Grace Kim understands the Scottie Scheffler quote. She’s living it

Grace Kim, fresh off her major triumph, strides between wind-whipped fairways and whispers of destiny as eight Aussies tee it up at Royal Porthcawl, chasing greatness in golf’s gale-swept nirvana.

Australia’s most recent major champion Grace Kim at Royal Porthcawl ahead of the Women’s Open this week Picture: R&A

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You hear the precise and delicate clinking of golf balls. Like players are tapping champagne glasses with their perfectly manicured fingernails. You hear the North Atlantic Ocean rumbling and grumbling along this gorgeously raw and rugged stretch of Welsh coastline. A local bloke with a shrewd eye starts talking up the fairways and greens at Royal Porthcawl.

He reckons they’re perfect. Unparalleled. Worthy of the highest praise from every Australian sportswriter in town. And what do you do around here, old mate? A local, are ye? The club champion? You’re getting on a bit. B-grade champion? The president of this fine establishment? What makes ye talk up the fairways and greens so feverishly? “Well,” he grins. “I’m the greenkeeper, ain’t I!”

Clink, clink, clink. The sound of a ball upon departure from a diamond club. If delayed on the sea-kissed second fairway, you might like to bait a hook, cast a line over the fence, with a gentle fade, riding the westerly, of course, and try jagging a cod.

Such is the spectacularly natural setting for the Women’s British Open, where gales can blow the sturdiest of dogs from the strongest of chains, and knock you to smithereens or halfway to Dylan Thomas’s childhood home at Swansea, and where rain can last for 40 days and nights but where they reckon the forecast this week is actually pretty good.

Clink, clink, clink. I suspect golf is the sport we’ll play in heaven, saints. Is there a finer sight or feeling than a well-struck orb somersaulting through the clouds while making its rainbow arc down an unblemished fairway? Is there anything more gentle and refreshing than rolling in a birdie putt? For dress sense, are these athletes not the best in show? Is there anything as delightfully sociable as having a hit with three of your favourite mates? All a joy. I’m standing behind the second tee, scribbling notes, when a player comes skipping along.

Player: “Hello there!”

Me: “G’day.”

Player: “Are you Australian?”

Me: “Yep.”

Player: “You’re here on holidays?”

Me: “I’m a newspaper writer, ain’t I! The better the Australians play, the more trips I get.”

Player: “It’s the same for me.”

Sydney’s 22-year-old Cassie Porter clink, clinks a couple of drives up the guts and waltzes away with a breezy “See ya!” Truly, the game to be found in heaven.

Australia’s Cassie Porter tees off at Royal Porthcawl during a practice round Picture: R&A

Grace Kim, the freshly minted major champion, is having a solo practice round, striding down fairways resembling green carpets, happy as a clam, concentrating, then giggling, then concentrating, then giggling some more, having a fine old time as caddies do what they always do on the Mondays before majors. These mischievous, knowledgeable sods are pacing out the distances from the tees to the bunkers, and from the bunkers to the greens, and from the 18th green to the nearest pub.

Kim is living the Scottie Scheffler quote. You know the one, where he says winning is important and unimportant in the same breath of existential crisis. You triumph at a major then arrive at the next event to hear everyone ask, so, what’s next? Are you going to win the FedEx Cup or what?

Having won the Evian Championship with her fairytale guitar-solo-of-an-eagle-birdie-eagle finish, Kim has promptly missed the cut at last week’s Scottish Open, starting her second-round bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, What happened there? What’s next? Are you going to win the British Open or what?

“Obviously I’m not as successful as Scottie Scheffler but I totally understand what he’s trying to say,” Kim tells The Australian at Royal Porthcawl.

“I think a lot of people took it the wrong way. I think I took it the right way where, you know, golf is his career and passion and he’s worked all his life to get to where he is.

“He’s world No.1, he’s won a hundred million dollars, he’s won majors, what more do you need and want? But at the end of the day, that’s not what is important to him. He’s all about his family and his loved ones even more.”

Kim adds: “I totally understand when he says you win the tournament, you’re on a high for like 24, 48, 72 hours, but at the end of the day you still have to work out what you’re going to do for dinner. Then you have to tee it up again next week.”

Clink, clink, clink. Kim is chipping from the light rough on the 13th green. Lucky she’s not in the thick rough, where diminutive players go searching for their balls before marshals go looking for the players.

Australia’s Minjee Lee is chasing her fourth major title Picture: R&A

It’s a beautiful course but punishments are brutal. Kim ditches her wedge to experimentally chip with her four-hybrid, the club that triggered the eagle, birdie, eagle finish. Perhaps she should hit every shot with it, tee to green, now and forevermore.

“I can understand what he was saying because I’m doing the same here,” she says of Scheffler. “I can totally relate. I’m teeing it up in another tournament. I just thought he was very refreshing.

“All I’ll try to do is keep doing everything I’ve done to get here. I’ve had a big win but I haven’t changed who I am. I’m exactly the same person I was a few weeks ago.

“I look at a lot of motivational quotes on my phone and everything’s relatable. You can have a great week and you can have a not-so-great week. It sounds very cliche when everyone says, ‘Keep going,’ and ‘Hang in there,’ but they’re cliches for a reason. They’re true.”

Clink, clink, clunk. Major champion, missed the cut. With apologies for moving on so quickly, are you going to win the British Open or what?

“No, no, no, I get it,” Kim says. “It makes total sense to me. I’m back in tournament mode now. Links golf is a totally different type of golf and I have to prepare properly. I’ll do this week what I’ve been doing every week. Trying my best. What more can you do?

“It’s a cool job because it’s definitely a big, big struggle when things aren’t perfect. But it’s very rewarding when things come good.”

Eight Australians are in the Open field. Most of them are staying in the same house. This is a golden age for women’s golf, ain’t it? Hannah Green, Minjee Lee and Kim are major champions, and Lee and Kim have won the past two, and the supporting cast led by Stephanie Kyriacou and Gabriela Ruffels are capable of winning more. Clink, clink, clink.

The Open gets under way on Thursday. Heaven on Earth here. Fairways and greens are perfect. Unparalleled. Worthy of the highest praise.