Sam Torrance was a relieved man as he prepared to play in this week’s Prostate Cancer UK Scottish Senior Open at Archerfield.
The former Ryder Cup captain has finally found out the cause of the niggling injury that has plagued him all season but it took a nasty fall to discover what it was.
“I’ve finally got to the bottom of what’s been wrong with me,” said Torrance. “I’ve had six months of an injury, it’s been a nightmare. It’s a trapped nerve here (in the groin area) and it goes right down the leg.
“It only affects me when I’m standing up. If I’m standing with you at the bar having a drink, I’ll have to sit down after three or four minutes, because if I don’t, it just gives way.
“It was pretty sinister to be honest. They thought at first I might have a stress fracture in my hip but they ruled that out. Not to get to the bottom of it was very worrying. Was it muscular? Was it something much worse? I just didn’t know. But now I know it’s just a trapped nerve and I’ll be alright for next year with a bit of treatment.
“I’m still feeling it, it’s not cured, but it’s a weight of my mind now that I know what it is. I feel a hell of a lot better. The future feels much brighter now.”
Torrance went on to explain that doctors did not get to the bottom of the problem until he had to go to hospital with a head injury.
“It was extraordinary how we found out,” said the Scot who celebrated his 62nd birthday on Monday. “I had a fall and banged the back of my head. My leg gave way and I fell. I went to see a neurologist and he asked me how it happened. I said my ‘leg gave way but that’s another story’ and he said ‘what?’ He said ‘we can look at that’.
"The head is fine now,” he added. “I had to have an MRI on my head. It was a bad one and I can still feel it but, by falling on my head, I found out what was wrong with my leg.”
I feel a hell of a lot better. The future feels much brighter now.
Sam Torrance
This week, for the first two rounds of the Championship, the pros play alongside an amateur partner, and Torrance is delighted to have been teamed up with his son, Daniel.
“That is very nice,” he admitted. “Daniel has been caddying for me and now we’ve been reunited in a playing capacity 12 years on from us winning the pro-am event in the Dunhill Links. It’s going to be fun”
The Scot admits to mixed feelings about the Championship being switched from his course at Fairmont St Andrews but is happy to play at Archerfield instead.
“It’s obviously a bit disappointing for me because I loved playing at the Fairmont....but I never won it there so I might do it here. If it was going to change from the Fairmont then this is a great venue, it’s a beautiful place. It couldn’t get much better. I strongly recommend the haggis pies in the halfway hut. Probably the best food I’ve ever eaten. They are out of this world.”
