BBC Radio sports reporter Andrew Cotter will definitely get the inside line from this week’s US Open golf championship at Torrey Pines when he caddies for English amateur Gary Wolstenholme.
Wolstenholme, 47, got a call to tee-off today in California after the late withdrawal of Sean O’Hair. Former Amateur champion Wolstenholme qualified as first alternate at Walton Heath last week and flew to California in the “hope” of a late withdrawal, but when O’Hair suffered an injury, the Englishman could not afford the fees for a local caddie.
Hearing Wolstenholme’s plight, Cotter, a decent golfer himself, offered to help. “Iain Carter, the BBC golf correspondent, said it was because I had the right shoes but really I think it’s because the bag is far too heavy for Iain,” Cotter said. The tour bag is massive and I was struggling after the practice round.
“Gary is a true amateur and playing golf around the world is expensive so he was looking for a mug to do it for nothing – and I was that mug.”
Wolstenholme, the 1991 and 2003 British Amateur champion and five-time Walker Cup team member, came through sectional qualifying on June 2 at Walton Heath to earn the first alternate spot.
Click here to read the BBC story and hear Cotter interviewed
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