Open Final Qualifying is one of great days in golf - but not for me in 2010

It was probably the worst day of my working life. Even now, 13 years on, I feel myself wanting to break out in a cold sweat when I think about it.

American Michae Block pictured during a practice round at Dundonald Links for Tuesday's Open Final Qualifying at the Ayrshire venue. Picture: Dundonald Links

The event in question was Final Qualifying for The Open in 2010, at which time four courses close to the host venue for the Claret Jug event were used for the 36-hole shoot-outs. On this occasion for a St Andrews staging, Fairmont St Andrews, Kingsbarns, Ladybank and Scotscraig were the venues and, as always with this particular event, I left the house feeling excited about the day ahead.

I can’t remember specifically why, but I decided to head to Kingsbarns, which seemed a good move as James Byrne, one of Scotland’s top amateurs at the time, posted a promising first-round score. When he fell away in the second circuit, however, and it didn’t look as though any other Scots would be in the hunt to progress from that venue, I decided to jump in the car and head to another of the courses.

Scotscraig was where I ended up due to Lloyd Saltman, who’d finished as leading amateur in the 2005 Open at St Andrews, being in the mix there only for my arrival to quickly coincide with him missing out in a play-off. By this stage of the day, time was ticking on and that’s when things really started to go downhill as I encountered wi-fi issues and, believe me, that has become every journalist’s nightmare scenario.

Dundonald Links has taken over from Fairmont St Andrews as the Scottish venue for Open Final Qualifying. Picture: Dundonald Links

In what I’d like to think has been a rare occurrence in my career, I became flustered and, as a consequence, the report I eventually had to dictate to a colleague back in the office was riddled with mistakes. I ended up hating that day but learned a valuable lesson, which was to pick one venue and stick with it, especially as information from all the courses is pooled by a media team representing The R&A.

It was the following year that the St Andrews-based organisation decided to implement a change for the Final Qualifying, which, since 2014, has been staged at four venues around Britain in a bid to make it “more geographically convenient” for Open hopefuls. Gailes Links became the Scottish venue and I’ll never forget Colin Montgomerie being the star attraction there in 2016 as he delighted the locals by joining the scramble for spots in that year’s event at Royal Troon. It was mission accomplished for the winning Ryder Cup captain but only after he spent a couple of hours sitting in his car waiting nervously for the action to finish at the end of a long day.

Fairmont St Andrews then had a spell staging the event in Scotland and now it’s moved on to Dundonald Links, where arguably the best field since the change was made will assemble on Tuesday and it’s the same at West Lancs, Royal Porthcawl and Royal Cinque Ports.

On the back of his heroic performance in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill a few weeks back, American Michael Block will be the centre of attention for both spectators and the media at Dundonald Links, but he’s not the only big attraction. Multiple PGA Tour winner Matt Kuchar is teeing up at the Ayrshire venue, as are LIV Golf players Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, Sebastian Munoz and Peter Uihlein and also Rafa Cabrera Bello, who is returning to the course where he won the 2017 Scottish Open.

Add in the likes of 2020 Scottish Open winner Aaron Rai, Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and local man Jack McDonald, who cut his golfing teeth across the fence at Kilmarnock (Barassie), and a real treat is store for spectators heading along and, thanks to Block’s presence in particular, they should be out in force. I’ll leave home once again feeling excited about the drama that often unfolds in this event and, unlike 2020, hopefully that will not be the personal variety.

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There’s been a few venues banded about in recent years as possibilities to host a return to England for the Ryder Cup, but there can surely be only one place if that does indeed happen.

I’m referring, of course, to The Belfry, where the biennial match was hosted on four occasions between 1985 and 2002 and remains synonymous with golf’s biggest team event. It’s now staged the Betfred British Masters for the last three years and, as a consequence, it has reminded lots of people that, without a shadow of doubt, it is one of the best tournament venues in Europe.

It’s in a great location close to the main motorways in England and is tried and tested in every sense, a box that most of those other venues that have been floated around just don’t come close to ticking.

Certainly compared to the first couple of those Ryder Cups, the Brabazon Course is now appealing to the eye and it’s also not just about the iconic tenth and 18th holes these days. The stretch from the sixth to the ninth is one of the toughest on the DP World Tour and, as a ten-under winning total on this occasion proved, it’s up there with Le Golf National and Valderrama in terms of the most demanding tests in Europe.

It’s Italy’s turn, of course, this year before a return to Ireland beckons in 2027 for the next match on this side of the Atlantic at Adare Manor. It would be great to see the event played in Germany at some point, but, if an English one is in the offing, then let’s hope that The Belfry welcomes the event back as it simply reeks of the Ryder Cup and there’s something special about that.