to the par-four ninth tee.
Determined to fight through the pain and stay in the hunt for the Claret Jug, Boxall pulled out a one-iron from his bag, entirely unaware of the stress fracture waiting to give way.
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‘Everyone’s jaw just dropped’
He added: “I remember I kept saying, ‘my leg does not feel right’, and everyone just kept saying you’re feeling edgy because you’re doing well in the Open Championship.
“I walked up onto the ninth tee, I was actually in a world of my own, to be honest, and I knew exactly what I was going to do.
“I hit a one iron and I stepped over it. This is no offence to any 20-handicapper, but that’s how I felt – I didn’t know what I was doing.
“I wasn’t saying an awful lot, I just knew I had to commit to the next shot. I hit it again with my one iron, and as it got to impact, I hit it perfectly. It was a perfect shot right down the middle, but I only saw it go in the air.
“Because the first crack was the ball, and the second crack was my leg and it gave way. And what a noise it made. One arm went down the tee and I hit the deck like a sack of spuds. Everyone’s jaw just dropped.”
The ball miraculously soared 240 yards down the fairway, resting right next to his playing partner’s.
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Boxall lay on the turf in agony, with a spectator rushing onto the tee box to assist until an ambulance arrived.
He remembered: “They wanted to take me back in a buggy across the dunes, funnily enough, but that actually never happened and the next thing I remember was an ambulance coming up on the edge of the tee.
“Off to the hospital I went, but I always say it’s amazing the extremes you will go to not to play with Colin Montgomerie.
“I don’t feel any bitterness towards it, I was brutally unlucky, but it’s amazing how many people still say to me now ‘how is your leg?'”
As the drama unfolds on Merseyside this week, nothing will quite match the afternoon the Englishman brought Royal Birkdale to a standstill with a single swing of a one-iron.
