The Senior Open returns to Royal Porthcawl in Wales for a third time this week and several stars have spoken to the European Tour website about the challenge the historic Welsh links course poses.

Europe’s only Senior Major Championship is back at the venue following memorable events in 2014 and 2017 in which Germany’s Bernhard Langer won on both occasions.

When Royal Porthcawl hosted its first Senior Open in 2014, two-time Masters Champion Langer stormed to a wire-to-wire victory as he finished 13 shots ahead of runner-up Colin Montgomerie — a record margin that still stands.

Royal Porthcawl, which offers stunning views across Swansea Bay to the Gower Peninsula and offers a true test of golf, has hosted The Amateur Championship and the Walker Cup.

Once again the members’ 18th hole will be used as the first this week, but what are players making of the test?

Bernhard Langer. European Tour

Two-time Masters Champion Langer admitted both his triumphs were achieved in vastly different conditions and the German believes mentality will again be vital if he is to win his 13th senior Major title and fifth at this event.

“It is a typical links course and a very demanding one,” he told EuropeanTour.com. “The last two times we have played here were totally opposite. One time it was bone dry, the ball was running 100 yards — that was a challenge in itself because you couldn’t stop it.

“The second time we played it the rain came sideways, the wind was howling, and it was wet and miserable. But I am used to making the best of it. It seems to bring the best out of me.”

“It starts from the tee shot and that is the sign of a good golf course.”

Colin Montgomerie. Getty Images

Colin Montgomerie, one of many European greats of the game in the field, believes Royal Porthcawl ranks highly among the best UK links courses.

The Scot revealed how new fairway bunkering since it last played host in 2017 will provide an even greater complexity.

“The greens have got a lot of undulation to them,” he said. “Most links greens don’t, the trouble is really off the tee with most links courses but here it is actually everything.

“They have put in a number of new fairway bunkers in the last five or six years since we were last year and it has made it much tighter off the tee.

“You will see a lot of people having to think more on their tee shots rather than just hit a driver aimlessly and try to find it.

“Now there are bunkers in the way and you know with links golf — Brian Harman proved it at The Open — if you stay out of the bunkers, drive the ball well you can score.

“You can always move it forward from the rough but you can’t move it forward from the bunkers, you have to come out sideways.

“It starts from the tee shot and that is the sign of a good hole and golf course overall.”

Royal Porthcawl boasts a stunning setting sloping down to the seashore, with impressive views of the coastline from every hole.

Ian Woosnam. European Tour

The second to fourth holes can play particularly difficult when played into a freshening wind, something Ian Woosnam attests to as he highlighted the challenge of approach shots onto undulating greens.

“If the wind is off the left playing those first few holes, trying to get it on the green is a challenge,” he said. “You have got to try and hug the right hand side to get a better shot into the green.

“Once you get on the green it is hard to get it close and you have got to try and two putt.”

Padraig Harrington. Jared C. Tilton

But it isn’t just the greens that Pádraig Harrington is focusing on as he targets a strong performance off the tee in his bid to complete The Open-Senior Open double.

“The course is well designed,” the 15-time DP World Tour winner said. “There is a staggering number of bunkers. You can take some trouble out but you can’t take it all out. Avoiding trouble off the tee will be my goal for the week.

“Sometimes I will play cautious, sometimes I will play a little more aggressive. If I can avoid those bunkers and any of the major trouble I think that will set me up enough.

“The greens are difficult, there are slopes, but if I hit it straight you will create so many opportunities that you will overcome the odd lack of knowledge or the odd mistake around the greens.”

Darren Clarke. Mark Runnacles

Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke is this week’s defending champion having won his first Senior Major at Gleneagles last summer.

On his first return to Royal Porthcawl since the 1988 European Team Amateur Championships, the 2011 Open Champion is excited and alert in equal measure of its challenges.

“Conditions-wise, holes, everything, it’s pristine,” he said. “But no, there are some very strategic bunkers positioned out there.

“Sometime you’ve got to play in between bunkers, carry one and not reach the next one.

“And then obviously with the contours on the greens, there are a few you’ve got to miss in the right place.

“The wind is going to get up a little stronger and that’s fine.”

The post The Senior Open: What the players are saying about Royal Porthcawl appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In an appearance on The Bunkered Podcast, Colin Montgomerie made it very clear he thinks Woods should have made the tearful wave he gave to St Andrews in July his official goodbye to the game.

“That was the time,” Montgomerie told Bunkered. “Stand on that bridge, start waving, and everyone goes: ‘So, is that it?’ Yeah, it is. It would have been a glorious way to go. The stands were full, the world’s TV cameras — from all continents — were on him, he’s walking up there on his own, tears were in his eyes obviously … you can’t beat that walk. I’ve done it myself. When the stands are full, you cannot beat that walk.”

Montgomerie, who recently had a lively appearance on our very own The Loop podcast, added: “That was the time for Tiger to say: ‘Okay, I bow out.’”

Maybe so, Monty, but Tiger clearly disagrees. Despite all the knee and back surgeries and now a bout with plantar fasciitis, Tiger recently said he plans to keep playing a limited schedule, and that he still hopes, “To get not only just one, but I would like to get a big one too.” And by a “big one,” we’re pretty sure he means a major and not this week’s PNC Father/Son event.

Monty, who finished runner-up to Woods at St Andrews at the 2005 Open, was then asked if he thought the soon-to-be 47-year-old Tiger could win again on the PGA Tour.

“I don’t see him doing that,” Montgomerie said. “People will say: ‘Oh come on, Monty.’ Listen, yes, he’s great. But Tiger doesn’t have to now just get back to the standard he was performing at then. He has to improve it. “I can’t see that happening. I’d love it to happen because it’s great for the game. I would love him to win. But I just can’t see it happening.”

Whether Monty turns out to be right remains to be seen, but we can definitely see Tiger using these comments as motivation. And if Woods actually has a bulletin board at home (How awesome would that be?), it’s pretty filled up right now.

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There are many contenders, Cameron Smith’s 64 at St Andrews on Sunday to win the 150th Open Championship joining the list. Some could point to Charl Schwartzel’s four straight closing birdies to clinch the 2011 Masters. Shaun Micheel’s wondrous 7-iron to within six inches of the flag on the final hole at Oak Hill will no doubt provide the 2003 PGA champion with some support. And those of a more elderly vintage might go for Arnold Palmer’s final-round 65 at Cherry Hills in 1960, a score that gave ‘The King’ his only US Open victory.

There are plenty of others, of course. And every one, no doubt, comes with a powerful/logical argument in its favour. But, in the end, they all come up short.

Here is your champion, your No. 1, the undoubted best of the best, the finish and finisher that finishes any and all debate about finishing.

The record book baldly states that Peter O’Malley — ‘Pom’ to his friends — shot 262, 18-under, at Gleneagles to win the 1992 Bell’s Scottish Open by two shots from eight-time European No. 1 Colin Montgomerie. Nick Faldo, who would go to Muirfield and win the Open Championship for a third time a week later, tied for third. Two other Masters winners, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam, occupied spots in the top 10.

But even that star-studded list of the vanquished only hints at what transpired three decades ago on the endlessly scenic Kings Course that this week plays host the British Senior Open. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is how the genial O’Malley, a stocky Australian known for his metronomic full swing and sometimes dodgy putting stroke, performed over the closing stretch that momentous day to win the first of three European Tour titles:
Eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle.

No, not a misprint. Seven-under. For five holes.

“When Nick Faldo and I arrived on the 14th tee, there was a bit of a delay,” recalls O’Malley, 27 at the time, who was one-under for the round at that point. “Nick isn’t known for talking much, but we actually had a conversation. I can’t remember what he said … I was probably too surprised that he was actually speaking to take anything in. Then again, at that stage I was more concerned with winning one of the five spots available in the Open.”

Faldo had the honour and found the front-left bunker at the green on the drivable par 4. O’Malley’s drive finished maybe 20 feet from the hole, which is when the soon-to-be champion got his big break.

“Nick’s bunker shot finished just outside my ball and on the same line, which was a big bonus for me,” O’Malley says. “He hit a great putt, but it broke a huge amount in the last couple of feet. So I got a great read. I’m sure I wouldn’t have holed my putt had it not been for Nick showing me the line. I probably would have hit the putt he did. But I didn’t. I can still remember the roar I got when I holed it. The noise was incredible. There was a big crowd watching us, Nick was World No. 1, and the atmosphere walking to the next tee was amazing. I had goosebumps when I got there.”

O’Malley’s drive off the 15th tee was uncharacteristically wayward, “the worst shot I hit all day.” But he got lucky.

“I hit it far enough right that I was on the spectator’s walkway,” explains O’Malley, whose other claim to fame in a long career came 10 years later, when he defeated Tiger Woods in the first round of the 2002 WGC-Accenture Match Play at La Costa (“Tiger putted like Pom and Pom putted like Tiger,” jokes former European Tour player Mike Clayton). “That was a big break. I had a good lie. And I hit a really good 5-iron to about 15 feet. When the putt was halfway to the cup, I knew it was going in. The 16th is the little par 3, and I hit an 8-iron to about 15 feet again. I was feeling pretty confident by that stage, and it went in again for birdie. It wasn’t until then that I thought I could win. Although I was really pumped up, that was the first time I had felt adrenaline and been able to control it.”

Montgomerie remembers O’Malley’s play from that day … and the Scottish saltire on his sweater. David Cannon

After another birdie on the par-4 17th, that surge of internal energy was to prove useful on the par-5 18th. The closing hole features a saddle across the fairway at what was an awkward distance for O’Malley. For him, an average drive would fail to carry the rise and leave him unable to reach the distance green in two. Happily though, for a pumped-up Pom it proved no problem.

“I hit one of the best drives of my life there,” he says. “I was still using a persimmon driver and flew it over the hill. Faldo couldn’t do it. He wasn’t that long off the tee for such a big man. I hit a 6-iron right at the flag and had about 15 feet for eagle. I saw the line and just stroked the putt. It wasn’t until the ball struck the back of the cup and jumped up that I realized I had maybe hit it a bit too hard. But it went in. At the time I didn’t realize I had won. There were a few groups still on the course. But I was aware of what I had just done.”

A couple of hours later, O’Malley and girlfriend (now wife) Jill were back at the Gleneagles Hotel. Due to pre-qualify for the Open at North Berwick the following day, he had checked-out that morning.

“They were very nice and gave us a suite at the same room rate I had paid for the previous nights,” O’Malley says. “We had dinner with a group of friends. I spent more on that meal than I had for everything else that week. The next day we checked into a B&B at North Berwick. When we went to a local pub for something to eat, everyone in there knew me. It really brought it home to me what a big deal golf is in Scotland. I’ll never forget that.”

O’Malley celebrates his out-of-nowhere victory. David Cannon

Oddly, the same cannot be said for Faldo. Asked for his memories of O’Malley’s incredible finish, the CBS commentator was stuck for words. Actually, not quite. “I love it when people think just because you were there you can remember what someone else did,” shrugged the six-time major champion.

Runner-up Montgomerie, who played that day in a sweater emblazoned with the Scottish Saltire, hasn’t forgotten though. Years later, the Scot bumped into O’Malley at a tournament.

“I was thinking of you yesterday,” said Monty, who shares a birthday, June 23, with the Aussie.

“Oh really? Why was that?”

“I got a couple of boxes in the mail from my ex-wife. In one was that bloody Saltire jumper.”

Three decades on, O’Malley still gets people reminding him of what went on July 11, 1992.

“It’s amazing what happened,” he agrees. “I’ve always had bursts like that though, where I start to make putts one after the other. But that was the most significant of those. It was a fantastic feeling and finish.”

The best ever actually.

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The post Remembering the greatest individual tournament finish in golf history 30 years later appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
ABU DHABI — He’s a Category 5 player this week. Which is not all bad. In DP World Tour language that means Colin Montgomerie is a “tour legend.” Fair enough, of course. Quite apart from his Ryder Cup heroics in eight appearances against the Americans—he was unbeaten in singles—the now 58-year-old Scot can point to eight Race to Dubai victories on his home circuit between 1993 and 2005.

But that was then. The unpalatable truth is that Monty is unlikely to add to his 31 European Tour wins (the most of any British player) during a three-week run amongst the game’s younger element. The evidence was all too obvious during the nine holes he played at the Yas Links alongside compatriot Connor Syme and Australian Maverick Antcliff. Into the wind on the 11th, Monty failed to reach the distant fairway. And one hole later, he made the short grass by no more than a yard. While there are those who argue that distance is not a problem in professional golf, this week it certainly is for Monty.

“I should be past being surprised by how far these young players hit the ball,” he said with a smile. “But I find it difficult when I’m playing alongside them. I still raise an eyebrow when someone hits a 4-iron from, say, 277-yards out. When I was commentating on television about six or seven years ago, I struggled to tell the viewers what clubs the players were hitting. When I thought it was a 7-iron, it was often enough a 9-iron. I was nearly always two clubs out.

“And it has gotten worse since then,” he continued. “Not worse. Although that’s me saying that it has. Now they’re hitting wedges. I see them all on the range. There’s 131 of them this week—because I’m 132nd—and they all seem to play the same game and in the same way. There is a one-dimensional quality to it that was never the case back in my day. I know I sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but golf never used to be one-dimensional. It’s not the same now. It’s all about brute force.”

Indeed, like so many of his generation, Monty bemoans the relative lack of nuance and subtlety present in modern-day tour golf. He yearns to see players “holding up” mid-irons against left-to-right breezes, displaying the artistry that has been lost amidst so much science.

“I don’t think ‘peak Monty’ would do as well on this tour as he did when he played here full-time,” he said. “I would have to find a way to add more distance, just to compete. Nick Faldo would be the same. And so would Luke Donald, even more so. Luke holed everything for 18 months and got to World No. 1, which is hugely commendable. But how he did it was never going to be a sustainable formula. Not now anyway. Luke couldn’t survive now. And neither would I. I’d have to adapt. I’d have to become one of those guys on the range hitting the ball the same way as everyone else.”

Still, as ever there was more energizing Monty’s always active mind than the eternal problems he is going to face in this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Before looking forward, he took a few minutes to glance back in time. Famously never a member of the PGA Tour during his prime years—he joined for the first time when he turned 50—he has mixed feelings about the fact that he never did win an event on the world’s biggest circuit. Nor, of course, did he win a major title, despite coming close on numerous occasions.

“There is irony in the fact that I’m playing full-time in the States now,” he said. “I do have some regret about not doing that when I was in my prime. I could have done it in an effort to win majors. If that had been my ultimate goal, then yes, I do regret not going. But if my goal was to be a better golfer, to compete and to win, then no, I don’t have any regrets. Because I was doing those things in Europe.

“I would love to have reached No. 1in the world,” he continues. “There is something about being able to say you are the best. Luke Donald and Lee Westwood can say they are ‘former No. 1s.’ You can’t beat that. I came close at Congressional in 1997, when I was second to Ernie Else in the U.S. Open. Had I won there, I would have been No. 1. I played great that week, tee-to-green. But Friday afternoon [and a second round 76] cost me.”

There is some consolation in the fact that Monty won three senior majors after making the switch to the PGA Tour Champions. But even there he admits that his “window of opportunity” is closing as he nears the age of 60.

“I won my majors when I was 51 and 52, which is what most people do,” he says. “[Bernhard] Langer is the exception, as was Hale Irwin. Although Irwin didn’t have the same level of competition when he was out there. No one improves after they are 60. I still enjoy the competition though. More than the game itself. I love to be competitive. And I can still win. Oh yes. I’m not yet thinking I can’t do that. I’ve always said I’ll stop when tenth is the best I can do. That’s not me. But I’m not there yet. Right now, I’m still better than that.”

Andrew Redington
Colin Montgomerie, seen here getting the Vardon Trophy after winning his eighth Order of Merit title in 2005, is frustrated the year-long honour isn’t quite what it used to be.

For all that, the thrill of battle continues to tickle his taste buds, there has been more than golf to life on the Champions Tour. Famously reluctant to set foot on airplanes, Monty is “on holiday Monday and Tuesday” as he drives between events almost every week. This has given him the opportunity to take in many of America’s most famous—and not so famous—tourist haunts.

“I enjoy the freedom of driving,” he says. “It’s my time. I love to stop and explore. I’ve been to some interesting places. I’ve seen the re-enactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. I enjoyed that. They do it twice a day at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. I’ve seen the Hoover Dam. I love the Napa Valley and the wine-tasting there. I’ve been to Graceland. And I’ve been on the tour at Southfork, home of the Ewing family in ‘Dallas.’ I’ve seen Miss Ellie’s garden and the swimming pool. All of it. I’ve also been to the NASA base in Galveston. I’ve been to Cape Canaveral.

“I love New York and Washington, DC,” he adds. “And Philadelphia. I did the ‘Rocky’ run up the steps there. Stopped halfway of course. And I’ve been to the White House and stood in the Oval Office. But I love the unexpected stuff. In Birmingham, Ala., there is a park where there is a quarter-size Statue of Liberty. It was another gift from the French.”

Inevitably, however, the Monty mind returns to his first loves—the tour formerly known as European and the Ryder Cup matches. While he approves of the now DP World Tour forging stronger links with the PGA Tour in the face of perceived threats from Saudi-based interests, the lack of enthusiasm amongst the leading players for the Race to Dubai he won eight times is clearly painful.

“No one pays any attention to the Order of Merit [old habits and names die hard] until the last couple of weeks,” he says. “Collin Morikawa is a lovely fella and a fantastic player, Billy Horschel, too. But having them at one and two on the list last year just didn’t sit well with me. I’m sure they would agree that it wasn’t quite right. They hardly played in any ‘pure’ European Tour events. Look at Morikawa—he was back in the pack in Dubai last year and he was almost last of those who made the cut at the Scottish Open. Yet he won the Order of Merit. There’s something not quite right about that.

“I also mourn the demise in stature of so many European events,” he continues. “When I won the Scandinavian Masters in 1991, Seve was second, Woosie was third and Faldo was fourth. They turned up for nothing and played. That doesn’t happen anymore, which is a pity. All the national Opens don’t get the fields they deserve. So the end result is that the Race to Dubai doesn’t resonate like it used to.”

Andy Lyons
As Europe’s Ryder Cup captain in 2010, Montgomerie proudly led his charges to victory at Celtic Manor.

The Ryder Cup does though. A winning captain at Celtic Manor in 2010, Monty is rightly proud of a European record that, until last year’s pummeling at Whistling Straits, saw the Old World beat the New in nine of 12 contests. That is an extraordinary feat for perennial underdogs. But it is also one that may never happen again. Like many, Monty fears the worst over not only the next match in Italy, but the ability of the Europeans to win again anytime soon.

“We haven’t lost at home since 1993,” he says. “That’s 30 years by the time the next one comes around. But 2023 is going to be difficult. Although I think and hope we will do better than last time. We were blown off the course at Whistling Straits. The gap was so wide not because the Americans were that great though. It was more that our team wasn’t so good. To put it simply, they played closer to their potential than we did. Much closer.

“But look at the World Ranking,” he continues. “If everyone plays to their potential, the likelihood is that we are going to lose. Ten of their 2021 team will play again next time. And they will want to win away from home. Because they haven’t done it for so long. And I must admit I look at what might happen at Bethpage in 2025 and shake my head. We might as well not turn up for that one. I wouldn’t want to be a rookie on that European team. For the first time in a long time, I think we could be headed for three losses in a row.”

Coincidentally, that is likely to be Monty’s fate over the next three weeks. By a distance, you might even say.

The post Colin Montgomerie bemoans modern ‘one-dimensional’ pro golf and Europe’s Ryder Cup future appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Wow.

There was more: Jim Furyk, a past U.S. Open champion and a sure-fire future Hall-of-Famer finished in a tie for eighth. Darren Clarke, David Toms and Mike Weir, all major winners, were also sprinkled among the leaders, not to mention 63-year-old Bernhard Langer, a two-time major champion, and another Hall-of-Famer, who had a rare off-day, shooting a two-over-par 74 to drop from a tie for fourth going into Sunday to a tie for 14th.

Welcome to the SAS Championship, which dramatically concluded Sunday afternoon at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C., a tony suburb of Raleigh.

All those names are now regulars on what is known these days as PGA Tour Champions, the tour’s latest marketing attempt to convince golf fans that the old guys, the over-50 set, can still play.

Guess what? They can.

Since it was launched in 1980, the senior circuit has always been about nostalgia and big names. It was started by then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman largely to give Arnold Palmer a place to continue competing. Until then, the only significant senior event was the Senior PGA Championship, run by the PGA of America. Beman recast the age requirement in order to be considered a “senior” from 55 to 50 so that Palmer, who had turned 50 in September 1979 could compete in the tour’s new events. At the same time, the USGA established the U.S. Senior Open, and a movement had begun.

Led by Palmer and, a few years later by Lee Trevino (who won 29 times) and Chi Chi Rodriguez (who had 22 victories), the tour was a success early on. The old guys seemed to be having more fun than the young guys—the “flat bellies” as Trevino called them—and they still had game. Jack Nicklaus was dragged kicking and screaming to play, but showed up enough to win 10 times, including eight senior majors.

Eventually, though, the novelty wore off, especially when Palmer and Nicklaus stopped playing and people began to notice that the low scores the seniors were shooting had a lot to do with playing shortened golf courses that frequently had member-guest-like pin positions.

Yet now, with a new batch of notable names turning the magic number, there appears to be an opportunity to make the 50-and-older tour matter again to more than friends and family.

The tour heads to Richmond this weekend to begin what is normally its season-ending three-week playoff run, but there are no playoffs this fall due to the pandemic. Like with the Korn Ferry Tour, officials are taking tournaments that did get played in 2020 and joining them with events in 2021 for one large wrap-around season.

Teeing it up on Friday is Phil Mickelson. It will be his second appearance among the 50-and-older set. The first came in August after Mickelson missed the cut outside Boston at the Northern Trust, leaving him 75th in the FedEx Cup standings and without a spot in the next week’s BMW Championships.

Not a problem. Mickelson jumped on a plane and flew to Missouri to play in the Charles Schwab Series at Ozark National—his first foray into senior golf since he turned 50 in June. His first-round produced a stunning 61 and he cruised from there, shooting 64-66 to finish at 191—a ridiculous 22 under par. He beat Tim Petrovic by four shots.

Though Mickelson isn’t going to give up on playing regular tour events, he clearly is planning to play in PGA Tour Champions tournaments along the way since he’s still long enough to dominate on the shorter senior golf courses in ways he can no longer dominate on the regular tour.

Brett Carlsen
How much Mickelson will play on the PGA Tour Champions is still unclear, but he seemed to enjoy the camaraderie during his first start in August.

Historically, that’s what happens to top players. Nicklaus was the first to vow to continue playing against the best for as long as he believed he could compete. Even though he managed to finish T-6 at the Masters in 1998 at 58, competing clearly became more and more difficult. After turning 50, Nicklaus never finished in the top 20 in any major other than the Masters—a sixth in 1990 and the T-6 eight years later.

That’s why he played a limited senior schedule—but did play. He won two senior majors in 1990.

Nicklaus was no different than any great competitor: He wanted to tee it up thinking he had a chance to win. The 50-and-older tour gives guys who can no longer consistently have a chance to win on the regular tour, the chance to do that. Davis Love III, who still plays PGA Tour events at 56, did win in Greensboro five years ago at 51. Now, Love admits he isn’t long enough anymore to manhandle tour courses the way he did when he was younger.

Furyk wasn’t sure a year ago how much he would play with the seniors when he turned 50—which he did this past May. “I think I’ll see where I stand on the regular tour at the end of 2020 and then decide,” he said.

COVID-19 cancelled enough tournaments to make it tough for Furyk to make that decision. But he decided to tee it up at the Ally Championship at Warwick Hills (a former PGA Tour venue) and won. Then he went to Pebble Beach—a current PGA Tour venue—and won the Pure Insurance Championship. His T-8 at Prestonwood no doubt felt like a huge letdown.

Rey Del Rio

For the top players, the ones who can bring sponsorships to the tour and help TV ratings, money is not the main incentive. Els won $315,000 for his victory last week—exactly 25 percent of what Martin Laird made for winning in Las Vegas that same day. That’s fairly typical. Of course, the old guys get to play in carts most weeks and most tournaments are 54 holes with no cut. Shooting in the 60s is fairly commonplace. Els’ winning score of 12 under par was much higher than most weeks when the winner will often shoot close to 20 under par for three rounds.

Truth is what seems to be driving these players is the competition. Simply put, they love to compete, and they also enjoy being treated like stars at tournament sites. Unlike athletes in other sports, they can still bask in the glow of VIP treatment well past their peak playing days.

With Mickelson, Furyk, Els and Weir now on the senior tour and with Singh, a now-healthy Montgomerie and Love probably playing more often, there’s a chance to get more people to take a serious look at what Billy Andrade, who has had a good deal of success since turning 50 six years ago, calls, “the fun tour.”

A few tweaks might help. The tour should make the setups more difficult week-to-week. These guys can play. Challenge them to prove it more often. Get rid of one of the five majors. The senior majors are played in such-rapid fire manner in the spring and summer that it’s difficult to know what is a major and what isn’t a major. There should be four senior majors—The U.S. Open, the British Open, the PGA and the Players—the last if only to fulfill the tour’s dream of making one version of the Players a major. A senior Masters, played a Pebble Beach or Shinnecock, would be better.

On Dec. 30, 2025, Tiger Woods will turn 50. Woods will no doubt want to compete in the real majors for as long as he can possibly compete. But don’t bet against him not joining the “fun tour.” He’s a golfer. And golfers live to play golf.

The post How a few big names who don’t like losing are making the PGA Tour Champions competitive again appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Given the struggles to keep the European Tour financially and logistically viable in this unprecedented time, many feared the Staysure Tour would become a sad casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

The doubters clearly hadn’t figured on Ryan Howsam’s vision for the over-50s circuit. The Englishman, who founded insurance firm Staysure in 2004, has become the first individual to have a controlling stake and leadership role in one of golf’s major circuits after taking a majority equity share in what is now known as The Legends Tour.

Howsam will oversee the Tour’s commercial strategy as part of the evolution of Staysure’s existing umbrella sponsorship announced in 2017. The Legends Tour was officially unveiled at the Wentworth Club, the European Tour’s HQ, on September 1 with former Ryder Cup captains Mark James, Paul McGinley, 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and 1991 Masters champion Ian Woosnam on hand to sell the sizzle. The quartet will be joined by major champions Darren Clarke, Tom Lehman, Colin Montgomerie and Michael Campbell as Legends Tour ambassadors. The exciting news for Middle East fans is the work behind the scenes to bring a couple of Legends Tour events to the region. Well-heeled amateurs will also be intrigued by the exciting opportunities to compete alongside some of the game’s greats, including a ‘Legends Club” where Ams will compete in their own Order of Merit race.

New Legends Tour chief Mark Aspland chatted to Golf Digest Middle East soon after the tour’s unveiling to bring us up to speed with the all the latest developments of the circuit that no only refuses to die but is determined to become the “greatest amateur experience in golf’.

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It’s an incredibly exciting time for senior golf.  Discussions were at the formative stage when I started working on the then Staysure Tour in early 2019. Keith Pelley and Ryan Howsam have a really strong relationship and the idea was first discussed between them whilst on the golf course. For the staff and players, we have the best of both worlds, the European Tour will still operate the ‘inside the ropes’ activities, whilst Ryan will have overall commercial control of the Legends Tour and drive the commercial activity and vision.

Majority equity shareholder Ryan Howsam is flanked by Paul McGinley and Colin Montgomerie

It was quite a job to unpick 25 plus years of the integration with the European Tour operations, but the result is a big step forward for a traditional rights-holder to engage with an entrepreneur to drive the business forward.

To align with the premium nature of the product we are looking at aspirational and successful venues to host events. We have an optimum number of 24/25 events eventually and the product we are building and the value proposition behind the Tour will align very closely with Tourism destinations. We have a very successful 10 year partnership in Mauritius and now Seychelles to form the season-ending Tour Championship, and are currently exploring the Caribbean and Middle East to complement the existing events.

We believe the Legends Tour has a unique offering that will complement the European Tour in the Middle East. We are in regular contact with Tom Phillips in the Tour’s Dubai Office and have several opportunities that are being explored.  The UAE has history with the players now playing on the Legends Tour, and we hope to build on this going forward.

The Legends Tour can complement the other golf activity in the Middle East. We are focusing on the Legends Tour being the ‘greatest amateur experience in golf’. The Pro-am and Alliance formats are central to this – it’s not re-inventing the wheel, more focusing in on the commercial value of our players, and offering an ‘inside the ropes’ experience in the tournament that I believe doesn’t currently exist in the Middle East.

It’s not re-inventing the wheel, more focusing in on the commercial value of our players and offering an ‘inside the ropes’ experience in the tournament that I believe doesn’t currently exist in the Middle East.

Aligned to this, in the new Tour structure within the Staysure Group, we have access to over 5.5 million predominantly 50+ UK travellers. This creates a compelling opportunity for premium tourism destinations and helps us to pull together a long-term narrative for the Legends Tour in the region.

In the new proposition, we are planning for standard fields to be 60 pros and 30 amateurs playing over the 3 days of the tournament.  Two pros to 1 am will create an intense, competitive opportunity for the amateur.  We are creating a ‘Legends Club’, where amateurs can play in a number of tournaments and feature on their own Order of Merit too.

The Amateur spots will be at a premium as they are limited and different territories have slightly different commercial models. For example, we are targeting the US golf travel market for our events in the UK to create a week of golf at incredible venues culminating in the Alliance events.  A title sponsor could come in and own Alliance spots too then allocate to charity / junior golf for a CSR project?  We will work a model according to the commercial requirements of the individual events.

The Legends Club proposition feeds directly into the three-day Alliance events and will initially be focused on events owned and promoted by the Tour, but will be built out further over time. We totally respect that a number of external promoters host tournaments and want to use their own format. We aim to have between 6-8 Alliance events for the Legends Club in 2021. The Legends Club is a lifestyle opportunity where you travel and play with your wife /husband/partner to premium destinations living the life of our pros.

The opportunity is not just for over 50s. it’s for anyone with a passion for golf and spending time with our Legends on and off the course. The Legends Tour pros are great fun to be with and provide the full experience of not just golf… eat with them in the Players’ Lounge and enjoy a drink with them afterwards. This is a unique, premium experience that true golf fans will revel in.

“Accessibility to our stars will form the basis of our growth plan moving forwards.”

The celebrity Pro-Ams we have planned with big names from the sports, music and entertainment worlds are designed to create additional charity / CSR, PR and marketing opportunities, plus enhance the playing experience during the week and therefore commercial value for the over-all event. We want to create a week of top quality entertainment to maximise the value of our events.

The Ambassadors are a crucial part of our strategy going forward and we have been specific in their criteria of being Ryder Cup captains and major winners. We will be using them to drive the brand forward, create awareness, generate content for legendstour.com and utilise them for lifestyle experiences as well as playing experiences. They are the perfect marketing channel for us and our partners and we have further exciting additions planned on top of those already announced.

The post Re-branded Legends Tour exploring ‘several opportunities’ in the UAE appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Early progress was slow to the point of immobility in the years after its first playing in 1955, when six-time Ryder Cupper Ken Bousfield won at Pannal Golf Club in Yorkshire, thanks to the fact many outside the British Isles weren’t even remotely aware the event existed. Between 1955 and 1966, participation was limited to English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish members of the game’s oldest professional golfers association. Why then would anyone else pay attention?

Which is not say that the origin of the event did not have at least one powerful and influential backer. Three-time Open champion Sir Henry Cotton was, according to veteran television commentator and eight-time Ryder Cup player Peter Alliss, a “driving force” behind the early PGA Championships.

“Henry felt strongly that there should be a PGA Championship,” says Alliss, who would win the event three times, a record until Nick Faldo’s fourth victory in 1989. “He saw it as affording British professionals a certain status in the world of golf. That was important because it was so difficult for us to go and play in America. Things were different then. I never thought I would see the day when so many of our leading players would live in the States. In my day, that was never going to happen because they made it so difficult for us to go over. We weren’t wanted there, especially if you could really play.”

That same sort of insularity had to change if the new tournament was to make progress. And it did, albeit only after a false start. The first response to criticism of the obviously restrictive entry requirements was the staging of “open” and “closed” versions of the tournament in 1967 and ’68. In other words, any professional from anywhere in the world could participate in the “open” event.” The “closed” version remained available only to those hailing from GB&I.

That attempt at compromise, however, didn’t work so well. By 1970, the championship had fallen into what turned out to be brief abeyance.

“The early 1970s was a turbulent period for the [British] PGA as an organization,” explains Alliss, who has twice served as the organization’s captain. “There was a lot going on, a lot of changes in management at the top over a short period of time. So there was a lot of negativity until the European Tour came into being. That changed everything, of course.”

The “Viyella” PGA Championship, a smaller-scale forerunner to today’s big-time reality, returned in 1972 (at Wentworth) as part of that newly-formed European Tour. (The British PGA did retain an interest in the event, as it still does, in that a small minority of the field qualify to play through PGA regional tournaments). Subsequently, six more sponsors have inserted their names ahead of “PGA.” And five other courses played host (Royal St. George’s, Royal Birkdale, The Old Course at St. Andrews, Ganton and Hillside) prior to Wentworth’s West course, the “Burma Road,” making its second and so-far permanent comeback in 1984.

“We always had a good venue and good sponsors,” says Ken Schofield, whose 29-year tenure as European Tour executive director ended in 2004. “But I can’t claim we had any kind of long-term plan in place. As was the case with a lot of things back then, it was intuitive.”

In retrospect, the 1975 championship at a blustery Royal St. George’s was especially significant. Arnold Palmer, 45, came from far behind with one of his patented charges (his final-round 71 was at least seven strokes lower than anyone in the top 10 after 54 holes) and won the £10,000 first prize in what was by then the Penfold PGA Championship. Just as his mere presence had done for the Open Championship 15 years earlier, golf’s most-charismatic performer raised the profile of the tournament to a previously unimagined height.

“It was the biggest event on the European Tour by then, bigger than any national Open. And we all wanted to play in it,” recalls swing coach Denis Pugh, who works with former Open champion Francesco Molinari and played in the event in 1975 at St. George’s. “But it was a bigger deal that year because Arnold was there, although it had nothing like the prestige it has now. I recall watching him walk down a fairway wearing a cashmere sweater. On a day when the rest of us needed four layers just to feel cold. He was the ultimate macho-man.”

Even as the tournament continued to grow in stature, a caveat hovered just beneath the surface. And it lingers today. Maybe because the European Tour has necessarily or unintentionally (take your pick) diminished the resonance of the title through the prominent presence of so many commercial entities, the PGA of America has, rather presumptuously, assumed ownership of the phrase “PGA Championship.”

It may seem pedantic, but “USPGA Championship” is a more accurate and appropriate title for the major held each year in the U.S. The PGA in Britain, the world’s first association of golf professionals, was born in 1901, 15 years ahead of the American version. And with age and precedence comes rank and privilege.

“The Americans understand marketing,” says a smiling George O’Grady, European Tour chief executive between 2005 and 2015. “I once had a chat with [former PGA Tour commissioner] Tim Finchem. I told him there really should be two brands for the entire world. ‘The PGA’ for the club professionals around the world. And ‘PGA Tour’ for all the professional golfers, which would make his organization the ‘U.S. PGA Tour.’ He was quick to dismiss that notion.”

Still, despite the New World’s indifference, the early days of the Old World PGA Championship were not totally lacking in merit. Not in Alliss’ mind at least.

“It quickly became a little bit more than an ordinary tournament,” says Alliss, 89. “If you won, you were a champion, the best in Britain. So it had quite a bit of kudos. Having said that, we were playing at far more modest venues and for a lot less money. First prize was something like £400, which was a lot then I suppose. So it had some razzamatazz to it. And it was certainly an event I enjoyed winning. It was just a little bit above the rest.”

It was also an innovator. At least in one respect, the championship was moving with the times. At Dunbar in 1968, the then Schweppes PGA Championship became the first “big-ball” tournament in Europe. Englishman David Talbot’s eight-under-par winning score over the East Lothian links was achieved with the 1.68-inch diameter ball, rather than the 1.62 version.

Into the 1970s, the prestige of the event was soon accelerating, as evidenced by the list of winners. BP (before Palmer), former Open and U.S. Open champion Tony Jacklin won in 1972. And 12 months later, then European No. 1 Peter Oosterhuis succeeded his biggest rival.

Even more significantly, by the end of that decade the so-called “Big Five” of European golf—Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer—were emerging and blossoming en route to accumulating 16 major victories between them. Only Lyle would not win the PGA Championship at Wentworth, although the Scot came close, losing a playoff to Paul Way in 1985. Throw in Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie, Angel Cabrera, former World No. 1 Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Molinari and the tournament today boasts a fittingly stellar list of past champions.

“The buy-in from the top five was crucial,” O’Grady says. “The key to what the PGA Championship has become today was the support of the leading players in the 1980s. Faldo in particular was a huge boost to the prestige of the event. For whatever reason, he saw it as a big deal. Back then, I was managing director of Tour Enterprises, but I was also, in effect, the tournament director. My job was to negotiate with the players as well as run the commercial side of the operation.”

Peter Dazeley
The exceptional record in the tournament from Europe’s Big Five of Nick Faldo (four wins), Seve Ballesteros (2), Sandy Lyle (playoff loss), Bernhard Langer (3) and Ian Woosnam (2) helped cement the event as the biggest outside the majors on the European Tour.

The burgeoning success O’Grady describes wasn’t all about the willingness of star players to show up, albeit they were and are an obvious prerequisite for any aspirational tournament. Another big plus was extensive BBC TV coverage, the viewing figures enhanced by the event finishing on Monday, the May Bank Holiday in the U.K. Throw in the annual World Match Play Championship that ran from 1964 to 2007 at Wentworth and a special connection was thus created between fans and venue. Reminiscent of the relationship that exists between golf fans and Augusta National, Wentworth’s holes are today familiar to millions who will never see the course in person. All in all, the end result represented a potent package, one only enhanced by a shift to September when the now twice re-designed lay-out is typically in better shape.

“It’s a title we all grow up craving to win, more than any other on the European Tour,” says former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, neatly summing up the prevailing view.

Further adding to the mix is the unpredictability of the eventual result. Not every champion at Wentworth has been a bonafide superstar. Journeymen have popped up now and then. Simon Khan. Scott Drummond. Andrew Oldcorn. Anders Hansen (twice). Chris Wood. Tony Johnstone. All have lifted the trophy. And for all, victory was life-changing.

“The PGA Championship was a huge event by the time I won it,” says Johnstone, who outdueled Faldo on the final day in 1992. “That the top guys all played throughout the 1980s was huge in terms of establishing the credentials of the event. The big thing for me though was the 10-year [tour] exemption [now reduced to three] that came with the £100,000 winner’s check. That meant I could have a bad year, or an injury and still have my card the following season. I did keep my card every year without the exemption, but that was at least partly because I knew i had that safety net. I was able to just go out and play, which was a massive relief mentally.”

Andrew Redington
Having the likes of Rory McIlroy in 2014 (shown), Francesco Molinari in 2018 and Danny Willett in 2019 win the title helps connect the tournament to the current generation of European Tour stars.

Through all of the above one thing has been noticeably missing: anything more than sporadic American participation. But even that was showing signs of change. In 2019, Billy Horschel, Patrick Reed, Kurt Kitayama, Andrew Putnam, Julian Suri, Tony Finau and David Lipsky made up a record seven-strong contingent. This year, however, has a different look. Of those seven Americans, only Reed, Kitayama and Suri are returning. Like the European Tour on which it stars, the BMW PGA is, in many ways, poorly positioned to cope with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

It remains to be seen, for example, how many of the U.S.-based European stars will cross the Atlantic to play at Wentworth in years to come. McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Viktor Hovland and Henrik Stenson aren’t flying over this year. The most recent European winner on the PGA Tour, Sergio Garcia, citing tax issues, never more than an occasional visitor, is another absentee. The six events on the so-called U.K. Swing earlier this year featured fields well below the norm. Top 50 players were hard to find. The fear is that, even boasting an exceptional purse, the BMW PGA Championship will suffer a similar fate.

“We’ll get through it though,” insists McGinley, who serves on the European Tour’s board of directors. “It’s just a question of what is left at the end of it. How swiftly can we come back? We’re dealing with some really difficult curveballs. The restrictions imposed by the British government are so severe. We have to deal with international players. And we have to deal with the travel that comes with being a truly international tour. So we have a number of headwinds against us.”

McGinley’s ultimate optimism is likely justified. In the 65 years that have passed since its low-key inception, the Schweppes/Viyella/Penfold/Colgate/Sun Alliance/Whyte & Mackay/Volvo/BMW PGA Championship has always found ways to survive and thrive.

The post The strange, sometimes rocky story of how the BMW PGA Championship became the European Tour’s ‘flagship’ event appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In the absence of many star names plying their trade primarily on the PGA Tour Champions in the United States, what was the European Senior Tour, then the Staysure Tour, has always struggled for attention. Nostalgia was its biggest selling point, the circuit reliant on pro-am income to survive.

Although specifics in terms of scheduling and the number of future events are still to be determined, things are going to be different in 2021. For one thing, the Staysure name will be replaced by the rather grand Legends Tour. And for another, Staysure Group CEO Ryan Howsam has assumed a majority equity share in what is, in golf, a unique ownership structure. Working alongside the head of the Legends Tour, Mark Aspland, Howsam, who founded the travel insurance company in 2004, will oversee the tour’s commercial strategy.

In that regard, the so-far lack of many recognisable names to build events around has been acknowledged and rectified. Going forward, former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke, Mark James, Tom Lehman, Paul McGinley, Colin Montgomerie and Ian Woosnam, along with 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, will act as the tour’s “official ambassadors.” They will, according to the press release announcing the changes to the 50-and-older circuit, “play a key role in outlining the tour’s vision in the months to come.”

“Our major champions, our past Ryder Cup players and captains and our European Tour winners have considerable pulling power,” Aspland said. “The accessibility to them offered by our new structure will form the basis of our growth plan moving forward.”

Indeed, perhaps the biggest difference will be in what Howsam calls the “alliance format” of the as-of-now undetermined number of 2021 events, in which amateurs will get the chance to play alongside the pros in tournament conditions. An additional focus on the amateur experience, will include a selection of celebrity pro-ams aimed at bringing together the “legends of golf” with others from sports, music and entertainment.

“I see the re-launch of this tour as something which could change the landscape of over-50s golf forever,” said James, a seven-time Ryder Cup player. “The alliance format brings a different dimension to competitive golf and will give the players the opportunity to meet a plethora of people and form new relationships, while amateurs will continue to hear the many stories from our lives on tour.”

Entry to that sociable atmosphere will come at a premium price. Membership into the “Legends Club” will cost £60,000, a source told Golf Digest. There will also be a dedicated Order of Merit where the amateurs will compete for a place in the end-of-season Tour Final by playing in three-day alliance events at some of the “best golf courses in the world.”

The post European senior tour preps for 2021 overhaul, eyes unique playing experiences for amateurs appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Jerry Kelly is a man without a poker face who nonetheless took down his challengers with an ace that no one saw coming on Sunday afternoon.

Kelly, his lead slipping away, won the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship by virtue of a hole-in-one on the 177-yard 12th hole at the South course at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

With a single swing, Kelly’s one-stroke lead became three, then four when playing partner Scott Parel bogeyed the 13th hole. From there it was little more than a formality before he could begin to celebrate his seventh PGA Tour Champions victory and the first major championship of his career.

He beat Parel by two, earning $450,000 and an exemption to the PGA Tour’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass next spring.

A @jerrykelly13pga ACE!!

The @BridgestoneSP leader aces No. 12 and stretches his lead to 3. pic.twitter.com/foy01TQHB8

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 16, 2020

“I love that idea, the Players Championship,” Kelly said. “I can’t wait to go back there. And just to have a major out here is pretty huge for me. Never getting one, not even getting that close on the regular tour, it feels great.”

Kelly, 53, is an animated player whose demeanour takes any guesswork out of how every shot’s result while it’s in the air. That special highlight on the 12th hole was no exception.

“Come on,” he shouted, easily heard over the absence of a din with no fans permitted on the premises.

Only moments before, Kelly had bogeyed the 11th hole to see his lead cut to one. Then on the next tee, he changed clubs.

“I know the wind switched,” he said. “It was going in and left to right and now it’s in and right to left. I was able to take some off it and cut a little 5-iron instead of a 6- and starting it over the bunker. It made me a little happier.”

Kelly won with a final round of one-under-par 69 on a familiar course for PGA Tour veterans, and one that over four rounds played up to its major championship pedigree. His aggregate score was three-under 277 on a course that has hosted three PGA Championships as well as 20 World Golf Championship events.

Parel was the only other player to finish under par (one under) after completing a round of even-par 70.

Parel, who never played the PGA Tour but has won three times on the PGA Tour Champions, began the final round trailing Kelly by a stroke. Parel briefly tied for the lead at the outset and again trailed by one after three holes, when inclement weather caused a two-hour, 15-minute delay.

By then, it basically was only a two-man competition, and it remained tight until Kelly’s tee shot on 12, struck on a perfect line, hitting about eight feet short of the hole and rolling out and into the cup.

Colin Montgomerie, who began the final round tied for second, shot a one-over 71 and tied for third with Miguel Angel Jimenez, who closed with a 69.

The post Jerry Kelly punctuates his first senior major victory with a special highlight appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Those are a few of the highlights of an absolutely brilliant spoof of our strange times and the beauty and burden of video conferencing that the European Tour players put out. It’s truly LOL stuff.

Watching it also makes you realize why these guys regularly wax the U.S. in the Ryder Cup. Their chemistry is just better, and they don’t take themselves too seriously.

Brainstorming. Meant in the most literal way possible.#TheConferenceCall #drivenbypassion@EuropeanTour @MKaymer59 @TheSergioGarcia @TommyFleetwood1 @WestwoodLee @JustinRose99 @montgomeriefdn @padraig_h pic.twitter.com/PyDKIgmf8w

— BMW Golfsport (@bmwgolfsport) June 16, 2020

The gist of the video: Former U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer is hosting a Zoom meeting ostensibly to discuss European Tour issues. No sooner do they start than he asks for thoughts from Player, who begins his oft-heard spiel about the difficulty of travelling in the old days.

Suddenly, he goes mute, and it’s the first of a few hilarious moments with the 84-year-old South African, who, by the way, seems to have the technology down better than Padraig Harrington.

Stenson does a bit to skewer Zoom backgrounds—“I didn’t know we were holding this meeting in ancient Rome!”—while getting up at one point to reveal he’s wearing only briefs below the waist. [How many knowing nods is that going to get?]

Montgomerie—he of the rabbit ears—makes fun of himself by coming unhinged because there’s a fly in his car, and Rose—reputed to be so polite and proper—goes on a blue tirade: “What a total (bleep) waste of time. Bunch of clowns!”

And then there’s Fleetwood, who comically distracts the meeting three times with various household duties.

Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood have funny bits, too, and Kaymer ultimately gives up in complete frustration.

As the Euros would say, “Well played, sirs. Well played.”

The post This hilarious spoof by European Tour players is exactly why they’re so good in Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.