ALFIE PLANT collected the Silver Medal as the leading amateur at the Open championship then joked the only ring his girlfriend would be getting now would be one made of sweets. The Englishman, the only amateur to make the cut at Royal Birkdale, carded a final-day 73 to finish on six-over par.
Had he been a professional that would have earned him a cheque in the region of £20,000 but the 25 year-old felt his girlfriend would be more upset at missing out on a bumper payday than he was.
“If you ask her what we’ve had done with that money she’d definitely say a ring,” he laughed. “Unfortunately that’s out the question unless she accepts a Haribo one! I don’t know what I’ve have done with the money myself. Some new clothes would have been nice or a nice holiday. But it’s all been absolutely amazing. It sent shivers down my spine walking up the last. I had my brother walking up beside me as my caddie and it was a really good feeling.”
Plant will turn professional in September after representing Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup in Los Angeles and looked forward to joining the paid ranks.
“I’ll be turning pro in September,” he added. “Hopefully I’m going to be picked for the Walker Cup in September and try out for tour school after that. You have to go when you’re ready and go when you’ve got some good results behind you. I’m 25 so we’ve taken our time and I’ve enjoyed the journey along the way. And I think it’s definitely going to be a good journey going forward.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here