Tale of Roe gets easier with the telling

Irish Open: Mark Roe, a school high board diving champion, had to leave the sport behind when he perforated an eardrum, and took up golf while convalescing.

Mark Roe suffered severe headaches in 1995 after being hit on the head by a ball struck by an amateur.

Mark Roe tore ligaments in his ring finger and little finger two days prior to the Irish Open in 1999 when he grabbed his beloved springer spaniel, Mookie, by the collar. He missed the rest of that season and all of the next.

These misfortunes, however, were possibly dwarfed by what took place last weekend when Mark Roe, the 40-year-old professional from Sheffield in England, was disqualified on the Saturday of the British Open. He had just signed for a 67 to be only two shots off the lead at Royal St George's.

A failure to swap cards with his playing partner, Jesper Parnevik, meant Roe recorded the Swede's scores on his card and vice versa.

Roe railed not against the application of the laws of the sport but with mortification after a schoolboy error, one he had neither perpetrated before, nor, one suspects, will perpetrate again. Yesterday, at Portmarnock, he teased through the emotions of the last few days with a humour and candour that should endear him to the crowds this week at the Nissan Irish Open.

"I drove home from the course (Sandwich), probably faster than I should have. I just wanted to get home to my wife. I stopped at the off-licence and picked up a bottle of rosé champagne and I sat on a beanbag in the front room and drank myself to sleep.

"I knew that there was no way after the huge swing of emotion during the day my eyes were going to close naturally.

"I woke up at four in the morning, went upstairs and couldn't close my eyes, so I came back downstairs and made a cup of tea. You replay everything over and over in your mind. You feel a bit numb really. I couldn't believe I wasn't getting up that next morning and preparing to play, as it happens, with Tiger Woods I understand.

"It was numbness for a lost opportunity more than anything else. I knew I made a mistake. I knew that ultimately I am responsible for my scorecard. There was no resentment or bitterness. I wasn't looking for anyone to blame. It was my fault. I was just stunned with myself that I could have got on the first tee and not exchanged scorecards.

"That's the first time in 20 years as a tournament pro I have never exchanged my scorecard. Why on that one day, why on the third round of the (British) Open when I shoot one of the best scores of my life to be two shots behind; why did I do it that day? That's what you keep asking yourself.

"I could have done it at the Madeira Open, I could have done it at the Sheffield bloody Winter Alliance; why did I do it in the third round of the Open championship? I was so looking forward to that Sunday because of the way I felt on Saturday, the way I played; I just felt in my heart that maybe I could do something special. Just maybe."

On the Sunday in question Roe's curiosity finally made his resolve buckle and he switched on the television. He couldn't resist seeing who was going to win. Thomas Bjorn's plight, the haemorrhaging of four shots in three holes that ultimately handed victory to 26-year-old American rookie Ben Curtis, stirred Roe's already shredded emotions.

"I felt desperately sorry for Thomas, as he had played great golf. The funniest thing, on that 16th tee, watching, having played the course on the first three days, I was just willing him to hit the centre of the green.

" I know how he plays, in the sense that he never stops going for flags. He is so aggressive. I was thinking, 'Thomas don't go for that flag' because that trap down the right is like a suicide pit. It's awful.Then he goes at the flag and knocks it into that trap. It was an exciting climax."

When the championship was over, the torment returned for Roe. "You don't think that as I am lying there sipping each glass of champagne that I'm not asking myself, 'Roey, why didn't you look at the name on the card?' 'How come you didn't?' It's a big card, not a small one. They're like billboards, big green ones. His name is there and I never looked. I just kept doing the scores diligently."

The whole process will now be examined and the example of the US PGA tour, where the starter hands each player the card of one of his playing partners to mark, is likely to be replicated in Europe. The Englishman would wholeheartedly subscribe to that.

There had been calls by the media at the time for Roe to be reinstated, claiming the punishment was in no way commensurate with the crime. Roe was adamant: "I wouldn't ask for a change in the rules of golf. I would not have played, and I would not have wanted to play, had they asked to overturn the decision. I know in my own heart I play the game of golf the way it should be played. I broke the rules, it's my responsibility.

"It's my mistake and I will live with that. I would not have played Sunday had they overturned it. It would not have been in my nature to do that."

No matter what he goes on to achieve in the sport, he admitted, "I can never take back that day". He took his wife out to dinner on the Sunday night - "I had some more champagne and she drove" - and by Monday the pain had eased.

Roe is grateful to be at Portmarnock this week, returning to competitive action, on a course he rates highly, in a tournament he loves. One positive from his misfortune and something that has given him great pleasure is the support he has received from strangers.

"I got such a huge amount of text messages and support. That was really very important. There is a human side to the game of golf and it touches a lot of people."

He has one favourite. "I got one text message from a friend of mine, a guy who has played on tour for many years. It said: 'Roey, you t***, you spoiled my weekend.' That was just marvellous, perfect.

"I had 57 text messages by the time I got from Sandwich to home. It was a surreal experience, a contrast of emotions I don't really want to have again as a professional golfer. It's only a professional problem, not a life problem. It's not a wife or children being ill. Those are hard problems to deal with; this is not."

So what will he take from this year's British Open? "It just makes me believe that at the age of 40, when I wasn't sure I would be playing the game of golf for a living because you have so many great young players coming along, that I can play golf with good players and if an opportunity came along I could take it. It gives me increased enthusiasm for the years to come."