Looking Back on Sheringham

It seems like a far distant memory now - pre-Ryder Cup certainly - but it was only a few days ago. It seems so much more.

Not Scotland's most illustrious hour certainly and a huge disappointment after their recent victory in Germany. Like all golf matches, just a tweak here, a touch there, a putt going in rather than sitting looking into the depths, would have made the most enormous difference to the result. A game of "if only".

Take for instance the game against Wales, which was a drawn match. Such was the closeness that one putt could have made Scotland all-over second as opposed to last. How cruel is golf. Very possibly everyone in the team can look back at a certain shot that influenced the outcome of their game, whether it was a shot that won a hole or more than likely, a shot that lost one. A sudden gust of wind taking the ball into a bunker, a putt not hit just that touch hard enough, an understandable desperation for the perfect shot that the swing was just that fraction too quick - then disaster. There's generally something that turns a match round and players can only "look back in anger" at themselves because it's easy to think what one might or should have done - afterwards. There's no stress and anxiety when it's all over. It's quite normal to try and shoulder the blame when one recalls poor shots. But no one player should ever take that responsibility. Each player went out there and did her absolute best, she should recall all the great shots and be proud.

Everyone or most everyone will have been watching the Ryder Cup over the weekend, seen the emotion and the passion with which both sides played. You might think if this is what they do all the time, they ought to be good at it, perfect at it even, but it didn't work out like that. It never does. There was so much to gasp at, wonderful wood shots soaring over trees and water and landing feet from this tiniest of flags, there were bunker shots peppering the hole, coming out of the sand like a pin-ball machine but with the precision of a bullet, there were putts, so many putts speeding their way twenty,thirty,yards over greens and finding a safe haven in the hole. Fantastic. Wonderful. There were also some pretty weird shots from these wizards of the golf course and there could have been cries of derision from the audience (and the living room) with the expectation of perfection - but more than likely not. More than likely sympathy and genuine understanding of their disappointment. To see players bouncing along, confident in their game, happy with their "holes-up status", smiling and chatting to their caddies, to see them lose one hole possibly against a birdie, no fault there, then maybe a slack or unlucky shot loses another and suddenly it seems as if the gates are open, allowing holes to run away and doubt and tension to slip in. Comfortable leads become monstrous deficits and it gets harder and harder to get that ball to do what you know you can do. And that's the other side of golf. We've all been there. We all understand.

Is that what happened at Sheringham? The team that came back from Berlin, buoyant with the gold medal under their belts and to all intents and purposes playing the same game, they just could not find that extra something to let them do it again and make a successful defence of the Senior Home International Trophy. Many of the games were initially even. As the Irish captain relayed on hearing results coming through her radio, "First game one up, second one down with the third all square on the first tee - well you could say it was anyone's game"!

Sadly it wasn't Scotland's on this occasion but there's always next year!