Former Isle of Man Newspapers sports reporter Rick Faragher has fronted a documentary about The Open golf tournament.

The Open returns to Northern Ireland this year after first being held there nearly seven decades ago.

In the documentary, being shown on BBC2 tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 4.45pm, Rick meets the two surviving players from the tournament in Portrush in 1951 where the winner won just £300.

The documentary took two years to become a reality, from his initial idea to spending six months of researching it, largely in his own time.

Rick said: ’Royal Portrush gave me their full support, which was a massive step forward, so I was in a position to take the idea to the commissioning department at the BBC who, thankfully, really liked it.

’We only filmed for six days and were really lucky it didn’t rain. There’s a segment where I’m stood on the 16th tee box interviewing a sports writer called Roger Anderson.

’We’re both in shirts looking all summery, you’d think it was July. It wasn’t. It was early March and about eight degrees. We had to stop in between questions and wear a thick coat to warm up.

’I think I’d lost sensation in my hands by the end of it.’

The 30-minute documentary introduces the contenders, men from as far afield as Egypt, Australia and Argentina. Rick hears stories including how Portrush’s local hero had a real shot at scooping the Claret Jug on home turf

Rick has been in his adopted home of Belfast for nearly ’on and off’ nearly 10 years now. But his connection to the island is still as strong as ever, as shown by a recent piece for BBC Breakfast about Joseph Pilates at Knockaloe Farm.

He told the Examiner: ’Who knows, my next documentary might be something about the Isle of Man...’