| Date: 17-20 June Venue: Torrey Pines, California |
| Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 22:00 BST. Live text commentary from 14:30 BST |
It doesn’t very often happen that a golfer preparing for a major championship goes looking for a caddie and finds one on the back of a bin lorry.
Yet that will be the case when England’s Dave Coupland tees it up for the US Open at Torrey Pines, California, with his dad by his side.
Paul Coupland has given up his job as part of a refuse collection team for Boston Borough Council in Lincolnshire to travel more than 5,000 miles with his son for the greatest adventure of his golf career.
“He kept saying to me ‘Dad, will you come and caddy for me?’ so last Thursday I ended up handing my notice in and I’m going to try my hand at caddying now,” he told BBC Look North.
“I was chasing a bin lorry about all day, probably walking up to 10 miles a day some days, so I should be up to walking four rounds of golf hopefully.”
It’s been quite a year for Dave, 35, who finished joint third behind Richard Bland at the British Masters in May.
Not bad for a player who once sold shares in himself to raise money to keep his career going.
The US Open is not Dave’s first major.
He played two rounds at The Open at Carnoustie in 2007 and at Royal Troon in 2016, missing the halfway cut on both occasions, but competing in the US is a challenge he is relishing.
“I told him 20 years ago when we went to Florida, ‘you’ll play here one day, son’, and now the time has come,” said his mum Louise.
“I’ve probably been playing since I was 13, so it’s 22 years now, You watch it on TV, the US Open, you always want to get there at some stage in your career. It is the pinnacle,” Dave added.
He will be one of 15 British players competing at Torrey Pines and the first Lincolnshire golfer to play the US Open since Tony Jacklin, the champion 51 years ago.
Dave will tee it up alongside Canadian Taylor Pendrith and Wade Ormsby of Australia in Thursday’s opening round.
Richard Latham, general manager of Woodhall Spa, Dave’s home club, said local interest in his performance at Torry Pines is “off the scale”.
“One of the things that makes us so proud of him is that he just continues being Dave,” he continued.
“People can win several million at this game, but it probably wouldn’t change him at all. He’d be driving around in an unassuming car, living in an unassuming house, just being Dave and that’s one thing that really makes us like him a lot.”
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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