St Andrews: Wet Wet Wet

As soon as Germany added a fourth goal to their greedy total to end England's World Cup bid in South Africa, I reminded myself all was not lost for in just under three week's time I would be at the Home of Golf watching the real sports stars.

Well, there's nothing like a bit of driving rain, the sort that comes at you sideways, to put a dampener on your first Open experience. Thank you Mother Nature for taking the edge off my big moment.

The Champions' Challenge is off. There's feeling disappointed when turning up at your local club only to find the course is closed, but turning up at St Andrews only to discover the bad weather has put an end to the four-hole showpiece in which past champions went head to head for a bit of fun, is undoubtedly a worse feeling.

I'm racking my brains trying to think of something positive to say, but the truth is I'm a bit of a pessimist and a quick look at the weather forecast is not improving my mood.

Enough, gathered here in St Andrews are golf's finest players. A great deal of them have grown up playing links golf and know the score with bad weather. They're experienced and as most of them have bag loads of cash we can't feel too sorry for them. Make them work for their scores, let's revel a bit as they struggle. 

It's no use, who am I kidding? It's just wet.