'Woosie' admits there's no place like home on the eve of the Acorn Jersey Open

Thursday 09 June 2016

Former world No 1 golfer Ian Woosnam is back on one of his favourite fairways - just a few minutes from his Jersey driveway.

The 1991 US Masters champion teed up his love affair with Jersey over two decades ago. As one of Britain's finest ever golfers, Welshman 'Woosie' could have chosen anywhere to live, but he clubbed for Jersey after playing in a European Tour event here 23 years ago.

It was a decision he has never regretted, as Woosnam has made his home where his heart is, namely Jersey. 

"I couldn't imagine living anywhere else to be honest," he said, prior to today's first day of the Acorn Jersey Open on the European Senior Tour at the La Moye Club.

"I love it here. I've been in Jersey for 23 years and it is a great place to be, especially in the summer. It was a golf tournament that really brought me to the Island. I started coming here in about 1977 for European Tour events and loved the place. It really became a dream to come and live in Jersey because of the quality of life. You get the tax breaks as well, but it is also very good for the family."

A fiercely proud Welshman, Woosnam could have qualified for the Principality or England - his favourite childhood golf course actually straddled the border - but he opted for the Land of My Fathers. 

"Where I grew up, Oswestry, in the beautiful county of Shropshire, is a wonderful place, but I just felt it was time to move on and 23 years ago Jersey was the answer.

"My parents were both Welsh and because I wasn't one of the best of amateurs, when it came to representing a country, I went for Wales and I always went for Wales as a boy. I did have a choice between Wales and England as I was born in England, but my parents left it up to me. I tended to go over to the Welsh side of the border very often as a kid to play golf and it just turned out that way."

This year marks two significant anniversaries in Woosnam's career as it is a decade since he led Europe to a record-equaling 18 1/2 - 9 1/2 victory over the USA in the Ryder Cup at the K Club in Dublin and 25 years since he won his only major, the US Masters at Augusta. 

"It is hard to believe it is ten years and 25 years since those two'" he said. "It is like it has just gone, click, like that. I like what I do now, winding down and enjoying my golf with some old friends on the European Senior Tour. It's nice to win now, but back in those days it meant everything to win. I enjoyed it along the way as well. The one thing I managed to do in my career was enjoy it. I was very lucky. Others had to be different in order to win, but I had to be the way I was to help me relax. If I got too intense I don't play very well. I used sports psychologists for many, many hours years and years ago and they all said the same thing, look at what you used to do, so go have a few pints and enjoy it. Look at the places where you played well, had a few jars and still played well. There must have been a good reason. So that's the way I looked at it. I won 52 tournaments around the world so it certainly worked for me.

"I will go to the captain's dinner in about two months' time for former Ryder Cup skippers, which will be great to attend. I went to the last one in Gleneagles for a couple of days, then watched the final day at home on the TV.

"I don't think Europe will win this year by the margin my team managed. And not only that, we won every session. I had a bit of pressure on me, so it was a relief not only winning, but winning so convincingly. It was brilliant." 

Stuffing the Americans was one of the highlights of Woosnam's career, but it was all so different when he first represented Europe in the early 80s.

"That was all down to Tony Jacklin. He changed the whole deal around. We flew on Concorde, he got us all together as team and he professionalised us. All of a sudden it took off.    

"You have to remember we had some great players in Nick Faldo, Bernard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Severiano Ballesteros, plus a string of players behind us who were very, very good. But what Jacklin did so well was in his man-manangement of the team and how he gelled us all together. That was why we were so strong back then and that is still going through the teams now. No doubt about it, the foundations were still in place when I captained the team. The whole basis of being a team captain is to get everyone playing on the same pitch. I wouldn't really like to say that about the American team. They have a jigsaw with 12 pieces but two of them are over there. You cannot make a jigsaw if two of them are out over there. It's not possible."

Ryder Cup and Augusta glory was all a long way off for the farmer's boy from Shropshire, who practised for hours on end in his Dad's ploughed fields.   

"My father was a farmer and yet I think his real passion was for boxing. He would have loved to be a professional boxer. I used to go to Butlin's holiday camp in Pwllheli  and get a free holiday there if I won the boxing contest amongst the kids. I won it every time. I got three free holidays in a row! I wasn't that good but my Dad, he could really whack. There was a kid called Danny Doyle, who was heading for the national amateur championships in Cardiff. We were at Pwllheli one year and this Danny Doyle asked if anyone wanted to have a go with him in the ring and my Dad got up there and just flattened him.

"I couldn't get anyone to fight me, because kids my age, I used to just flatten them. I think from the age of about seven, eight, nine, I was spending all day and every day throwing bales of hay around, so I was naturally strong even then." 

The Acorn Jersey Open takes place from June 9-11, with three former Ryder Cup captains in attendance - Woosnam is joined by Mark James and Sam Torrance. There are 14 former Ryder Cup stars in the field and entrance to La Moye Club in St Brelade is free of charge.