Reflective Roe refuses to play the victim
Instead, the victim of the highly unfortunate card marking debacle in the Open Championship had a smile and a word for everybody and walked into the press tent to give one of the most fascinating and admirable press conferences it has ever been my pleasure to be a part of.
The 40-year-old from Sheffield has long been regarded as one of the characters of the tour, self-deprecating, funny, witty, approachable, and it seems he hasn't changed in spite of the appalling golfing calamity that befell him at Royal St George's last Saturday.
He accepts he will probably be reminded about it for the rest of his days but that doesn't seem to bother him unduly.
"Sunday was difficult but when I got up on Monday, I knew I was okay," he said. "I watched the last hour and a half. I just couldn't resist it. I was desperately sorry for Thomas (Bjorn). At the 16th, I was just willing him to go for the middle of the green. I know how Thomas plays. He's always going for flags. That right hand bunker is like a suicide pit. And then he goes for the pin and knocked it in there."
The manner in which Roe spent Saturday night bears retelling. "I drove home probably faster than I should have," he related. "I stopped at the off licence and picked up a bottle of rosé champagne and sat in a beanbag in the front room and drank myself to sleep because I knew that there was no way after the huge swing in emotions that my eyes were going to close naturally.
"You replay everything over in your mind and feel a bit numb really. I couldn't believe I wasn't going off to play the next day with, I understand, Tiger Woods it would have been.
"It was more numbness for a lost opportunity than anything else. I knew I had made a mistake and that ultimately I was responsible for my own scorecard. There was no resentment, or anger, or bitterness, I wasn't looking for anybody to blame. It was my fault, I was just stunned with myself that I could have gone on the first tee and not exchanged cards. It's the first time in 20 years I haven't done so."
And then, for the millionth time, he asked himself out loud the most pertinent question of all: "Why, why, on that one day in the third round of the Open when I shot one of the best rounds of my life to be lying two shots behind, why did I do it on that day? I could have done it at the Madeira Island Open or the Sheffield Winter bloody Alliance."
Somebody had to ask the next, inevitable question. So as gently as possible, I wondered: how could you or Jesper Parnevik not have noticed you were marking your own card when you were out there for four hours and looking at it after every hole you played?
"Don't you think that as I sat there sipping each glass of champagne that I wasn't asking myself the same question?" he answered.
"Roey, why didn't you look at the name on the card? Why? How come you didn't? It's a big card, not a small one. Have you ever seen an R&A card? It's like a billboard and the name is there and I never looked."
It appears that the R&A considered overturning the decision to disqualify Roe and Parnevik as the rules allow in "exceptional circumstances". They didn't by a vote of 33 to seven and it was then we saw the true mettle in Roe.
"I wouldn't have played on Sunday and I would not have wanted to play on Sunday if they had overturned it. I know in my own heart that I play the game of golf the way it should be played, and that I play to the rules and I broke the rules, albeit in this case the punishment doesn't fit the crime. It wouldn't have been in my nature.
"Some radio stations were running 'a reinstate Mark Roe' morning on Sunday. Surreal, really. Ben Curtis played beautifully. The only thing I was left thinking was 68 and I would have won the Open having shot 67 the day before and that's what I will forever wonder about."
Many might have expected Roe to pull out of this week's Nissan Irish Open. But he insisted he loved playing in Ireland, especially Portmarnock .
"Much better to play, I think. I like to play well on hard courses and last week you couldn't have had a harder course."
But the chat invariably drifted back to Sandwich and even then his good humour never wavered.
"I got a huge amount of texts and phone calls. The media helped me a huge amount. I read the papers and that support helped a lot. It made me realise the game of golf touches a lot of people and has a very human side.
"It's not like someone calling to say my children (he and wife Julia have three year-old twin daughters Alexandra and Emily) are ill or what have you. Those are hard problems. This isn't. I had 57 texts between Sandwich and home. I got one from a friend of many years and it said 'Roey, you twat, you've spoiled my weekend'. I thought that was just marvellous."
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