EXCLUSIVE'This tour is brutal, it can be dark. But playing The Open makes it all worthwhile': Journeyman Matthew Southgate opens up on the joy of qualifying for Troon

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The problem with the joke is everyone who delivers it thinks they are the first. As the man on the receiving end, Matthew Southgate can laugh about how wrong they are.

'It happens all the time,' he tells Mail Sport. 'I'll be walking past a gallery at a tournament and without fail someone will call out, "Go on, Gareth". It becomes part of your life in a strange way.'

Unlike the football manager with whom he shares a surname, the past few weeks have drawn unanimous goodwill towards an English golfer who knows what it is to struggle and has only recently been reacquainted with days of great satisfaction.

Ranked 225 in the world, Southgate will be among those contesting The Open in Troon this week, having proven once more that he has a remarkable knack for enduring the hot-house of final qualifying. With only four spots available to the 72 men at Royal Cinque Ports a fortnight ago, he made it through that 36-hole nerve-shredder for a fifth time in 10 years.

It is brilliantly unusual and to chat with him, to hear his tale, is to believe no one among the 156 golfers at Troon will walk the links with more enthusiasm.

Matthew Southgate, 35, will compete in The Open at Royal Troon Golf Club this week

That's because Southgate's career has predominantly been one of attrition. Of grinding. But it is also a love story, which explains why his tears fell when he qualified. 'It all came out,' he says. 'My results had been a disaster for a couple of months. For it to go right when a place at The Open was on the line is, well, magic. Just magic.'

The disaster was a run of DP World Tour finishes that read: cut, cut, cut, cut, withdrew, cut. The magic is that such a streak ended abruptly when the 35-year-old earned the golden ticket to his deepest obsession.

'I love The Open — it's been such a big part of my life before I knew what I was doing with a golf club,' he says. 'A lot of it is about my dad who is no longer with us (Ian Southgate passed away in 2020, aged 65).

'We went together to The Open every year, from 1999 until 2013. I can't tell you how much I loved those trips and they are what I was thinking of when I qualified.

'When we'd go, nothing was planned — we were just winging it. Dad would load a tent into the car, put our bikes on a roof rack and we'd drive from home in Southend. Sometimes my eldest sister Anna came and we'd set up the tent on rugby pitches, back gardens, wherever we could.

'My first one was Carnoustie — Paul Lawrie's win. I was 10. My dad knew the chief marshal and he let us sit on the Barry Burn Bridge, so when Jean van de Velde went in the water on 18 (and lost a three-shot on the 72nd hole), we were front row, literally 30 yards away. Some were laughing and I just felt so awful for him.

Southgate qualified for The Open earlier this month via a tournament at Royal Cinque Ports

'The bit I remember most was just after — I'll never forget the roar when Paul won the play-off. I would have been a 20-something handicapper and I was there thinking, "Wow, this is really special. This is what I want to do with my life". The Claret Jug, it was a fixation that started for me right at that moment.

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'Another year I remember me and Dad getting to Muirfield (2002) at some mad time in the morning — something like 5am. No one else is there, deserted, but along comes Tiger Woods. His thing was always getting out on the course super early and we watched him practise all on our own for five holes. Those are memories you keep and they just make me think of Dad.

'We learnt all the tricks over the years. What time to get there, where to stand, where you might get a photo. I got photos with Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Tiger at various Opens. It was just something we did and as a kid it was always the best week of my year — I had to get there for myself.'

Having turned professional in 2010, Southgate's ability to navigate qualifying for The Open has become renowned within his sport and so have the outcomes.

After he first made it to the big stage in 2014, his next two appearances, in 2016 and 2017, saw him finish in ties for 12th and sixth.

Southgate pictured practising on the 12th hole at Royal Troon ahead of the real deal this week

The year he missed in that burst, St Andrews in 2015, was because he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, with further appearances in 2018 and 2023, when he finished 23rd. He has always gone the hard way and only once missed the cut.

When Southgate talks about his life in golf, he makes a clear distinction between his occupation and his passion. The latter of those is found at The Open; the other, the 25-plus weeks he spends each year in hotel beds from China to Africa to the Middle East to Europe on the touring circuit, is the grind to keep his playing privileges in a maddening, fickle sport.

Southgate has had a good, if unspectacular, career in the relative terms of his profession, making over £4million in prizes across 14 years and he peaked at world No 118 in 2017. But he hasn't had a win in his 269 tour starts, where he estimates his annual overheads in excess of £100,000.

He says: 'It can be brutal and hard. You have days where it is just jubilation and days where you find yourself in some dark places, sat in a hotel room after missing a cut. Individual sports are like that — when it is going badly there is no one there to hit shots for you and I think there aren't many occupations where you go to work every day knowing there are 1,000 people wanting to have your job.

Southgate finished tied for sixth place at The Open back in 2017 - his best result in a major

'There's a saying in golf, every bad shot you hit pleases someone. It can be hard and I do see the tournaments on tour as my job. That is where I earn my living.

'But The Open is different. That is more of a bucket list thing, a dream, and that feeling doesn't change after going a few times now. It just gets better. You go there, people want their photo with you, the way I did when I went with my dad, and you're in the field with these great players. Even if you miss the cut, you are part of it.

'I haven't managed to win at the top level on the tour but I have racked up a few appearances at The Open and that really, really matters to me. I get sentimental about it. It makes me remember being in a tent with my dad, just wanting to get there. I have done that, now it's about playing well.'

The signs are good — after qualifying, Southgate rode the wave to his best finish in nine months, taking fourth in Munich a few days later. The hope is that will continue through the weekend in Troon, where a few in the gallery might consider calling the guy with the broadest smile by his own name.