From hitting his first shot at the age of five to being a guest on the latest episode of Life on Tour presented by Buffalo Trace, Sam Torrance has lived a remarkable life in golf.
He grew up watching the Big Three and then played alongside the Big Five, all under the watchful eye of father and world-renowned coach Bob.
A player in eight Ryder Cups and winner of three, he would then captain Europe to victory in 2022 to cement an already glorious legacy in the biennial spectacular.
"I was never in the Big Five, I was always between six and 12," he says of his Ryder Cup role, part of a career that has seen him become the DP World Tour's third highest appearance-maker with 714, claiming 21 wins along the way.
From working at Sunningdale to a career in broadcasting via more than 30 years on Tour and an embarrassing run-in with an A-Lister, in conversation with George Harper Jr and John E Morgan, Torrance tells his tale like no other.
On dad and coach Bob
When I was nine, there was a nine-hole course and I shot 39 and I came in looking for my dad and I found him and I ran up and said ‘dad, I just shot 39’. I actually thought he was going to slap me, he says, ‘I told you never to lie to me, ever’. I went ‘dad, I really did’ and he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and dragged me to the first tee. We played again and I shot 39 again and from that day I had a coach for life.
It’s great to have somebody that loves you that teaches you because he’ll forgive you for a lot. I always did as I was told, I never asked him why.
He had a great saying: If you don’t take it with you, you’ll never find it there. We did all the work when we came home and then when you’re away at a tournament, you just play golf.
A great coach. He was a great man, I miss him.
On the late, great Seve Ballesteros
My best win ever in individual golf was the Australian PGA, I won that at Royal Melbourne playing with Seve and Greg Norman who were one and two in the world.
I’d come up against Seve a couple of times earlier and I had good matches with him, I tied with him in what would become the Seve Trophy at The Belfry.
When we came off the last green in Australia he put his arm around me and looked at me and said ‘San’ - he always called me San - ‘you’re very tough to beat, eh’. This was 1980 and I’d won twice on Tour in 1976 but I hadn’t played in the Ryder Cup or anything and that changed my life. For a legend like him to say I'm tough to beat just blew my mind. It gave me so much more belief in myself and I won a few more after that because of that.
"It's not an addiction. It's a love affair."
This is Sam's story.
