Andrew Davidson does appreciate one view of his nickname. You don’t mind being called it in golf, because being it can be beautiful in golf. Basic pars are your friends. And a few years back, during one streak while at the University of Stirling, Davidson signed for them a lot.
He shot even par eight straight rounds, so of course his pals had to come up with something to call him other than “Andrew.”
“Blandy,” Davidson said.
Thing is, though, it’s also a touch ironic.
Most everything about the 32-year-old is decidedly un-bland. He is, in fact, accomplished at golf, and next week, he’ll be one of a dozen International players who will meet the American side at the Bridges Cup, a mid-amateur team event that’ll be played this year at Trump Turnberry, in Davidson’s home country of Scotland. Davidson’s list of golf achievements is long. He’s represented his country at the Home Internationals, the European Team Championship and the European Nations Cup. He’s won the Scottish order of merit. He’s a winner of the Welsh Amateur Stroke Play. He’s a winner of the Battle Trophy and East of Scotland Championship. He’s a two-time Scottish Area team champion.
And the man is also the director of a fishing company.
It’s a family business, just 15 minutes from St. Andrews. Some of the company fishes for langoustines around the U.K., and some of the company sells licenses for vessels. Its name, the Robinson Crusoe fishing company, came about because a statue of the fictional book character had been built where the Davidson family once lived.
As for his golf, he also once caddied at the Masters.
The loop came for Laird Shepherd at the 2022 playing, after Shepherd won the previous year’s Amateur Championship. Davidson had attended Stirling with Shepherd, and he also carried his bag at the Amateur. At Augusta National, they played two rounds before exiting, but the memories have stuck. There was the crowds: “it’s so intense when you’re on each tee,” Davidson said. There was the land: “I couldn’t believe the undulation, to be honest,” he said. There were the greens: they “slope away from where the lie is, and yeah, it’s just you can see how it takes people a good few times to go there before they start to work out how to play it.” There was even Tiger Woods. Davidson’s boyhood hero was in the field that year, and he remembers the patrons surrounding the 15-time major winner. “The crowds were just crazy around him, like everybody would just swarm to watch Tiger. But if you were near him — I think one of the practice rounds Laird was near Tiger, and you would just see crowds and crowds of people just around one group.”
But if you’re to really understand Davidson, it’s that he’s maybe made for team events like the Bridges Cup.
There’s a mellowness to him; ask for his favorite golf advice, and he tells you: “Probably with putting actually — either it goes in or it doesn’t, it’s as simple as that. It’s like you beat yourself up so much, but when you’re over, it either goes in the hole or it doesn’t go in the hole.” There’s now a dadness to him, too; he and his wife, Cristen, are parents to 2-year-old Delilah. Should she one day play the game, his advice will be straightforward. “Have fun,” he said.
But Davidson is also funny, people tell him.
He isn’t, well, Blandy.
“Just try and stay upbeat all the time,” he said. “You’re not going to win every game as a team so just try and keep the spirits high.”
