You learn something every day in this game. By the time the golf writers had finished a chinwag with Richard Sterne here at the Nexo Championship, we were so well-versed in the finer details of a Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex, we could’ve whipped out a scalpel and performed intricate surgery on our own wrists.
Funnily enough, some readers often say that these writings make them want to cut theirs too. Sterne, meanwhile, is made of, well, stern stuff.
A defiant, bogey-free five-under 67 over a blowy Trump International Golf Links gave the 43-year-old South African a timely tonic has he continues to recover from a series of ravaging injuries and surgeries.
At the end of an unforgiving day, Sterne was perched at the head of the standings, a shot clear of his compatriots, Thomas Aiken and Louis Albertse, and Norway’s Andreas Halvorsen.
Wear, tear, aches, pains, hirples and hobbles can be par for the course when you’ve spent your life thwacking balls with a stick.
“How long have you got?,” replied Sterne when asked to detail the various afflictions that have dogged him down the seasons.
“I’ve had three wrist surgeries since 2020 and I have a titanium disc in my lower back,” added the six-time DP World Tour winner, who reached a career-high of 29th in the world rankings but now languishes down in 1049th.
“The wrist procedure was a scaphoid ligament which tore and they fixed it and then it tore again. I also tore the TFCC (triangular fibrocartilage complex) in my wrist. It can be a hell of a thing to operate on.
“When I was getting the third wrist surgery, I decided to get my back done as well because I’d had 20 years of it (pain). I could always play but it got so bad, I couldn't even swing a club.
“I was out for nine months with the wrist surgery so I thought I may as well do my back too. I would have pain down my leg, I was living on painkillers. It was not fun.
“The only way I could see myself playing again was to take the chance with surgery. My back was actually easier to recover from. The wrist was more of a worry. I’ve spent hundreds of hours recovering and being in the gym trying to get my body able to play again.
“I didn’t hit a ball for 22 months. You can imagine trying to come back from that. It’s been a tough year.”
Sterne has played 14 events on the tour his season but has made just three cuts.
It’s been a sair auld fecht but, having harnessed the testing conditions with a neatly assembled opening round amid the towering dunes of the Menie estate, Sterne is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.
“I enjoyed today, and it would be nice to play like this for the rest of the year to build some confidence,” said Sterne, who birdied three of the four par-5s and was home and dry before the wind really got howling.
“The wind was not excessive, but it was testing. You can see that in the scores. I hit some shots that I’ve been working on, and they came off so that gives me confidence too.”
Sterne’s considered, bogey-free card was in stark contrast to a wild practice round earlier in the week that was played out in the kind of wind that would’ve knackered the Beaufort Scale.
“I lost eight balls, it was chaos,” he said with a chuckle. “Some guys played nine holes and then stopped. But I thought, ‘bugger it, I’ll go and play’. I nearly ran out of balls.”
Many of us can empathise with such a predicament. Halvorsen’s 68 included an eagle-two on the seventh after his drive rolled up to within six-feet of the hole.
Aiken also had an eagle in his four-under round as he trundled in a 20-footer for a three on the long 10th.
Englishman Jordan Smith, meanwhile, has been one of the players on European Ryder Cup skipper Luke Donald’s radar ahead of the showdown with the USA in New York.
The consistent Smith got himself up-and-running with a three-under 69 but with qualifying events running out – the final counting tournament is the British Masters in a couple of weeks - the 32-year-old knows it’s a tall order to make the grade.
“I think it would have to be two wins or a win and a really good performance somewhere else,” said Smith of a last ditch push. “I mean, it’s not off the cards, but I think it will be really, really tricky for me to get on the team."
America’s John Catlin made an assault on the summit as he raced to the turn in five-under, but he got into bother on his back-nine and trudged home in 40 on his way to a one-under 71.
It was that kind of day.
