Muirfield Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Jon Rahm’s Muirfield Village debut went so poorly that he told caddie Adam Hayes that he didn’t want to come back

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 31 May 2023 07:00:11 +0000

Given everything that’s transpired for Jon Rahm at Muirfield Village over the last handful of years, it’s hard to imagine a Memorial Tournament occurring without the Spaniard’s presence. For Rahm, there was once a time when that was a legitimate possibility. For good.

In his tournament debut at the iconic Jack Nicklaus design, Rahm badly missed the cut, shooting rounds of 73 and 77 despite nearly winning at Colonial the week before. Naturally, Rahm wondered if it was the course, and not himself, that was to blame.

“It’s funny, first time I played here I played bad, I missed the cut. I think I told Adam [Hayes, Rahm’s caddie]: ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m ever going back to that golf course,’” Rahm said on Tuesday at Muirfield Village.

For two years, Rahm kept his word, skipping the tournament at Jack’s place because, evidently, he thought it didn’t fit his eye. Hayes disagreed.

“[Hayes] was telling me: ‘You’re going to go back and you’re going to love it. You are tailor-made for that golf course,’” added Rahm.

Extenuating circumstances, also known as the COVID-19 pandemic, forced Rahm to return, as golf was the first sport back in full force in May of 2020. Due to scheduling changes, there were two events hosted at Muirfield Village on consecutive weeks in July of 2020, the Workday Charity Open and the Memorial Tournament. Rahm returned to Jack’s place for the Workday Charity Open, struggling over the first 54 holes, shooting one-over.

Something clicked on Sunday, however, with Rahm posting an eight-under 64 and carrying that momentum over into the following week. Despite a final-round 75 marred by a rules controversy, he won the 2020 Memorial Tournament, making Hayes’ words feel prophetic.

The following season, in his title defence, Rahm led by six strokes after 54 holes before infamously being forced to withdraw due to a positive test for COVID-19. Barring an epic collapse, he would have likely been a back-to-back Memorial Tournament winner just a few years after thinking he didn’t want to come back to Muirfield Village. When listening to your caddie pays off.

“I think it’s a golf course you kind of need to learn to play a little bit,” Rahm said. “It gives you a lot of options off the tee on a couple of holes. Getting a couple of reps helps. But it’s mainly, it’s a little different to what we play throughout the year. It’s target golf. You put it on the fairway, put it on the proper side of the fairway to give you the best angle to the green. Par-3s are all difficult. You have to be really accurate with your iron play. No surprise Tiger has such a success here, right. You just need to come out and be the best. While you’re doing that it actually makes you think a little bit more than some of the golf courses we go to. So like I said, it’s a fun test and I think that’s why I’ve played well.”

Much like Augusta National, a place Rahm has also had success, Muirfield Village is very much a second-shot golf course, which has allowed strong iron players like Woods, Patrick Cantlay and other great ball-strikers to thrive in Dublin, Ohio. In the strokes-gained/approach department, only two players (Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler) have been better than Rahm this season. There aren’t many safe bets in golf, but Rahm continuing his hot run at Muirfield Village, a book he once judged by its cover, feels like a safe bet this week.

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WATCH: Highlights of Ashleigh Buhai’s triumph at the AIG Women’s Open

Matt Smith — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 05:54:47 +0000

By Matt Smith
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai clinched the first major of her career by winning the 2022 AIG Women’s Open after a four-hole playoff on Sunday.

After being level on 10-under-par with Korea’s In Gee Chun after 72 holes, it took four holes to separate the duo. It was a par on the fourth playoff hole, after a magnificent bunker shot, which saw Buhai secure her first LPGA Tour title and the AIG Women’s Open crown.

Watch the highlights below:

[parone_video_player campaign=”397″ defaultlang=”en” feed=”51-all-videos”/]

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AIG Women’s Open: An out-of-nowhere win that nearly became a devastating loss leaves Ashleigh Buhai feeling joy and relief

Matt Smith — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 05:39:34 +0000

By John Huggan
It’s a fact of golf life. There have always been major championships where the runner-up rather than the winner is the story. Doug Sanders missing from three feet to win the 1970 Open at St Andrews is one example. Nick Price’s sad deterioration over the last six holes at Royal Troon to lose the 1982 Open is another. A dozen shots clear during the third round of the 1990 US Women’s Open at the Atlanta Athletic Club, Patty Sheehan somehow contrived to lose by one. And no one who saw the triple-bogey Jean Van de Velde made on the 72nd hole at Carnoustie in 1999 will ever forget that he did not win that Open.

There are others, but you get the picture.

Happily — at least for her — Ashleigh Buhai has avoided adding her name to that list. But only just.

The AIG Women’s Open record book will tell us that the 33-year-old South African shot a closing round of 75 at Muirfield to tie In Gee Chun on 10-under 274, then made a par at the fourth extra hole to deny the South Korean what would have been a career Grand Slam.

But that rather pedestrian description doesn’t begin to tell the tale that has to be told. Or the one that was nearly told. With four holes to play, all seemed to be proceeding to the plan just about everyone had in place. Armed with a five-shot overnight lead, Buhai wasn’t exactly burning up the course as she had en route to 64 on Saturday. But she was doing enough. Still three shots clear, she appeared to have things well in hand.

Then she didn’t.

Off the 15th tee, the South African made the error you just can’t make at Muirfield — home of 147 bunkers, most of them deep. After blasting out into heavy rough with her second shot, Buhai mucked about for three more shots before finally making the putting surface on the par 4. It all added up to a triple-bogey 7 and the complete disappearance of the aforementioned lead.

It didn’t get much better either. Not immediately. After Chun had failed to make birdie at the downwind 17th, Buhai did the same, missing from four feet or so. Two pars later we had our playoff, one that would only just beat the rapidly descending darkness and spare the championship organisers, the R&A, much embarrassment.

In the end, those bunkers decided things. Chun drove into sand on the now more than familiar 18th hole and was always making bogey; Buhai got up-and-down from the ‘island’ bunker right of the green for par to secure the biggest victory of her career.

“I can’t really put this into words,” Buhai said. “This is the result of many years of hard work. And I’m sure there are many people in South Africa right now with more grey hairs after watching me on that 15th hole. I love this course though. It’s a true test. My caddie, Tanya, gave me the confidence for the bunker shot on the last hole. She told me to show everyone why I’m No. 1 in bunkers. And now I’m a major champion. It’s life-changing.”

Still, for all her heroics, Buhai must go down as something of an unlikely champion, albeit there were more than high hopes for her as a teenager.

Winner of her national Open at the age of only 14, one of four professional events the Johannesburg-native would win as an amateur, she was seen as the classic “can’t miss kid”. For long enough though, things didn’t quite work out as widely predicted. Before this week in what is now a 15-year professional career Buhai had just three Ladies European Tour wins to her name and only one top-10 finish (alongside 20 missed cuts) in 42 major championship starts, a T-5 in the Women’s Open Championship at Woburn three years ago.

This season too, Buhai had been struggling more than prospering. Prior to arriving at Muirfield for a 15th attempt to win the AIG Women’s Open, Buhai had played well enough to finish in the top 10 only twice in 15 LPGA Tour starts. Seven times she failed to qualify for the weekend, most recently one week earlier at the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open. A lowly 84th on the Rolex World Rankings, she was a relatively unheralded 50th on the LPGA’s Race to CME Globe points list.

OK, enough.

Things are different now, of course. Today, Buhai is the AIG Women’s Open champion, a first-time winner on the LPGA Tour and $1,095,000 richer after she followed her compatriots, Open champions Gary Player and Ernie Els, in claiming a major title over the peerless East Lothian links. She is also the first female South African to win a major since Sally Little claimed the LPGA Championship in 1980, nine years before Buhai was born.

That’s a lot to take in. But four months into her work with a sports psychologist, Buhai stayed calm, even on the walk between 15th green and 16th tee.

“I wasn’t thinking of too much there, to be honest,” she said. “The drive on 15 was probably the worst swing I made all week. But it doesn’t often happened that a ball pulls in a bunker off a drive. Then I compounded the mistake. But I didn’t panic, which was huge. It would have been easy to panic and come home in an ambulance. I just tried to keep making good swings. Which I did in the play-off. I’m proud of the fact that I hit that fairway every time.”

Indeed, on what at first appeared to be her metronomic way to victory, the smoothness of Buhai’s technique (with one notable exception) was the most striking feature of her victory. Only once on that almost fateful 15th tee did she succumb to the fault strong wind most commonly causes — the shorter than normal backswing that leads to a loss of timing and less than satisfactory impact conditions.

“I have a couple of different thoughts,” she explained. “I’ve kind of got it down to where if I swing 40 per cent up and I lock it in at the top, then my tempo is good. Or I count ‘one, two, three.’ All I’m trying to do is remind myself on every shot, ‘40 per cent up, 40 per cent up.’ That’s my only focus. After that, wherever the ball goes, it goes.”

And this week, that was nearly always where she meant it to go.

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AIG Women’s Open: Ashleigh Buhai blitzes Muirfield for 64 to take five-shot lead

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 08:15:13 +0000

By John Huggan
Forget this “moving day” stuff. A more appropriate name for the third round of any golf tournament is surely “eliminating day.” Consider the following. As Saturday morning dawned on the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield, as many as 24 players were six shots of closer to the lead held by In Gee Chun on eight-under. Every one of those pursuers would be harboring hopes of potentially tournament-winning progress over the coming 18 holes.

Not for long though. Only six holes into the third round, Ashleigh Buhai was the new leader. The South African had already made four birdies and reduced the chasing pack significantly. Only 11 players were inside our arbitrary six-shot deficit. Three holes after that, Buhai had made another birdie, the gap between her and the rest increasing almost by the minute. Now, only six players could say they were less than seven shots behind.

On and on Buhai went. After 12 holes, she was six under for the day and looking down on the rest from an ever-growing height. Only four women were then inside our six-shot gap.

And she wasn’t done yet. Seven-under for the day standing on the 16th tee, Buhai had gotten rid of one more challenger. Only three remained, two — Chun and 2019 champion Hinako Shibuno — by the time the leader reached the penultimate hole.

Believe it or not, things got better still for Buhai. Over the par-5 17th green in three shots after a misjudged approach, she promptly chipped in for her eighth birdie of the day. Suddenly, only Shibuno — six back on nine-under after a 66 — is looking like she might just have a wee chance of catching the relentless leader.

A dropped shot at the last from Buhai, nudging her lead at 14-under down to five strokes, did offer at least a little encouragement to her nearest — and now only — challenger, however. The 33-year old’s seven-under 64 was two shots clear of the lowest score of the week and, in it came in blustery conditions that were never less than tricky and always at least borderline difficult. Playing partner Inbee Park was moved to say the golf Buhai played was “phenomenal”. Which is fair enough. Compiled in the afternoon, when Muirfield played close to two shots harder than it had before lunch, it was, no question, one of the top rounds of 2022.

“We are going to have to play in good golf tomorrow to catch her,” concluded Park, the 2015 champion at Turnberry, displaying a mastery of understatement.

“I’m obviously very pleased,” said the leader. “To shoot that score in those conditions, you have to pat yourself on the back. It has to be one of the best rounds I’ve ever played. We were playing a three-club wind by the end and some of those holes on the back nine are pretty brutal.”

Indeed, asked to pick out one shot as a highlight, Buhai was unable to do so, such was the consistency of her excellence.

“I’ve probably never played better than that,” she continued. “I’m most proud of how I stayed calm and focused. That’s all I try to control. I wasn’t thinking of the outcomes. But I must say my par saves were huge. I was in three divots today and each time the ball didn’t come out as I would have liked.”

The strange thing about all of the above is that Buhai arrived in East Lothian with little to commend her chances of ultimate success. A missed cut at last week’s Scottish Open was far from atypical in a year that has seen the three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour manage only two top-10 in 15 starts on the LPGA Tour. Maybe for that reason, she was reluctant to acknowledge just how many challengers she had dispensed with.

“I’m not sure about that,” she said. “In these conditions anything can happen. Anyone can come from behind. There have been low scores this week – and high ones too. But this is my favorite tournament of the year. I love links golf. I love how you have to be creative.”

A little caution — mixed with an obvious confidence — is understandable. But facts are facts. Only seven players are now within 10 shots of Bahai’s lead. Call her the eliminator.

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AIG Women’s Championship: It has been a while by Inbee Park’s standards, but the seven-time major champ is lurking in Scotland

Matt Smith — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 06:29:39 +0000

By John Huggan
She’s lurking, not leading, at halfway. But no matter. Those around Inbee Park at the sharp end of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield will be well aware of her presence. Seven major championship victories give a player a particular aura, as well as the knowledge that, even when the vagaries of links golf are thrown into the mix, she is more likely to stay in than go from contention.

Park followed and opening 69 with a 67 Friday and is in fourth place, two shots behind Women’s PGA Championship winner In Gee Chun.

Still, it’s been a while for the 34-year-old Korean. Yes, she has amassed 28 other top-10 finishes to set alongside those Grand Slam wins, but the last of those victories arrived back in 2015 at the Women’s Open at Turnberry. The well-earned respect from her fellow competitors will surely remain, but the fear factor that took her to World No. 1 on four separate occasions cannot be what it once was.

Since she withdrew prior to the US Women’s Open at Pine Needles, Park has played five times without any great distinction. Three cuts have been missed — including the last major, the Evian Championship and last week at the Scottish Open — her best finish a T-15 at the Shoprite Classic. Her most recent LPGA win was in March last year at the Kia Classic.

Even the putting for which Park is rightly lauded hasn’t been quite what it was. Not according to her anyway.

“Believe it or not, I’ve been striking the ball so well all year,” she claimed. “But my putter has been just not good at all. I’ve had a lot of three-putts and been missing every single opportunity on the greens. So I think just the putter has been a little bit different this week. Everything else is the same, same ball striking, same swing, everything. I’m just rolling in a few more putts, maybe two or three more per day.”

None of which seemed to be bothering the ever-serene Park at the end of a day when she shot a 67 that had clearly pleased her. Five birdies dotted a scorecard marred by only a single bogey, a feat she also achieved during her opening 69. There was a bigger difference than that two-shot improvement though.

“It was a little less windy today, a little bit easier to play than yesterday,” Park said. “I hit a lot of good shots out there today. My ball-striking was my strength. I don’t remember chipping at all today. So I was hitting a lot of greens and gave my myself a lot of opportunities at birdie. I’m thinking my putter was good, too. There were so many opportunities. It was fun playing like that. Yesterday I was in six bunkers. So I was able to avoid a lot of them today. Today, just one.”

Ominously for her fellow challengers, Park followed her display of pleasure with an acknowledgement of her position with two (increasingly blustery) rounds to play on a links course that is seeing its first Women’s British Open after hosting 16 of the male versions. Class players tend to win at Muirfield and Park more than fits the bill in an environment she at first struggled in but has grown to love.

“I think I’m in a good position, obviously,” she said. “And I feel like my game is in good form. I’ve just got to keep doing what I have been doing today. The first few years I just struggled with links golf so much. It was such a different golf. And I didn’t know if I was enjoying myself because it was always rainy, always windy. I was miserable. But then after a few years, I really started enjoying links golf, and it’s just beautiful out here. I’ve became falling in love with it more and more. And it’s definitely one of my favorite places to come and play.”

Okay, what would victory here this week mean? For years now, Park has been hinting at early retirement, so would a win here represent a crowning glory? Or would such a feat merely galvanise her to go for more?

“I think that winning here will be a very good way to saying a farewell,” she said, briefly hinting at retirement from a game that has seen her win 27 times and amass $18,197,343 on the LPGA alone. “I think it’s definitely one of my dreams to do it. But I still have a little bit left in me, so I’m trying to keep that going for now.”

Two more days might just be enough.

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R&A increases AIG Women’s Open purse to a record $7.3 million

Matt Smith — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 06:43:05 +0000

By John Huggan
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers has announced a record prize money payout for the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield.

The clue being in the title, the world of professional golf has always been about the money. Last month, Cameron Smith’s victory in the Open Championship at St Andrews was worth $2.5 million to the Australian, from a total prize money payout of $14 million. This week’s AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield isn’t quite on that financial level, but things are definitely looking up for the game’s best women players.

On Sunday evening the winner of the year’s final major championship will be paid $1,095,000, which is $225,000 more than Anna Nordqvist earned for winning at Carnoustie 12 months ago. In all, $7.3 million in prize money (up from $5.8 million, or 26 per cent) will be distributed among those players who play well enough to make the 36-hole cut, meaning all five women’s majors lifted their pay days to record levels in 2022.

The boost in the overall purse at Muirfield is even more striking when zooming out to the last four years. The total prize money handed out in 2018 at Royal Lytham and St. Annes was $3.25 million, a year before the R&A partnered with AIG as a sponsor for the championship. In that time, then, the purse has increased 125 per cent.

Those numbers were the centrepiece of a press conference given by R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers on the eve of what he called “a world-class championship”.

“This is our opportunity to shine a light on the immense talent of the athletes that are competing here this week, as well as inspire the next generation of players,” Slumbers said. “I’m hugely excited by what this week has to offer. We have to use this week to highlight the need for a broader engagement in women’s golf.”

Part of that mission, to the dismay of traditionalists, is the presence of not one but two pro-ams in the days leading up to the championship. Again, the answer to any and all questions is “money”, a fact Slumbers was quick to acknowledge.

“Pro-ams are part of the commercial model of women’s professional golf,” he said. “I’ve not been shy in saying over the years that professional golf is a business and the pro-am is a key part of that in the women’s game. But it’s also a fantastic opportunity to invite people to see not only what we are doing together, what Muirfield is doing as a golf course, but for them to be able to say, ‘do you know what, there’s some really special stuff going on.’ So there’s commercial reality, and there’s marketing.”

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers plays with Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul during the Pro-Am prior to the AIG Women’s Open. R&A

Slumbers’ often bold and sometimes inspiring words are especially significant because of where they were being spoken. Still in the early days of their foray into mixed membership, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers are well aware that the eyes of golfers everywhere are upon them. But were they forced to accept a Women’s Open before being reintroduced to the Open Championship rota for what would be the first time since 2013?

“Absolutely not,” Slumbers said. “Absolutely not. They are two very independent decisions. But let me just explain why we brought the championship here, because I think that’s really important that people understand. We are absolutely focused on how do we get the best venues that we can get that mean the most to golf, and stage the championship there. And when you look at the history of our game, there is no more important course [than Muirfield], other than perhaps the Old Course, if you want to achieve that purpose. You only have to walk around and listen to some of the players and their views. This is something special.”

As for the contrast between the fear that the male players might destroy the Old Course last month and the contention expressed more than once this week that level par might be good enough to win, Slumbers was again dismissive. One day earlier he had played in the first pro-am of the week alongside Atthaya Thitikul, an LPGA rookie from Thailand who is sixth in the Rolex World Ranking. Thitikul, who insists that she “hates” links golf, played Muirfield’s front-nine in 30, even after missing a short putt on the eighth green.

“This is a tough golf course at the best of times and there is a big difference playing for fun in a pro-am and putting a card in your hand,” Slumbers said. “We are playing at just shy of 6,700 yards. We have three of the par 5s not far off the championship tees. The greens are running about the same as they were at St Andrews [last month]. This is going to be a strong test. We are forecast more wind, which will make some of the closing holes, 12 through 15, really challenging. I do think the players will find a way to score, but you need to play really well to shoot low around here.”

Indeed. The battle will commence Thursday when 2009 champion (and local resident) Catriona Matthew hits the opening tee shot at 6.30am local time.

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AIG Women’s Open: 5 players to watch at Muirfield

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 06:40:29 +0000

By Keely Levins
For the first time in history, the AIG Women’s Open is being held at Muirfield in Scotland. Not only is the field competing at an iconic venue, they’re also competing for the highest purse ever in a women’s Open: $6.8 million, $1 million higher than it was in 2021. This year’s major winners have included Jennifer Kupcho at the Chevron Championship, followed by Minjee Lee at the US Women’s Open. In Gee Chun held on at Congressional to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and Brooke Henderson did the same to take home the trophy at the Evian Championship.

In the final major of 2022, we have our eyes on five players:

Minjee Lee

Minjee Lee. Alex Burstow/R&A

Officially, the Rolex World Rankings show Lee is ranked No. 2 behind Jin Young Ko. Unofficially, however, a large group of followers will say the 26-year-old Australian is the best player in women’s golf right now. While Ko hasn’t won since March, Lee has two titles — the Founders Cup and the US Women’s Open — plus a T-2 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in that time period. Lee loves the majors and has the game to pick up her third in a 13-month span this week at Muirfield.

Celine Boutier

Celine Boutier. Mark Runnacles

The 28-year-old from France has won twice on the LPGA Tour, but has yet to win a major. Though she missed the cut in two of her last three her events, she finished second in last week’s Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open, a sign of her game trending in the right direction and her comfort on links courses. Boutier has played well in Women’s Open before, her best finish coming in 2019 where she finished sixth.

Madelene Sagstrom

Madelene Sagstrom. Dylan Buell

Sagstrom has proven she knows how to win, collecting three Epson Tour titles before her first LPGA win in 2020. The talented Swede is due for her next victory and is seeking some personal vengance with this event after making a bogey on the last hole at Carnoustie a year ago to finish T-2 behind Anna Nordqvist. Sagestrom has shown good recent form with a T-15 at the Scottish the week before Muirfield, which included a 64 on Sunday.

Lydia Ko

Lydia Ko. Mark Runnacles

Ko was in control at last week’s Women’s Scottish Open until Sunday, where she did not make enough birdies early enough to maintain her momentum from the first three days. But for those first three rounds, Ko reminded viewers she has a game that can simply dominate. She has won once in 2022, but that number is a little misleading. She’s been playing a lot better than that. She has earned sixth other top-five finishes, which means this one-win season could’ve easily already been a multiple-win season. Her best finish in the AIG Women’s Open was T-3 in 2015. Who would be a better winner at this year’s iconic venue?

Ingrid Lindblad

Ingrid Lindblad. Harriet Lander/R&A

The AIG Women’s Open has made a habit of producing some incredibly unexpected champions. You’ll recall Hinako Shibuno at Woburn in 2019, where she was playing outside of her home country of Japan for the first time. And then Sophia Popov in 2020, the No. 304 player in the world who had no status on the LPGA Tour and was considering retirement only to win at Royal Troon. In that vein, who could be more surprising than a 22-year-old amateur from Sweden who got into the field through Monday qualifying? Lindblad is a three-time first-team All-American at LSU and made her biggest splash in the golf world at the US Women’s Open in June at Pine Needles. After rounds of 65-71-71-76, she finished T-11. There could be some magic for Lindblad at Muirfield.

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Laura Davies makes unique return to Muirfield for AIG Women’s Open

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 06:06:38 +0000

By John Huggan
There are 144 players in the field for this week’s AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield. But only one of those has previously played the famous East Lothian links in a competitive environment. Step forward Dame Laura Davies, a member of the 1984 Great Britain & Ireland team that lost the Curtis Cup by single point — 9.5-8.5 — to the United States.

Almost four decades on, it is not surprising to hear that Davies struggles to recall too many of the shots she or her foursomes partner, Ireland’s Mary McKenna, hit in a losing cause on the first morning of that now far-off week. But, ever the competitor, the four-time major champion needed no encouragement when it came to the second-day singles match she won 1-up over Anne Sander, an eight-time participant in the biennial competition.

“That was a big deal for me at the time,” says Davies, who turned pro a year later and was just three years shy from winning the US Women’s Open. “I was only 20, and she was a bit of a legend in the Curtis Cup. So I remember I won, but I couldn’t tell you one shot I hit or she hit.”

Pressed to think back, Davies surprised herself with what she could recall though. Standing by the practice putting green she was able to point out the window of the room she occupied in the Greywalls Hotel that still sits behind the 10th tee. And, this being the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers circa 1984, the memory of not being allowed into the clubhouse lingers.

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“But who cares?” says Davies, who turns 59 in October. “I didn’t, and I’m certainly not making a statement about that. It was a cracking week. We lost by a point. Penny Grice-Whittaker [1991 Women’s Open champion] was in the last match. If she won, we won; if she lost, we lost. And sadly she lost on the last. There were no Scots in the team, which was a surprise. And an even bigger shock was that Gillian Stewart, who was a really good player, had been left out. That was a strange decision, especially as we were playing in Scotland. We’ve come a long way since though. It’s magnificent that we are here this week.”

Davies has been back at Muirfield a couple of times since 1984, but only in her role as a commentator for first the BBC and now Sky Sports. Neither of which helped her memory of the links.

“When you’re on the course you cut across the holes a lot and don’t stand on many tees,” she explains. “So I would say I can remember no more than six holes. It is a great course though. Playing this week I’m reminded of how well the bunkers are situated. The winner will be someone who stays out of those, both greenside and fairway bunkers. Especially the fairway bunkers. They are the classic one-shot penalties. And there seems to be a lot of sand in them, whether by design or by mistake.”

Laura Davies playing as an amateur in 1984. Peter Dazeley

Still, back again as a player, Davies is in no doubt that a quality member of the field will emerge as the champion. No surprise there, of course. The Open Championship has paid 16 visits to Muirfield and has produced a Hall of Fame calibre winner virtually every time.

“I’m not surprised by how good a course this is,” Davies says. “But it is even better than I remembered. Standing on the first tee yesterday I was struck by just how good it feels. It’s a proper links. You can nearly always run the ball on to the greens. And if you hit the greens, you can make putts. The surfaces are close to perfect. But if you get out of position, you’re in trouble.”

The course set-up also meets with Davies’ approval. Penal rough has forever been a feature of the Muirfield examination, but this week that has been minimised as much as possible. Which is important. The one area where, generally speaking, the leading female players cannot match their male counterparts is physical strength.

“Driving is fairly generous,” says Davies, a winner of the event in 1986. “But those bunkers are in just the right spots. They’ve done a nice job with the rough, too. It can get really thick here, but they’ve avoided that and been very fair. We would have had trouble hacking out of the really thick stuff. But I had a 4-iron from the rough on the 15th yesterday and still managed to find the green.”

Asked for the holes that are most likely to influence the destination of the title, Davies was quick to identify three: two par 3s in the 13th and 16th and the par-5 17th. Again, no surprise. All three have a history of destruction.

In the 1972 Open, Tony Jacklin made a triple-bogey 6 on the 13th during his third round. One day later, he lost by two shots to Lee Trevino. That same day, Jack Nicklaus missed a short putt for par on the 16th and lost the third leg of a possible Grand Slam by one shot. And two decades later, the unfortunate John Cook missed from short range on the penultimate green and came up one shot shy of Nick Faldo’s winning total.

“The 17th will be really important,” Davies says. “It will play downwind, so birdies are possible. But equally, it could cost someone a chance to win. And the short 13th is dangerous. Miss the green there and you could make anything. That hole will ruin someone’s tournament, whether it is one of the leaders we’ll have to wait and see. Then there is the 16th. It is so tough to hold the green downwind. The bank at the front makes it so tricky to know where to land the ball. Too far and you’re over the back.”

As for her own hopes for the days ahead, Davies is realistic. Suffering from bruised ribs, she was forced to withdraw from last week’s Scottish Women’s Open. And six weeks have passed since she last played a tournament. So making the cut, which she did a year ago at Carnoustie, is a realistic target.

“I’m doing the commentary for Sky this week, too,” she says. “I’ve missed tournaments to do that this year already. But I still want to play. These days I’m a commentator who wants to play golf, rather than a golfer who does a bit of commenting. If I can make the cut and shoot under par on the weekend that will be a great week for me. Winning is out of the question. Not this year.”

Sounds familiar. Call it 1984 all over again.

The post Laura Davies makes unique return to Muirfield for AIG Women’s Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

AIG Women’s Open: Australian army of Lee, Hillier, Green, Su and Kyriacou target more major glory in Scotland

Matt Smith — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 11:39:03 +0000

Minjee Lee. LET

By Matt Smith
The Australian contingent for the AIG Women’s Open Championship will be hunting more success in Scotland to emulate 2002 champ Karrie Webb and keep up the Aussie major momentum following Cameron Smith’s recent triumph at the 150th men’s Open Championship at St Andrews.

World No. 2 Minjee Lee leads this week’s Australian hopefuls, and is joined by 2019 Women’s PGA Championship winner Hannah Green, 2022 Aramco Team Series – Bangkok team champ Whitney Hillier, 2022 Australian WPGA Championship winner Su Oh and rising star Steph Kyriacou.

Lee claimed her first ever major top 10 in 2015 at this championship, and now has nine to her name including two victories, and will be going for another at Muirfield.

MORE: Muirfield’s long and bumpy road to hosting Women’s Open

The quintet will look to build on Australia’s recent success in Scotland and its history in the Open, which has previously witnessed five Australian champions, including seven-time major champion Webb.

This year’s Women’s US Open champion, Lee, said, “I am really looking forward to closing out the major season at Muirfield for the AIG Women’s Open. I love the challenges presented by links golf and I am really looking forward to playing at Muirfield. It’s been a great few weeks for Australian golf with Cam’s win at The 150th Open and Karrie’s at the Senior LPGA Championship last week, so I will, of course, be trying my best to keep the winning streak running.”

Whitney Hillier

Webb forged the way for young Australians looking to find success in the professional women’s game, leaving a legacy for today’s generations to follow through the famed Karrie Webb Series Scholarship.

Among the recipients of the honour include Lee, Green and Hillier, who will look to build on the tutelage and support from the scholarship, and personal inspiration of Webb, when it comes to round one of the AIG Women’s Open at the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

Webb’s inspiration and legacy in the game was further elevated last weekend as she revisited her infamous duals with fellow legend, Annika Sorenstam, to claim her first Senior LPGA Championship title at Salina Country Club.

Counting down to the final major of the year, Webb said, “As a former winner I am looking forward to watching the AIG Women’s Open next week. The women players are all so incredibly talented that I look forward to seeing how they take on the famed links of Muirfield.”

“Australian golf is so strong at the moment with Cam Smith having just won The 150th Open and Minjee Lee the Women’s US Open in June, I am hoping Australian golf fans will have more to cheer about at the AIG Women’s Open.”

The AIG Women’s Open will take place from August 4-7 at Muirfield.

The post AIG Women’s Open: Australian army of Lee, Hillier, Green, Su and Kyriacou target more major glory in Scotland appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

AIG Women’s Open: Muirfield’s long, bumpy and often tense road to hosting its first Women’s Open

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 12:53:11 +0000

By John Huggan
For long enough — centuries even — it was easy to point and sneer at the body of men known as the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. There they were in the stately clubhouse that sits directly behind the 18th green on the magnificent Muirfield links that has hosted 16 Open Championships, staring defiantly out at an ever-changing world seemingly beyond their ken — and one that could certainly never meet with their approval. The very idea of women members, by way of example, was typically greeted with cigar-fuelled guffaws. Dream on, brother.

Perceived misogyny was just one of their less-than-attractive traits. In so many other ways, the all-males of Muirfield lived down to just about every negative stereotype the wider populace, largely ignorant of the eclectic social mix golf encompasses across the globe, saw as the game’s elitist place in society. Not for nothing did Golf Digest once published a story calling the place “quite possibly the rudest club in the world”.

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And not always the most reputable. An entry in the club accounts from 1786 reads: “Cash for getting Dickson out of prison — five shillings and seven pence.” More recently, there was also plenty of evidence that the club was largely populated by those keen to preserve their elitist environment.

To wit, future King Edward VIII was once denied access to the course. On separate occasions, a brace of US Open champions, Payne Stewart and Geoff Ogilvy, ended up playing nearby Gullane No. 1 when told Muirfield was out of bounds. And both looked down from the seventh tee at Gullane to see a deserted Muirfield. Only hours after he had won the 1980 Open, Tom Watson, along with Ben Crenshaw and Tom Weiskopf, was asked to leave the premises.

For many, that well-established and imperious level of arrogance was further underlined on May 19, 2016. On that day Henry Fairweather, then captain of a clearly not-so Honourable Company, announced that the membership had voted against the admission of women into their midst. To be fair, most who did vote were in favour of the motion to allow female members, but the 64 to 36 per cent result fell short of the two-thirds majority required.

Retribution was swift. In addition to worldwide opprobrium that apparently came as a shock to even the hardest-liners within the club, within a day R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers announced that, as long as the HCEG’s reaffirmed status quo remained in place, the Open Championship would not return to the jewel in East Lothian’s “Golf Coast”. Bad dream, brother.

“The wider reaction to the result of the first vote was, I didn’t think, that surprising,” says Peter Arthur, a former HCEG club captain. “Once you’ve gone from back-page news to front-page news, it doesn’t really matter what the argument is, you’ve lost it. One of the reasons we had another vote so quickly was that everyone, including many of those who had voted ‘no’ initially, felt that it was really damaging to the club.”

That it was.

Ross Kinnaird

“I received two packages from primary schools in the wake of the vote,” says Stuart McEwen, the club secretary who arrived at Muirfield after working stints at Kingsbarns and Gleneagles. “There were hand-written letters from the kids, all asking why we hate women. We also got many messages and emails targeting the club, which was unpleasant and showed us how serious this had all become. It was not just a golf issue. And it was global. When we shared all that with the membership, they became nervous about what was next.”

Happily, what did come next was, as Arthur said, a second vote, one that saw 81 per cent of those who voted in favor of women members. It was the end of one journey for the HCEG and the continuation of another that actually began as far back as Muirfield’s most recent Open Championship in 2013. It was there that Peter Dawson, then chief executive of the R&A, was given a rough ride by a press core interested in why, in the 21st century, the Open was being played at a club where women were apparently not welcome.

“The gender issue was really gathering momentum then,” says McEwen, who attended that Open in the wake of his appointment but two months before he actually assumed his current role. “I wasn’t interviewed, but I was quoted in the Daily Telegraph. It was written that I was ‘widely regarded as a reformer’. Those were not my words. But I was reading it thinking ‘crikey’.

“So I was aware that the club was under pressure,” he continues. “I had a conversation with an official at IMG. They were running the Women’s Open then and he was asking if the club would be interested in hosting. My response was to ask how the sponsors would feel about the single-gender nature of the club. He came back and said they would not want to come here. We were creeping ever closer to untenable.”

But that was then.

Today, just over six years later, the HCEG numbers 20 females (a number that will soon enough rise to 25) within its 800-strong membership. And, this week, Muirfield will host the AIG Women’s Open for the first time. All of which is the result of swift action that was slowed only by the result of the infamous first vote.

“I’m not sure when we decided that our reaction had to be pretty much immediate, but it wasn’t long,” says Arthur, who is chairman of the Women’s Open championship committee. “We all felt it wasn’t the right outcome. And we had to do something about it. The club as a whole, whatever people’s personal opinions are, was hurt by the first vote. This place has a great history and certainly a great golf course, so none of us liked to see it being trashed.”

Indeed, not long after hearing that the chances of hosting a Women’s Open were virtually nil, a group — LTTF, “Looking to the future” — had been formed within the club.

“We talked about addressing issues … membership, equality,” McEwen says. “Things that could further damage the club. There was a lot of consultation over two years until we reached the point of proposing change to the membership. We thought we had done enough to convince them.”

Clearly, that was not the case.

“We had to do more work,” McEwen adds. “We had to identify who was hesitant or who wasn’t fully informed. One of the clear messages coming back was that they didn’t think the negative reaction from the R&A and the wider world would be what it had been, which left some feeling pressurised. Many felt that this should be a club decision and that we shouldn’t be told what to do. Within a year though, the second vote went our way. It wasn’t 100 per cent; 123 members still voted against women members. I’m not sure why; we haven’t asked. But I feel sure that, if we had another vote now, the percentage in favour would be higher again.”

Having passed that initial hurdle, further decisions were required. Exactly how were women to be introduced to the club? And how many was the correct number, at least initially? As things stood, it took (and continues to take) about seven years for a member to make his way through the process. When it came to the women though, such a time lag was clearly unacceptable.

In 2019, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers invited its first 12 female members to join the club after changing its centuries-old membership policy.

In 2019, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers invited its first 12 female members to join the club. Jeff J Mitchell

“You can’t apply to be a member,” McEwen says. “You must be proposed, seconded and have five referees. If we didn’t add 25 women and create a mixed list, it would be at least seven years before we had even one female member. That couldn’t happen. So we took it to a vote. And that was carried unanimously. But only for women. We guaranteed 25 relatively quickly. And that has come to pass. We’ll have 20 by the time the Women’s Open is played here. And five more after that.”

Once the 25 figure has been reached, as McEwen is quick to emphasise, male and female candidates will be treated the same. But now that the initial 12 female members have been part of the club for more than three years, they are free to propose others, male or female, of course. Happily, too, the signs are good that the transition has, so far, been smooth and uneventful.

“The best part of being a member is the course, followed by the suet pudding,” says Lindsey Garden, runner-up in the 1989 Scottish Ladies championship and another member of the Women’s Open championship committee. “But the real surprise has been the club and the friendliness and openness of the male members. They have embraced our presence. The dinner matches are competitive, but it is important not to take yourself or your golf too seriously. When you come off, no one wants to hear about the putts you missed. Or how unlucky you were. There’s plenty of banter.”

Ah yes, within the HCEG, the dinners and the matches that are set-up there are a huge part of the club’s culture. To “arrange” a match, a member must rise from his/her seat and make an announcement to the room. It goes like this:

“Mr Captain, sir, with your permission, on Wednesday April 7, Mr Smith and Miss Jones wish to make a match against Mrs X and Mr Y for club stakes plus 10.”

“That is quite daunting, with all those crusty old men listening,” Arthur says. “But the women have coped well. Everyone has enjoyed their entry. Nothing has changed for the worse. People are still having the same number of glasses of wine. They are still betting on the matches. It’s just great to see them as part of everything.”

‘I received two packages from primary schools in the wake of the vote. There were hand-written letters from the kids, all asking why we hate women. … It was not just a golf issue. And it was global.’

—Stuart McEwen, club secretary

“We have fitted in and been made welcome,” says Barbara Biggart, who will act as chief scorer at the Women’s Open. “At the first club dinner I went to, there was no welcome for the new ‘lady members’. It was: ‘We’d like to welcome our new members.’ It felt like I was welcomed as a member and not excluded. I’ve taken part in every competition I can. And every club dinner. I’ve played in the match against the R&A. And I’ve played here for fun with lots of people.”

“I’m not sure the atmosphere around the club has changed at all,” Arthur says. “I always used to ask my fellow members what they were frightened of? What did they think was going to happen? I can honestly say it has made no difference. Maybe the first couple of dinners where there were women members they were noticed as women. But now they are simply seen as members. So the culture and behaviuor is the same.”

Integration works both ways, of course. And the women, by all accounts, have played their part in that process.

“What is also great is that we haven’t seen a huddle of women members getting together to play a foursome,” adds Richard Summers, Arthur’s deputy on the Women’s Open championship committee. “I’ve never seen a table of only women members. They play with everyone. Hopefully, they are feeling welcome and part of the club. The signs are certainly good. I know people who were quite vehemently against women members. But now they are proposing women. They’ve seen that it works. It’s not the end of the world.”

No, just the beginning of a new one, at least as far as the HCEG is concerned. Already £7.5 million has been spent on clubhouse renovations that have made the place suitable for a mixed membership.

And, soon enough, the best women golfers on the planet.

For the Women’s Open, the course will be set-up much as it is for the members — male and female. The fairway widths will remain unchanged. The greens will run between 9 and 10.5 on the Stimpmeter. And the course will measure between 6,600 and 6,700 yards.

It’s expected that Muirfield will produce a top-class champion, just as it has nearly always done at the Open. All-time greats Harry Vardon, James Braid, Ted Ray, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson have all lifted the Claret Jug there.

Peter Arthur, Lindsey Garden and Stuart McEwen stand outside the Muirfield clubhouse, excited to host the Women’s British Open for the first time this week.

“I think the women will play the course a bit more strategically than the men,” Arthur says. “They will not necessarily be going for everything. In other words, they will play Muirfield as it was designed to be played.”

Perhaps more importantly, competitors at the Women’s Open will also experience the club as it is today, a place to be enjoyed by all, regardless of gender.

“None of what we have done is tokenism,” McEwen says. “We purposely avoided setting up a ladies section. This is a club. All are members and all are in this together. One day, eight of the ladies had arranged to play a game. Great. They had a table of eight in the dining room. The wine was flowing. They were having a great time, just like eight men would. I enjoyed that moment. They clearly felt comfortable enough to come in and do exactly what the men do.”

“The rudest golf club in the world?” concludes Arthur in response to this new, more enlightened and more welcoming reality. “We used to joke about it. But only until we started to think about it. Why did we have that reputation? Because we deserved it.”

Not any more though. Not the truly Honourable Company.

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