Open hopeful Colin Fleming: Ex-tennis pros are all addicted to golf - including Andy Murray

The 41-year-old, a doubles specialist in tennis who reached the quarter-finals at both Wimbledon and US Open, plays off plus one at Kingsfield Golf & Leisure on the outskirts of Linlithgow, where he’s a two-time club champion and now the new course-record holder.

Playing in this year’s club championship qualifying last weekend, Fleming carded a six-under-par 62, handing himself a timely boost as he prepares to try and qualify for The 154th Open in just over a month’s time at Royal Birkdale in Southport.

He is heading to Kilmarnock (Barassie) on Monday week to join the hopefuls in Regional Qualifying and, if successful there, a return to Ayrshire is likely to be on the cards the following week for Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links.

“I stopped playing professional tennis at the end of 2016 and I’ve really gotten into golf since then,” Fleming, who lives in Linlithgow, told The Scotsman. “Before that, I just played golf for fun, maybe ten times a year or something like that and I wasn’t a member anywhere.

Open qualifying is ‘unbelievable opportunity’

“I wasn’t a member anywhere as a junior either, but my grandad played golf and he always got me swinging a club. I always enjoyed it and, fortunately through tennis, I got to play some nice courses on my travels. I think I always had one eye on playing more golf whenever I stopped competing in tennis, and that’s the way it has played out as I’ve played a lot since 2017.”

Fleming will be among more than 2,100 golfers teeing up in 16 Regional Qualifiers in Great Britain and Ireland, with his rivals at Kilmarnock (Barassie) set to include Michael Stewart, who played in The Open three years ago at Royal Liverpool, as well as Sam Locke, the Silver Medal winner as leading amateur in the 2018 event at Carnoustie.

“It is an unbelievable opportunity for me as an amateur golfer,” admitted Fleming, who had a spell as the national coach for Tennis Scotland after retiring as a player but is now a freelance commentator these days, working for Sky Sports and the BBC in the UK and for world feeds at the other Grand Slam events and the ATP Tour.

“I play a lot of golf with a good friend of mine, Johnny O’Mara, who was a tennis pro as well, and I caddied for him last year in Open Regional Qualifying at Craigielaw. I just thought it was a brilliant experience for amateurs to be able to tee it up with professionals.

“I’ve just got a real passion for golf and it’s great to be able to follow that in so many different ways. I’m going to go up and play in the Scottish Amateur in Aberdeen later this year. I just think there are brilliant tournaments and events to get involved in. Yeah, I just felt like my game is good enough that I won’t be out of place (in Open Qualifying). So I thought I’ll enter this year, having fixed my calendar to give it a go.”

In his tennis career, Fleming reached 19 ATP Tour doubles finals, winning eight of them. He took part in two Olympics and won a gold medal in mixed doubles at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Like lots of other sportspeople, he wasn’t ready to stop being a competitor when he called time on professional tennis.

“Oh, seriously,” he replied to being asked if golf had ticked that particular box. “It gets the juices flowing and that’s the great thing about golf. It’s the round and competition itself, but it is also preparing for that and having it on the horizon. There’s a real excitement there.

‘We all want to really get stuck in’

“Andy, myself and Johnny are in contact quite a lot as we are all very similar. You could say we’re all addicted to golf and that’s just our personalities. It’s also probably why we all ended up playing professional tennis. Once we get our teeth into something, we all probably have a wee bit of an obsessive personality. We want to really get stuck in and get as good as we can be.

“It’s fantastic to have so many opportunities in golf to go on and still compete and maybe fill that competitive void a wee bit without putting too much strain on the body is important because we’ve obviously got a few bumps and bruises from tennis. Yeah, we just love playing golf and it is always good to get a game with Andy a few times a year when I am down south. It’s always a competitive match, that’s for sure.”

Murray, now a brand ambassador for Callaway Golf, played with Bob MacIntyre in the BMW Championship Pro-Am at Wentworth in 2024, admitting that his aim is to get his handicap down to scratch and, according to MacIntyre, having the ability to achieve that target.

“Easy for me to say, but I think I would probably just edge it,” replied Fleming to being asked who’d come out on top in a match between him and the three-time grand slam champion. “If we played ten times, I think I would win a few more. But he is certainly capable of beating me as he’s a good player already and he is going to keep getting better. Yeah, I’d think he would be keen to enter Open Qualifying one day and he will probably be keeping an eye on my score, I’d imagine, to see how I get on and be ready to either congratulate me or abuse me depending how it goes.

“Obviously the stature and profile he has, it is going to open a lot of doors in golf and it already has, which is great. I think that’s what is brilliant about golf. You know, it’s competitive, it’s skill-based and, though still athletic, it’s not too hard on the body. And there are so many opportunities in the game, which is how I think we are all into it.”