If
there is indeed a golfing God - and sometimes you are left wondering if
there is - then Connor Syme’s turn will come in his bid to join the
long list of Scottish winners on the DP World Tour.
The
Drumoig-based player has been knocking at the door since securing a
card on the main tour for the first time in 2018, having finished second
three times and third on three more occasions.
In a total of 176 appearances, he has clocked up an impressive 18
top-ten finishes, the latest one coming in the Joburg Open last weekend.
That, of course, was won by his compatriot, Calum Hill, and what an
image the pair created at the end of a play-off at Houghton Golf Club.
Though not involved in it, Syme hung around to watch his fellow Scot
face South African duo Shaun Norris and Jacques Kruyswijk in the
sudden-death shoot-out.
After
winning at the second extra hole, Hill embraced his wife, Miranda, in a
celebratory hug on the green before Syme ran on to the green and
sprayed the winner with a bottle of water.
Captured
by Getty Images photographer Stuart Franklin, an image of Syme up on
Hill’s back is, in my opinion anyway, one of the best you will ever see.
It shows pure joy in both cases and, while Hill’s is perhaps self
explanatory after he’d just landed a second DP World Tour win after
producing an incredible last-round fightback, Syme’s part in it merits
some attention.
No-one
is more determined to be a winner on the circuit than 29-year-old, who
has a brilliant work ethic and will hopefully get the reward he deserves
before too long.
It
became apparent from the first time I met him around a decade ago,
though, that Syme is also one of those individuals who is a credit to
himself in particular but also his country for the way he handles
everyday matters off the course through being a class act.
That,
it has to be said, applies to Scottish golfers in general, but there
has always been something about Syme that has made him one of the most
likeable figures I’ve come across in the game and others, I’m sure, will
probably know exactly what I am trying to share about him.
When his time does indeed come, there will be lots of people out there feeling that exact same joy as he did for Hill on Sunday.
