Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston: The Open, Troon, Fame & Me

History will show that Henrik Stenson won The Open at Royal Troon in 2016, and in record-breaking fashion, but what it might not be so quick to recall is the performance of Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston.

As Stenson and Phil Mickelson wowed the crowds with their epic Sunday duel, Englishman Johnston charmed them with his cheerful ‘everyman’ demeanour and scintillating play.

Making only his third major start, Beef high-fived and thumbs-upped his way into the penultimate group on Sunday. And though he finished eighth, a distant 17 shots behind Stenson, he left Ayrshire as somewhat of the ‘People’s Champ’.

A new star was born, beloved as much for how he behaved as how he played.

But immediate fame came at a cost.

As golf’s oldest championship returns to Ayrshire for the first time since then, Beef is ready to reflect – in searingly honest fashion – on eight years of ups, downs, chicken wings, and more…

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We’re going back to to Royal Troon this year. Eight years since that incredible week for you. Life’s obviously very different these days. What do you think when you see pictures of yourself from that week?

The first thing is, ‘Oh shit, I was better looking back then!’ [laughs] Those lines weren’t there on my face. The hairline looked a bit better. But yeah, it baffles me it’s eight years ago. It only feels like one or two. But absolutely, those are memories that are going to last a lifetime. I went into the week with pretty low expectations. I just wanted to go in, play some good golf, and see where it got me. Next thing I know, it’s Friday night and I’m being asked to do TV after my round, there’s media requests, and I look at my tee time for Saturday and I’m out in one of the final groups with Sergio Garcia. It was unreal. I remember walking to the tee that Saturday morning. You had to walk underneath the grandstand and, when I walked out, everybody was shouting my name. I was like, what is going on? It was crazy. Honestly, man, talking about it now, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up again.

You might have had low expectations but you’d been playing good golf. You’d won at Valderrama that April, so you must have been happy with where your game was at?

Yeah, absolutely. Plus I’d played in an Open before, in 2011, so I kind of knew what to expect. But yeah, my confidence was pretty good. I’d done well on the Challenge Tour, won at Valderrama, and I guess I was comfortable with where I was at. I just went in with the mindset of, ‘Let’s limit the mistakes and see what happens.’

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You seemed totally at ease with the attention. Any time you appeared on camera, you were smiling, giving a thumbs-up to the crowd. You looked like you were relishing the whole thing…

Yeah, that’s a product of playing well. When you’re hitting good golf shots, particularly in an Open Championship and you’ve got the crowd on your side, how could anybody not find that fun? I was still nervous but it was a good kind of nervous, the kind of nervous you want to feel as a golfer. I was just so wrapped up in the moment, loving life.

Take me back to Saturday night. You’re five-under, fourth on the leaderboard – but Henrik Stenson’s seven shots clear and Phil Mickelson, in second, is six shots. As you’re eating your dinner, are you allowing yourself to think about winning?

It crossed my mind, mainly because of how Royal Troon plays. You’ve got to make your score in the first six or seven holes, because from the middle stretch all the way back home, it’s brutal, especially if it’s windy. So, I remember thinking that if I could make maybe three or four birdies early on and put a bit of pressure on, maybe they’d come out, drop a couple of shots and suddenly we’re right in it. Of course, as we know, they came flying out of the traps. I remember looking at a leaderboard early on and, instead of closing the gap, I was further behind. I was like, ‘Yeah, I think it’s going to be two-horse race after all.’ [laughs]

How do you adjust mentally when you see that? When you see that little glimmer of hope kind of extinguished by your opponents’ relentless play?

Oh, you just gotta play, man. It didn’t deflate me at all. Don’t get me wrong, I still knew starting the round that six or seven shots as a lot to make up in one round of golf, particularly when you’re chasing guys like Henrik and Phil. But there’s just always that bit of hope, isn’t there? It’s like Arsenal winning the title. You know that it’s Manchester City and that they’re capable of reeling off 15 or 16 wins on the spin or whatever it was but as long as it’s possible, you need to have a bit of hope. Besides, there was more to play for than the win, too. You just want to finish as high up the leaderboard as you can. Seventh is better than eighth, right? So, I wasn’t deflated. I just kept trying to shoot the lowest number I could. In the end, I dropped a few shots coming in, but that’s golf. It happens.

What would seven-year-old Beef have made of it?

He’d have been loving it. I remember when I played in my first one at Royal St George’s in 2011 and telling myself, ‘You know what? You might only get one shot at this. Just give it your best go and enjoy every second of it.’ And that’s what I tried to do. And then Troon, it’s the greatest experience I’ve ever had on a golf course. Even now, I struggle to put it into words.

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Life changed pretty much overnight for you after that. Media requests, fan attention, all that sort of stuff. Tell me what those few weeks after Troon were like…

Manic. I mean, you said it. The change was overnight. I remember we got finished up on the Sunday and I went and got hammered. Went to bed around four in the morning or whatever it was but I was so full of adrenaline still that I couldn’t sleep. So, next morning, we get packed up and drive back down the road to England. We pulled over at a service station to get a Burger King or a McDonald’s, something to cure the hangover, and, all of a sudden, all these people are coming up to me. I was like, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ Like, I get it if it’s at a golf course. But people recognising me at the petrol pumps? It was a bit of a shock. Anyway, I went in to pay and there was a WH Smith inside the services and I remember looking at the front pages of the newspapers and it was like, f***ing hell, that’s my picture. I felt like I saw my face staring back at me everywhere I turned. On social media, I couldn’t refresh my mentions quickly enough to keep up to date with it. Everything changed in an instant. And it was good, don’t get me wrong. There were some great opportunities that came out of it. Like, I got to go on Soccer AM a few weeks later, which was wicked, and I got invited to a chicken wing festival. That was cool, too. But everywhere I went, people wanted an autograph or a selfie and it was just…

Overwhelming?

Yeah, very. But again, when you’re in that situation, you don’t realise just how overwhelming it is. That only hits you a long time later. But yeah, I had to start being careful where I went.

Really?

Yeah, absolutely. If I wanted to go out and have a quiet dinner, for example. That just didn’t happen for a while. People would come up no matter where I was. In a restaurant, walking down a street, down the pub with your mates. That little bubble you used to have? Gone.

It’s a lot to take in, I imagine, particularly when you’re just a down-to-Earth, ‘normal’ bloke?

Definitely. I look at people like Tiger and Rory and I have nothing but respect for how they deal with that because their fame is on a whole other level to mine. I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like. It’s funny, I remember seeing Ricky Gervais in Hampstead not all that long ago. We walked past each when we were crossing the road and there was part of me that wanted to go and say something to him about how much I’d loved After Life. But then I thought, ‘If I stop him now, he might get stuck here for an hour with other people coming up’, so I just left it.

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It’s one of those things, isn’t it? Being in the public eye isn’t for everyone…

Yeah and, again, I wouldn’t change it. It was insane but it was amazing. Maybe I could have handled some of it better, but I didn’t know how at that time and, before you know it, you’re don’t practice as much, you’re running on fumes, you don’t recover well enough and your performances and scores start get affected. It’s a steep learning curve, for sure.

There’s obviously been a lot of ups and down for you since that week in Troon but let’s talk about the here and now. How are things, and do you think you’re in a place where people can look forward to seeing Beef back on the major stage again?

Yeah, things are good man. I’ve been working with a new physio for the last five or six weeks, which has been great, and I played the Porsche European Open in Germany recently. I missed the cut but, honestly, that’s the best my body’s felt in a long time. So, if I can stay healthy, get the sharpness back and so on then, yeah, why not? I’ve seen some really, really good signs in my game. Now, I’ve just got to go and do it. I’ve got to believe that the best is yet to come.

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Buy Beef’s Book!

Beef has written his first book. Golf Is Hard documents the ups and downs of a life playing the world’s most infuriating sport and is available now from all good book shops and online.

RRP: £22 (Harper Collins) 

Michael McEwan is bunkered's Head of Content and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Head of Content