Former HK Golf Club pro Iain Roberts finally gets the chance to revel in The Open in Britain

When the end came for Iain Roberts it was really just the beginning. One stroke had separated Roberts from qualifying for The Open at Royal Birkdale in 1983 and if he had made the field he is certain, on reflection today, he would have continued to ply his trade as a young pro, even though deep down Roberts knew the gap to the game's elite would always be insurmountable.

But he gave himself no time to linger on what might have been. Instead, he simply changed the course of his golfing career, seizing the opportunity to become the club pro at Muswell Hill Golf Club in London and setting himself off on a journey that would take him halfway around the world and to Hong Kong.

On July 15 at St Andrews - and at 56 years of age - Roberts will finally get his chance to be part of proceedings at The Open when he will be officially named a PGA Master Professional at the home of the game he loves so dearly.

It will be reward quite simply for his dedication and his drive and the influence Roberts has had as club pro, coach and administrator across his 30-year career.

Golf only has 38 Master Professionals - out of an estimated 7,000 PGA members worldwide - and the accolade places Roberts alongside the likes of coaching greats David Leadbetter, Peter Cowan and Bob Torrance.

"My career has gone by so fast," says Roberts. "To receive this award, at St Andrews, is very exciting. Most of the guys are superstars but I've come through another route.

"I haven't got it because I'm a rock'n'roll star, I've got it because I have just kept working. I've kept grafting. It hasn't really sunk in yet, just what it all means. But it will when I get to St Andrews," said Roberts.

Growing up outside High Wickham, Roberts had played around on a few putting greens - fashioned out of the turf found in local parks by council workers looking to give kids something extra to do on their holidays - but it wasn't until watching Tom Weiskopf win The Open at Troon in 1973 that the game really grabbed his attention.

"I just thought, that's fantastic. That's the game for me," says Roberts.

"It all changed for me when I watched Weiskopf win. My mother got me some lessons - five half-hour lessons - and it was obvious straight away that I could play.

"I just loved everything to do with the clubs, the wooden heads, the gloves, and I could play on my own, which I loved from the start. I loved practising, I just loved hitting golf balls from the very start."

Years later, as head pro at the Hong Kong Golf Club, Roberts got a chance to play with Weiskopf and to thank him for the inspiration, and he has been able to meet and mingle with the greats of the game over the years, most recently as group executive director at Mission Hills.

The decision to move to Asia came on a whim - Roberts had seen an ad posted by the HKGC in Golf Illustrated magazine and he had given up as a touring pro after failing to make that 1983 Open field.

"When I started playing I was surrounded by these great players," says Roberts. "In the 1980s you had Norman, Faldo, Ballesteros - fantastic players and much better than I was.

"I used to watch them and wonder how they did it. In fact, one time I actually asked Sandy Lyle exactly that - how do you hit it so far with your one iron. He said 'Don't you know?' It was like he was saying 'Don't you know how to walk?' It is just natural for them.

"I got into the top 200 in Europe but as much as I tried, I didn't feel comfortable missing the cut by one stroke, sitting around in a hotel room. I pushed it as hard as I could but I faced the harsh realities and I think I'm lucky that I did. I was 24 and I knew that was it."

Working at the HKGC and later at Mission Hills, and being involved in the national set-up in Hong Kong, gave Roberts a front-row seat as all the drama of golf here and on the mainland was played out over the past decade.

The game went through a boom on the mainland, only to be curtailed to some degree by Beijing's austerity drive, while in Hong Kong the Open is this year looking to emerge from the doldrums caused by a lack of sponsorship.

"It's been a bit sad, what has happened to the Hong Kong Open," says Roberts. "It should be the Masters of Asia, and I've always thought that. But the game has struggled in the city as we lack facilities, like driving ranges, and to play golf you need to practise. But the event is coming back from what I hear.

"But one of the great things about golf in Asia, and in China, is it is played to be enjoyed. This is where golf has to change globally. Out here, at places like Mission Hills, the most important thing is that you enjoy yourself.

"At the moment the game is suffering a bit in China. It is being reorganised and that can only be a good thing. But I think there is a generation coming through that will change all that.

"Junior programmes have been set up. We've done that at Mission Hills and the talent is there. There are huge numbers and huge talent, so it is just a matter of time."

And as the game continues to spread its reach out this way, Roberts says he will continue to play the role he identified for himself all those years ago when what some people might have considered a disappointment was turned into an opportunity.

"It's all gone so quickly," says Roberts. "I've been involved with so many great people.

"I've loved every single moment of every single day."