Taxi ride with 'Flash Gordon' and Anton Du Beke's Senior Open bid - Martin Dempster's Open diary

Taxi ride with ‘Flash Gordon’

Not checking train times and turning up at Blundellsands and Crosby station at 6am and discovering that a normal Sunday service was operating left this correspondent taking a taxi to Birkdale for the final round.

“My name is Campbell Gillespie and I’m a famous Scot - check me out on Google,” said the driver as we quickly discovered that we were both from much further north than Merseyside.

On doing so, it transpired that back in 2003 he was struck by a direct bolt of lightning in his chest and, as several million volts coursed this his body, he fell face first in a puddle.

He’s lucky to be alive and required a 12-hour operation to get a “new face”. More than 20 years on, Gillespie, who is originally from Lenzie, is now a motivational speaker and has written a book entitled ‘Lightning Man’.

“My friends call me lots of names, including ‘Sparky’ and ‘Flash Gordon’,” said a truly inspirational character, who was wearing a chain when the lighting bolt hit and it is now vaporised into his skin!

Signed Baker-Finch book dropped off

It’s not every day that an Open champion leaves a signed copy of a book for you - but Ian Baker-Finch kindly did exactly that for this correspondent at Birkdale.

The Australian landed his Claret Jug win at the Southport venue in 1991, exorcising the ghosts of a nightmare last round when leading at St Andrews seven years earlier.

His fascinating story, which also included a pretty spectacular collapse, has been expertly recalled in ‘Ian Baker-Finch, To Hell and Back’ by Geoff Saunders.

Baker-Finch dropped off his signed copy just as fellow Australian Lucas Herbert joined him - 1954 and 1965 winner Peter Thomson as well - in doing something special at Birkdale with his men’s major record-equalling 62.

“I was excited for Lucas on Friday and went down to watch the last couple of holes,” said Baker-Finch. “Unfortunately, he just missed the short one at the last for history (a chance to be the only player to shoot 61), but still an unbelievable round.”

Anton Du Beke’s Senior Open bid

As one Open draws to a close, the build up begins for another one, with the ISPS HANDA Senior Open being played next week at Gleneagles.

Four 18-hole qualifiers for the over-50s’ major are being held on Monday, with two of them at Blairgowrie and the others at Glenbervie and Stirling.

Swapping his dancing shoes for a pair of golf shoes at one of the shoot-outs at Blairgowrie is Anton Du Beke, formerly a dancer on Strictly Come Dancing and now one of the judges on the hit BBC show.

The Wentworth member played with Bob MacIntyre and Andy Murray in the BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am a couple of years ago and will be hoping to get a ‘10’ for his performance this time.

Birkdale burgers and pints go down a treat

Ever wondered how much food and drinks is consumed during the week of an event like The Open?

Well, here are some figures for this week’s edition at Birkdale, where drink in particular has certainly been required in the hot weather.

Before the gates opened for the final round, a total of 230,000 pints had been consumed while another 98,000 hot drinks had been served.

As for what all that lot was washing down, a colossal 170,000 burgers, fish and chips and hotdogs had been consumed, as well as 35,000 breakfast baps.