Tiger Woods was unable to find the inspiration which once came so naturally . . . Nick Faldo moved to within one shot of the eventual winning score, then dropped three strokes in the closing four holes . . . Vijay Singh was all Fijian sunshine one moment, then tropical storm the next . . . Thomas Bjorn led by three with three to play but floundered in a bunker . . . and thus did Ben Curtis become Open champion at Royal St George's in 2003.
Who is this guy? demanded USA Today on the front page, the morning after the unknown villager from Ostrander, Ohio, had achieved sporting immortality.
Many, quite wrongly, compared Curtis's improbable victory to that of Boris Becker winning Wimbledon as an unseeded 17-year-old in 1985, conveniently forgetting the German teenager had offered a tantalising glimpse of his powers 12 months earlier when he reached the third round, only to be carried off court with an injured ankle while playing the 14th-seeded American Bill Scanlon.
Curtis, despite an impressive career as an amateur, had arrived at Royal St George's unnoticed and unheralded, ranked a lowly 396th in the world. When he was handed the Claret Jug, it was like witnessing Joey Tribbiani receiving the Oscar for Best Actor.
Now Curtis is poised to take another starring role when he makes his Ryder Cup debut as a 31-year-old rookie.
Five years on from his unlikely Open victory, Curtis remains the homespun son of Millcreek Golf Course in Ostrander, the family owned municipal club where he learned his trade.
He is such an easy going, laid-back character that it is hard to imagine him coping with the pressure he must have felt that fateful Sunday morning in July 2003.
"I was excited, sure, because I wanted to test myself, good or bad; I knew if I went out there and shot 80, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Maybe it was because I was two strokes back and not a couple of shots in the lead but I had told Candace [now his wife] the night before I was going to win. It was just a feeling I had, I've no idea where it came from, but I wish I could bottle it and keep it."
Although he was right up there near the top of the leaderboard, the golfing world were still asking "Ben Who?" at the start of the final round, a question that became ludicrously silly as, one by one, the recognised names began to find all manner of ways to self-destruct. "I was playing in the fifth-last pairing and, knowing level par or there-abouts would probably be good enough to win, set out to post the lowest possible score, then sit back to watch what unfolded."
What unfolded was the stuff of fantasy; three strokes ahead on the 16th, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn came to grief in a greenside bunker as Curtis cut a lonely figure on the practice ground, where he was preparing in the event of a play-off, having earlier sunk a stinker of a 10ft putt on the 18th for a four-round, one-under-par total of 283. "When did I know I'd won? Only when Thomas missed his chip at the last. He's such a great player I wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised if he'd holed out, even from 70 yards.
"What was I thinking out there on the practice ground? I was trying not to think. I've been taught to hide my emotions, so I may not have looked like it on television, but I was shaking like a leaf."
As Candace wrapped her husband-to-be in a warm embrace, she whispered: "I can't believe you just did that."
"No, nor can I," came the tearful reply.
"When you gather round the 18th for the trophy ceremony, it is a moment like no other. At the words 'Champion golfer of the year . . . Ben Curtis', my whole life flashed by.
"To be pushed on to that stage all of a sudden, the only thought that was in my mind was 'what have I just done?'"
Life has never been quite the same since. There were many, including myself, who dismissed Ben Curtis is a one-hit wonder, an unknown member of the chorus-line who struck lucky when all the leading men broke an ankle.
Then came a seventh place finish in the British Open at Royal Birkdale this summer followed by his joint second in the US PGA Championship behind Padraig Harrington which sent him soaring up the Ryder Cup points standings.
"That's why the game of golf is so good; just because you're ranked 200 or 300 in the world doesn't make you a bad player. True, I thought I'd need to play in 10, maybe 15 Majors before winning my first, but I know my name belongs on that trophy. Being Open champion is like being called Mr President after you've left the White House; I'll be an Open champion until the day I die and there are a lot of great players out there who can't say that.
"I've become a member of a very exclusive club and it's a real honour; I received three lovely letters of congratulations from Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
"That says a lot about them as true champions and great men. It's very humbling."
Not that Curtis has taken to surrounding himself with fellow-champions; he may be a Major title-holder but he has not jettisoned his buddies on the US Tour to start swanning around with Tiger or Ernie.
"It's great suddenly being able to play with the best players in the world and have the chance to watch how they go about things up close, but I still hang out with old pals such as Andy Miller and Cameron Yancey.
"After I won the Open they began joking around by bowing and the like for, as they said, 'heck, you couldn't make a cut two weeks ago and now we're having dinner with the Open champion.' "
Time will tell if Ben Curtis is deserving of his place among the golfing legends, but he is already as gracious as they come.
@email:rphilip@thenational.ae
SPECS
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Mountain%20Boy
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Zainab%20Shaheen%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Naser%20Al%20Messabi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
UAE%20SQUAD
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
MATCH INFO
Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73’)
Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties
Man of the Match: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal)
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Company%20Profile
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.