It`s been a busy few days, what with the usual trials of life`s rich pageant and the small matter of celebrating my 80th birthday yesterday, which was a memorable day for me and one which demonstrated yet again the good fortune I have to be blessed with family and good neighbours and friends.   Not sure I feel 80 and equally not sure how you are supposed to feel at my age but the truth is that I don`t `feel` 80 - I am grimly hanging on to my adolescence and my avowed determination not to grow up. 

Anyway, in between all that, I have been transfixed by the Tour de France and, since Thursday, by the Open Golf.   I watched quite a bit of it today and came to the view that watching the standard of play becoming almost metronomic  probably means that at the highest professional level there comes a point whereby a sport become a job - and maybe the fun goes out of it a bit.

Now I confess to having played golf at an appallingly mediocre level - I bought the gear, the balls, the clubs, I pay the green fees and after all those outgoings I think I`m entitled to hit the ball as many times as I can.  I have succeeded in that philosophy and it has not only stood me in good stead over the years but has also meant that I have enjoyed playing for the love of the game.

So I could identify with the travails of David Duval - a 47-tear old American professional golfer and former world No. 1 who has won 13 PGA Tour tournaments and the Open Championship itself in 2001.  Good for him but of course that`s not the bit I identify with.  Rather I quietly admired the fact that in the first round of the current Open, he scored 91, including taking 14 shots at one hole.   He would be forgiven for calling it a day and flying home to Florida but no, he went back out for a second round of 78, giving him a total of 169 for his two rounds - a mere 27 over par.  

But what was perhaps more remarkable were his post match comments, when in answer to how he felt at his abject score, he declared, "Well, that`s the way it goes - worse things happen to people every day."  He obviously plays these days for the love of the game and I hope the game loves him for it.