Royal Portrush Golf Club Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

The Open 2019: Shane Lowry, the talented ‘little fat lad with glasses’ to champion golfer of the year

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:08:23 +0000

By John Huggan
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland—Swing guru Pete Cowen tells a story of a now far-off coaching session where he cast his learned eye over the Irish Boys squad. The star of the show was a wee kid by the name of McIlroy. You may have heard of him. And at the end of the day, the officials present were keen to hear what Cowen thought of their potentially outstanding prospect.

“Rory’s going to be great,” confirmed the man who these days works with the likes of Brooks Koepka and Henrik Stenson. “But there’s another good one out there. The little fat lad with the glasses.”

Today, the spectacles have gone. And a beard has grown. But the talent so astutely identified by Cowen is still there. In fact, it has matured nicely. Shane Lowry went on to win the Irish Amateur and the Irish Open — before he turned professional. There has been a World Golf Championship victory too, as well as a couple of other European Tour titles. And now, the 32-year-old County Offaly native is the Open champion.

So Cowen clearly knew what he was talking about, even if Lowry’s three-birdie, four-bogey final round 72 at Royal Portrush en route to claiming the claret jug was far from straightforward. But that was to be expected in weather that veered between merely unpleasant and close to unplayable. In the end, 15-under par for the 72-holes represented golf of the highest order and was, more importantly, six shots better than runner-up Tommy Fleetwood. No one else was within eight of the new “champion golfer of the year.”

“Shane hit the right shots, even if they weren’t always great shots,” said a disappointed Fleetwood. “But it was very difficult out there. He never lost control of himself. And he made some key putts at key times. He did better in those moments than I did today.”

Ross Kinnaird/R&A

One of those came as early as the first green. Immediately after watching Fleetwood miss from maybe 12 feet for an opening birdie, Lowry holed from 10 feet for a bogey. Had the Englishman holed and the Irishman missed, the lead would have shrunk to only one shot.

Thereafter, the only moments of crisis were generally self-inflicted — albeit understandable in the fearsome conditions. A run of three bogeys in four holes from the ninth reduced Lowry’s lead to four with six to play. But when Fleetwood made a double-bogey six on the 473-yard par-4 14th it was all but over. From there, Lowry cruised home with four closing pars.

“I feel like this is an out-of-body experience,” he said in the immediate aftermath of a victory that will pay him a record $1,935,000. “I was so calm coming down the last. It was so hard out there. I wasn’t doing so well around the turn. But everyone else was struggling. I just had to focus on staying as far ahead of Tommy as I could.

“I talked a lot to Bo [Martin], my caddie. I couldn’t stop thinking about winning. But that was after six or seven holes. But he was great, talking in my ear. I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow morning and realize what I’ve done.The fans have been unbelievable. The next event I play will seem boring. They were with me all the way and kept me going.”

The biggest victory of Lowry’s decade-long professional existence comes in a year that has promised much after two disappointing seasons. Since finishing first in Abu Dhabi back in January, Lowry’s form has shown signs of life. A T-3 at the RBC Heritage was closely followed by T-8 in the PGA Championship and T-2 at the RBC Canadian Open. But in the wake of a hugely deflating loss in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Lowry’s career went backwards. Armed with a four-shot lead entering the final round, Lowry frittered away his advantage and eventually lost by three to Dustin Johnson. It was a defeat from which he needed time to recover.

In the five PGA Tour events he played after Oakmont, Lowry’s best result was T-36. In 2017 he managed only one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour. One year later, that number fell, his despair reaching its nadir at Carnoustie during the 147th Open Championship. After missing the cut, Lowry sat in his car and cried.

“It is one of those things,” he said with a shrug. “I feel like I should have won the U.S. Open. But there are plenty of top players who have led big events with 18 holes to play and not won. So I’m hardly unique in that. I just wasn’t aggressive enough on Sunday. I had played three rounds of world-number-one golf. And on the last day I made a good par at the first. Then, at the second — a par-4 I could have driven — I laid up. I was trying to maintain my lead instead of trying to win the tournament. When I am in that position again I will go out there to win instead of protecting my lead.”

Prescient words from a man who has always known his own mind, always done things his own way. At school he was the only one of the 500 kids who played golf.

“I play the game the way I see it,” he said. “There are times when I’m not playing great and thinking too many technical thoughts. But if someone asks me how to hit a fade, my artistic side takes over. I think ‘fade’ and hit a fade.”

Still, it is for his short game prowess that Lowry has so far been best known. His chipping contests with Ryder Cup skipper Padraig Harrington are legendary and closely-contested. And off the course Lowry can be a tad unorthodox. He and wife Wendy — who added daughter Iris to the clan in 2017 — had their wedding planned for New Year’s Eve 2016 until they came to the conclusion that neither wanted a big “do.”

“We started to realise we could only have a certain number of guests, which meant making decisions and disappointing people,” Lowry said. “Then my wife read about an Irish couple who just went off to New York, hired a photographer and did it. So we did that. We had the best week ever. We stayed in the Mandarin Oriental on Central Park, got married on the Tuesday [Aprll 12th] and stayed until the Friday. We came home and had a big party June 10th. I think that’s the way to do it. And I tell all my friends that.”

A genial soul, Lowry has many of those. In the immediate aftermath of the second round 65 that proved to be one shot too many for McIlroy, the 2014 Open champion was quick to express support for his former foursomes partner in the Irish national team. In return, McIlroy’s presence in his teenage life is something Lowry views as a huge plus in his own development.

“I got to play with a superstar,” he said. “And when I was younger playing amateur events, thousands of people used to come and watch. Because of him. So I was playing in front of big crowds early on. It was all great training for me. At the end of each round we would speak with the journalists. So when I won the Irish Open as an amateur, I was used to playing in front of big crowds and answering questions afterwards. I’d done plenty of interviews. That all helped.

“The minuses were that I was always living in Rory’s shadow. When I turned pro and even now people in Ireland expect me to be as good as Rory.”

Lowry isn’t quite there yet. But, along with compatriots Harrington, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell, he and McIlroy have now amassed 10 Grand Slam titles since 2007. It is a remarkable record for a small nation with a population of fewer than five million souls.

But surprising? Not so much to Lowry. Even as he struggled on the PGA Tour he had enough faith in his ability to describe himself as a “big-time player.”

“I think the bigger the situation you put me in, the better I get,” he said in May last year. “As a golfer you have to be very self-confident. I feel like you can put me anywhere — the first tee or the 18th fairway at the Ryder Cup — and I won’t be fazed by it. My problem was getting into those situations.”

This week he did just that. He surely wasn’t perturbed. And all of Ireland rejoiced. As former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley said on Sky television, “it’s going to be a helluva hooley.”

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The Open 2019: Shane Lowry’s Portrush win keeps this 37-year major championship streak alive

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 18:08:20 +0000

John Dickson
Shane Lowry stands on the first tee to start the final round of the 2019 Open Championship, the prized claret jug in his sight if not in his hands just yet.

By Ryan Herrington
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — On the list of things that Shane Lowry was thinking about when he closed out his victory Sunday at the Open Championship, it’s unlikely this cracked the top 10. But his six-stroke victory over windy, soggy Royal Portrush meant that a nearly four-decade-long streak remains intact courtesy of the 32-year-old Irishman.

Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland had won the year’s first three major titles. If another American golfer could have grabbed the claret jug, it would have been a sweep for red, white & blue golfers in 2019. That piece of trivia might feel trivial, until you realize it’s been a while since there’s been a USA calendar-year slam. Try 37 years.

Surprisingly, perhaps, you have to go back to 1982 for the last time that Americans swept the majors in single season. Craig Stadler won the Masters, Tom Watson took the U.S. (Pebble Beach) and British (Royal Troon) Opens, and Raymond Floyd claimed the PGA Championship (Southern Hills).

Of course, this lull has been timed nicely with the rise of European golf and the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal and Ian Woosnam. Toss in a few South Africans and Aussies stars, and now with Lowry, a golden age of Irishman, and well, now you know what the U.S. has been facing.

In recent years, Americans have come close to ending their “drought.” In 2015, Australia’s Jason Day held off Jordan Spieth at the PGA at Whistling Straits, after Spieth had taken the Masters and U.S. Open and Zach Johnson won the British. And a year ago Francesco Molinari’s British Open win at Carnoustie, although the third major of the year, wound up being the lone U.S. miss.

Before this, you need to go back to 1998, when Fiji’s Vijay Singh kept the Americans from completing the trick with a PGA win at Sahalee. And Steve Elkington’s PGA win at Riviera was the lone non-American major triumph in 1995.

Earlier in the week, a handful of European players were asked about their interest in preventing the American from going four-for-four. Most of them chuckled and said it wasn’t something there were very conscious of.

“Look, these things are very cyclical,” said Rory McIlroy. “You look at the European success in the majors sort of 2010, 2011. You know, these things happen in cycles. I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason to it.”

McIlroy might be right. However, anyone who thinks Americans sweeping the majors was a common occurrence before the 1980s should look in their history books once more. From the end of World War II to 1982, such sweeps happened just eight times. The only real age of dominance for the U.S. was 1971 to 1977, in which they won all four majors five times in seven years.

It’s unlikely that kind of run will ever happen again. Heck, it’s hard to do it just one year these days.

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The Open 2019: On to the weekend (for some)

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 02:45:45 +0000

The story of Day 2 at Royal Portrush in 9 (or so) sentences.

By Alex Myers
Another long day of golf is in the books at the 2019 Open Championship and we have decided to keep it short in summing up all the action from Royal Portrush on Friday. Here’s the story of the second round in 9 (or so) sentences.

1.) Shane Lowry is carrying all of Ireland on his shoulders.

Ramsey Cardy

The guy is flying the flag (literally) on his golf shoes and flying high atop the leader board through two days. The Guinness will be flowing from the claret jug come Sunday night if he keeps this up.

2.) Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson made history! (In a bad way)

Mike Ehrmann

For the first time, Tiger and Phil missed the cut at the same major. Ever. Wow. Speaking of Tiger …

3.) Tiger Woods just wants “to go home.”

Ross Kinnaird/R&A

Tiger looked much better on Friday, but his 70 wasn’t enough to stick around for the weekend. He also announced he’s taking the next couple weeks off, including skipping the WGC event in Memphis. Sadly, there are weekend golfers who play more than this guy these days.

4.) J.B. Holmes played on his high school team as a THIRD-grader, is still good at golf.

Francois Nel

When you spend two days at the top of the leader board at a major, fun nuggets like this resurface.

5.) Brooks Koepka hasn’t “made anything,” still lurks.

David Cannon

At five under, Koepka is in great position to finish in the top two for a fifth consecutive major. In other words, this tournament is probably over.

6.) Jordan Spieth has made just about everything, still lurks.

Matthew Lewis/R&A

After scrambling his butt off for two days, Spieth is in contention at five under, trying to win his first event since the 2017 Open. The man loves slow greens. Well, and fast ones considering his record at Augusta. Let’s just say the man can get hot with the putter.

7.) The British are coming!

ANDY BUCHANAN

Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood (!) are one shot back. Is it his time?! At LONG last?!

8.) Justin Harding went from a near-death experience to nearly leading.

The South African picked himself up from that bunker mishap gone viral on Thursday, dusted off his pants, and shot the low round of the tournament (65) so far on Friday. Never give up, kids.

9.) Rory McIlroy makes a great Friday charge … but falls one stroke short of making the cut.

A second-round 65 couldn’t undo the damage of his opening-hole 8 on Thursday.

Andrew Redington

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The Open 2019: Tee times for Saturday’s third round at Portrush

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 01:40:39 +0000

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers receives the Claret Jug from 2018 Champion Francesco Molinari of Italy prior to the 148th Open Championship held on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 15, 2019 in Portrush, United Kingdom. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A via Getty Images )

By Ryan Herrington
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Two down, two to go. A total of 71 golfers shot one-over 143 or better during the opening 36 holes of the 148th Open Championship, advancing to the weekend with hopes of walking away from Royal Portrush late Sunday night with the claret jug.

There were, of course, some notable names who won’t be teeing off on Saturday: major champions Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Keegan Bradley all missed the cut by a shot. Other marquee players missing from the tee sheet: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke, Gary Woodland, Padraig Harrington and Adam Scott.

But enough about those who aren’t sticking around. Those that are will find themselves teeing off a little later than normal for a Saturday at the Open. The first player off, Paul Waring, begins at 9:35 a.m. local time, or 4:35 on the East Coast. The final twosome of J.B. Holmes and Shane Lowry, co-leaders at eight-under 134, don’t start until 3:50 p.m. local time (6.50 p.m. UAE time).

Here’s the complete order of play:

SATURDAY Tee Times
Local/UAE Time
All players starting on the first tee

9.35 am/12.35 pm
Paul WARING, +1

9.45 am/12.45 pm
Francesco MOLINARI, +1
Jason KOKRAK, +1

9.55 am/12.55 pm
Graeme MCDOWELL, +1
Bubba WATSON, +1

10.05 am/1.05 pm
Charley HOFFMAN, +1
Ashton TURNER, +1

10.15 am/1.15 pm
Yosuke ASAJI, +1
Andrew WILSON, +1

10.25 am/1.25 pm
Yuki INAMORI, +1
Matthew WALLACE, +1

10.35 am/1.35 pm
Nino BERTASIO, +1
Tom LEWIS, +1

10.45 am/1.45 pm
Adam HADWIN, +1
Ryan FOX, +1

11 am/2 pm
Innchoon HWANG, +1
Benjamin HEBERT, E

11.10 am/2.10 pm
Paul CASEY, E
Kyle STANLEY, E

11.20 am/2.20 pm
Eddie PEPPERELL, E
Doc REDMAN, E

11.30 am/2.30 pm
Kevin STREELMAN, E
Joost LUITEN, E

11.40 am/2.40 pm
Shubhankar SHARMA, E
Louis OOSTHUIZEN, E

11.50 am/2.50 pm
Stewart CINK, E
Callum SHINKWIN, -1

12 pm/3 pm
Jim FURYK,-1
Kevin KISNER, -1

12.10 pm/3.10 pm
Bernd WIESBERGER, -1
Russell KNOX, -1

12.20 pm/3.20 pm
Kiradech APHIBARNRAT, -1
Mikko KORHONEN, -1

12.35 pm/3.35 pm
Sergio GARCIA, -1
Branden GRACE, -1

12.45 pm/3.45 pm
Romain LANGASQUE, -1
Sang Hyun PARK, -1

12.55 pm/3.55 pm
Patrick CANTLAY, -1
Lucas GLOVER, -1

1.05 pm/4.05 pm
Danny WILLETT, -1
Aaron WISE, -1

1.15 pm/4.15 pm
Justin THOMAS, -1
Robert MACINTYRE, -2

1.25 pm/4.25 pm
Matthew FITZPATRICK, -2
Ernie ELS, -2

1.35 pm/4.35 pm
Thorbjorn OLESEN, -2
Thomas PIETERS, -2

1.45 pm/4.45 pm
Rory SABBATINI, -2
Byeong Hun AN, -2

1.55 pm/4.55 pm
Rickie FOWLER, -3
Xander SCHAUFFELE, -3

2.10 pm/5.10 pm
Henrik STENSON, -3
Webb SIMPSON, -3

2.20 pm/5.20 pm
Alex NOREN, -3
Dustin Johnson, -3

2.30 pm/5.30 pm
Tyrrell HATTON, -3
Matt KUCHAR, -4

2.40 pm/5.40 pm
Jon RAHM, -4
Patrick REED, -4

2.50 pm/5.50 pm
Lucas BJERREGAARD, -4
Tony FINAU, -4

3 pm/6 pm
Erik VAN ROOYEN, -4
Dylan FRITTELLI, -5

3.10 pm/6.10 pm
Andrew PUTNAM, -5
Jordan SPIETH, -5

3.20 pm/6.20 pm
Brooks KOEPKA, -5
Justin ROSE, -6

3.30 pm/6.30 pm
Justin HARDING, -6
Cameron SMITH, -6

3.40 pm/6.40 pm
Lee WESTWOOD, -7
Tommy FLEETWOOD, -7

3.50 pm/6.50 pm
Shane LOWRY, -8
J.B. HOLMES, -8

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The Open 2019: MENA Tour champion MacIntyre just two adrift of J.B. Holmes at Royal Portrush

Kent Gray — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 05:40:00 +0000

MacIntyre plays his shot from the 7th tee during the first round of the 148th Open Championship held on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 18, 2019, in Portrush, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
J.B. Holmes leads, Brooks Koepka lurks (rather ominously) but how about Robert ‘Bob’ MacIntrye for the feel-good story on the opening day of the 148th Open Championship? Hang around for the exciting Curtis Knipes sidebar as well.

The two MENA Tour players remained right in the conversation after an opening day of shock and awe at Royal Portrush.

Holmes’s 66 (courtesy of hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 15-18 greens) will see the 37-year-old American take a one-stroke lead over big Irish hope and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship titleholder Shane Lowry into Friday.

.@JBHolmesgolf birdies the last to tie for the lead #TheOpen

Live scoring ? https://t.co/eQjasgPOwf pic.twitter.com/kgKhl45V75

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 18, 2019

After a historic homeward nine of 29 in his 68, big-hitting Kiwi Ryan Fox heads a gaggle of 13 players including Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm a shot further back.

.@ryanfoxgolfer was on another level ? #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/QLOxImkYxF

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 18, 2019

The shock on Thursday, of course, was provided by Rory McIlroy sending his opening tee shot sailing out of bounds on the 1st – and likely with it his dream of hoisting a second claret jug. The Northern Irishman eventually settled for a snowman eight en-route to an eight-over-par 79, one worse than Tiger Woods whose back doesn’t much like this wintry Co. Antrim weather. Soon afterwards, 2001 champion David Duval took a little heat off McIlroy for the worst hole of the week when he carded a 14 on the par 5 7th en-route to a 91.

For MENA Tour fans, the performances of Open debutants MacIntyre (68) and Knipes (72) were especially heartening.

MacIntyre features in the latest issue of Golf Digest Middle East.

Playing in the company of English cult-hero Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston, Scottish lefty MacIntyre earned his fair share of camera time early on day one, highlighted by a mammoth putt for an eagle two on the fifth en-route to his eventual 68.

The 2017 Sahara Kuwait Open champion, who is enjoying a successful rookie season campaign on the European Tour at 21st on the Race to Dubai rankings heading into Royal Porrush, spoke with the MENA Tour’s Joy Chakravarty afterwards:

A past champion on our Tour, @robert1lefty made a sensational start in @theOpen. A three-under par 68 that included an eagle two on the par-4 fifth hole. We spoke to him after the round… pic.twitter.com/rbtd9gKnZn

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) July 18, 2019

Knipes, meanwhile, is second in the race for low amateur honours and the silver medal after his one over 71 left him a shot behind British Amateur champion James Sugrue (Ireland).

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel nervous on the first tee,” said Knipes who leads the MENA Tour amateur order of merit at the halfway stage of the regional developmental circuit season. “It was probably the most nervous I’ve been. Every shot out there you kind of think you’ve settled in, and you do, but you kind of stand over a putt and you do feel the nerves all over again.

“It was a fairly decent round. I played pretty solid. It got pretty tough coming in, obviously we had a bit of rain. And it’s quite a brutal finish around here. But reasonably happy under the pressure.

“I’ve got my eyes on the Silver Medal. Making the cut obviously would be great. But Silver Medal is probably the one goal that I have right now.”

Just a fantastic major debut for Curtis Knipes, the youngest player in @theopen field and the amateur leader in our Journey to Jordan.

We caught up with him after the round of one-over par 72 in which he made three birdies. pic.twitter.com/1kaaEduJoj

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) July 18, 2019

England’s Matthew Baldwin, who leads the MENA Tour’s Professional OOM, dropped five shots in just two holes – a triple on the first and a double on the last – to finish on seven-over-par 78.

Two other former MENA Tour winners are playing the final major of 2019. England’s Callum Shinkwin (2019 Omega Dubai Desert Classic Shootout) finished on one-under-par 70 while Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (2017 Mahasamutr Open) shot a 74.

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MENA Tour stars ready for Open examination at Royal Portrush

Kent Gray — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:40:19 +0000

By Kent Gray
There are mouth-watering storylines at every turn. Can Rory McIlroy ride the emotional rollercoaster of being the home favourite at Royal Portrush? Will Brooks Koepka keep his remarkable 1-2-1-2 streak in the majors rolling and hoist the claret jug for the first time? Can Tiger Woods defy father time, (chilly) mother nature and four back surgeries and get back on the express train to Nicklaus-ville with a 16th big?

Indeed, thumb through the tee times for the first two rounds of the 148th Open Championship and there is intrigue everywhere. Surely Rickie Fowler is due a major? Maybe it’s time for recent Dubai Duty Free Irish Open champion Jon Rahm, Omega Dubai Desert Classic champion Bryson DeChambeau or even two-time Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winner Tommy Fleetwood? On and on it goes…

Two names the uninitiated might skip over are those of Englishman Matthew Baldwin and Curtis Knipes. But for followers of the MENA Tour, qualifying for the final major of the year is a huge achievement for the tour and the current leaders of the regional development circuit’s professional and amateur Order-of-Merit races.

At 18, Knipes is the youngest of the six amateurs chasing the silver medal for low amateur honours at Royal Portrush. Scotsman Sam Locke achieved that momentous honour with a +9 score at Carnoustie last July and given the forecast for Co Antrim, something similar could get the job done for the amateurs this week.

Knipes, ranked no 353 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), is teeing it up in his first major championship are after earning medallist honours at final qualifying at Prince’s in Kent. He is taking a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude into his opening round Thursday where he’ll tee it up alongside Finn Mikko Korhonen and Englishman Oliver Wilson at 11.47am (UAE time).

But don’t think the Chelmsford teen, who is eye the European Tour Q-School at the end of the year, doesn’t have longterm ambitions.

“It is a very proud moment of my career and I am very excited to be here this week,” Knipes told MENA Tour media boss Joy Chakravarty who is onsite at Royal Portrush. “I have come this far, and I want to keep on pushing. I want to be here every year. I don’t want this to be my only one to make it memorable for myself.

“I played decently in the qualifiers, but I thought I showed great attitude really. My caddie, Josh Reid, was a big help. I played with a nothing-to-lose mindset really.

Curtis Knipes at Royal Portrush. Photo: Joy Chakravarty/MENA Tour.

“And that is the mindset I hope to bring to this week once again. I have thought about it and I really have got nothing to lose. I am here now, so I have got to enjoy the experience. If I play well, that is just going to be a bonus.”

Knipes says his rookie campaign on the MENA Tour played an important role in him getting to Royal Portrush, a layout where he reached the final 16 of the 2016 British Boys’ Amateur Championship.

“Those six-odd weeks on the MENA Tour were great. It taught me so much about myself, and about professional golf in particular. I will say to everyone that it is so worth doing, and it was such great preparation for the season as well.”

Knipes enjoyed some practice holes in the company of Masters champion Sergio Garcia and Fleetwood at Portrush on Sunday, a moment he described as “very cool”.

“I just tried to pick their brains a little bit and also got to see how they went about their business from up close,” he said. “I was quite nervous. I was hoping to get a practice round with some of the bigger names just to get used to the crowd and settle down a little bit, which I think I have. I found out that they were normal guys who just happen to be very good at golf.

“I have a good idea of the golf course and it has danger on both sides on most holes. So, it will be an advantage if you are driving the ball well and if you can shape it both ways.”

Knipes’ rivals for the silver medal are newly crowned British Amateur champion James Sugrue (Ireland), Japan’s Takumi Kanaya, German Matthias Schmid, Sussex’s Thomas Thurloway and U.S. 22-year-old Brandon Wu. Wu is currently ranked No.5 in the WAGR, Kanaya No.2.

Matthew Baldwin

Baldwin, meanwhile, has set himself the goal of simply enjoying his fifth major championship start after a rollercoaster year.

The 33-year-old from Southport started the season in blistering form winning the MENA Tour’s B Stage Q-School and Journey to Jordan-1, the opening event of the 10-event schedule. However, he’s struggling in his bid to regain European Tour status with three missed cuts and just one top-15 finish (Challenge de Espana) in seven Challenge Tour starts so far.

“I am here to enjoy my week. I know I have a job to turn my season around,” said Baldwin who finished third in final qualifying at St Anne’s and is off at 2.15pm UAE time in his opening round Thursday alongside Thai 34-year-old Prom Meesawat and England’s Jack Senior.

“The MENA Tour was great for me but it would have been better if I had fired on from there. I don’t think there is anything wrong with my game. I am just getting frustrated, to be honest. I feel like my golf is good enough to be playing on the European Tour, but when you are playing the Challenge Tour and hitting the occasional bad shots, it does become frustrating for me. I feel like I should be doing better and I end up compounding errors with errors.

“I just need to enjoy my golf, and hopefully, that is what we are going to do this week. I am a qualifier and not exempt like many of the other guys. So, let’s see where this goes.”

Baldwin finished T-44 at the 2012 Irish Open in his last competitive visit to Royal Portrush. Changes to the layout since then have been a challenge but he knows he has what it takes to compete this week.

“The biggest thing for me would be not to beat myself up for hitting one or two poor shots here and there. I know I can do well…there’s really no reason why I can’t. I played a practice round on Monday with Tony Finau and six holes with Phil Mickelson. They are world-class players obviously, but watching them, they do not hit it any better than most of us in the field.”

“It’s my fifth major. It’s great to qualify, but this is the reason we play golf – end of the day we all want to be playing the biggest tournaments in the world and for me, and for every other British lad, this is the biggest tournament in the world.”

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QUICK SHOT: Royal Portrush Golf Club

Kent Gray — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 05:10:07 +0000

(David Cannon/Getty Images)

Nearly 70 years after first hosting The Open, Northern Ireland’s fabled Dunluce Links have undergone a majestic makeover for this month’s much-anticipated encore

By Kent Gray
Home to more than 300 golf courses, including a quarter of the world’s links layouts, Ireland is a golfer’s paradise. The uninitiated will see what all the fuss is about when a northern gem, Royal Portrush Golf Club, hosts the Open Championship for just the second time from July 18-21.

Originally designed by Harry Colt, the club’s Dunluce Links take in sweeping County Antrim vistas including the ruins of Dunluce castle from which the course takes its name. Royal Portrush is a changed beast from the layout that Englishman Max Faulkner conquered to become the ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’ in 1951. Five new greens, eight additional tee boxes, 10 more bunkers and the creation of two new holes, the 7th and 8th, will greet the world’s best players at the 148th Open 68 years later. The par-5 7th, all 590 yards of it, has earned plenty of pre-tournament press (see p54) but this is a course that will wow at every turn, including the pictured approach to the green on the par-4 15th hole, ‘Skerries’. All 190,000+ tickets sold out for the first time in Open history so sit back and enjoy being part of the estimated global television audience of 600 million who will take in the magnificence of Irish golf during the last of the year’s four major championships.

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The Open 2019: Kevin Streelman found out he qualified for Royal Portrush in unexpected fashion

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 03:09:39 +0000

Streelman plays a shot during a practice round prior to The Honda Classic at PGA National Resort and Spa on February 26, 2019 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

By Brian Wacker
Kevin Streelman had an eventful Monday, shooting a six-under 66 to win the Rockford (Ill.) Pro-Am at Aldeen Golf Club. The way more significant news came later, though, when Streelman found out that he had made it into The Open next week at Royal Portrush.

“My mind’s everywhere right now,” Streelman told TV station WREX. “My passport is in Scottsdale at my house. I don’t have enough clothes, enough warm clothes, [so] I have to go shopping for them. My caddie is not going to go. I need to find a new caddie. Besides that, it’s pretty exciting. I have a few things to iron out.”

The best part was how Streelman was notified. Following John Daly’s withdrawal from the tournament, as Daly opted to play in the opposite-field Barbarsol Championship instead of the Open, Streelman received an email so casual he shared it on social media, likely kind of astonished in the form it was delivered:

???
Yes please

⁦@TheOpen⁩

???
Here we go pic.twitter.com/hJr0g1xQFY

— Kevin Streelman (@Streels54) July 9, 2019

Are you kidding me? That’s the kind of note you get from your buddy telling you their fourth can’t make it and asking if you want to fill in down at the local muny—except this wasn’t some Saturday game (or even the Rockford Pro-Am) but The Open Championship. At Portrush.

The answer was, of course, yes. It will be Streelman’s fifth career appearance in the Open Championship and his first since 2015. His best finish was a T-54 at Royal Liverpool in 2014.

Daly’s decision to play in the Barbasol instead of the Open is likely due to him being denied use of a cart at Royal Portrush. He’ll be allowed to use one at the Barbasol, most likely.

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In denying John Daly a cart, the R&A misses the point

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 03:53:15 +0000

By John Feinstein
On Saturday, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club officially turned down John Daly’s request for a cart—or as it is called in Europe, a “buggy”—at next week’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

The R&A’s announcement was filled with all sorts of eloquent language about how much respect it has for Daly, who won the 1995 Open at St. Andrews.

“We fully sympathise with John as he deals with this serious long-term condition,” the R&A’s statement said.

But the answer was no.

Daly took to social media soon after. Like the R&A, he was polite, saying he was certain the R&A had good intentions before adding, “But I could not differ more with their conclusions.”

Noting that the PGA of America had granted him a cart in May to play in the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, he added, “Different continents, different laws?”

Leave it to Daly to cut to the heart of the matter—perhaps without knowing that he’d done just that. The answer to his question is yes—different continents, different laws.

In the United States, the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in “Martin v. PGA Tour” has created legal precedent under the Americans with Disabilities Act for a golfer with a disability to use a cart in competitions that otherwise bans carts.

Casey Martin, who is afflicted with Klippel-Trenanauy-Weber Syndrome—a birth defect in his right leg that makes walking very difficult—successfully sued the PGA Tour for the right to use a golf cart in tour events, whether on the PGA Tour or the (then) Nike Tour. The tour already allowed carts on the over-50 tour and, in the past, had allowed them in PGA Tour qualifying school—although it had changed the rule to ban them in the late 1990s.

Martin first became a story early in 1998 when he won the Lakeland Classic on the Nike Tour. One month later, a Federal Court judge issued an injunction allowing Martin to continue using a cart on the Nike Tour.

Stuart Franklin
Casey Martin’s use of a cart was never about gaining an advantage, but instead just catching up.

Among those who testified against Martin during that trial were Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Ken Venturi. Nicklaus was honest enough to admit that he thought that carts would look very bad on television and would damage the tour’s image. The tour wasn’t that honest, refusing to admit that image was one of its concerns.

What made Martin’s story so compelling—and controversial—was that he clearly could play. He had been a teammate of Tiger Woods on an NCAA championship team at Stanford and was also an academic All-American there. His win in Lakeland made it clear he was good enough to make it to the PGA Tour.

I vividly remember being at Torrey Pines the week of the trial and sitting in the locker room during a rain delay—it was an El Nino year—listening as players debated the issue. Most agreed with the tour’s position that walking was an integral part of the game.

Perhaps the most adamant in that group was Fred Couples, who has dealt with back issues most of his career. “If he gets a cart, why can’t I go to the tour and say my back hurts, I need a cart?” Couples asked. “Where do you draw the line?”

Payne Stewart had the answer. “This isn’t an injury, Freddy,” he said quietly. “This is a birth defect. It’s a disease, and it’s only going to get worse. The kid may lose that leg someday. Everyone gets injured out here at some point. Very few people have diseases like this one.”

Later, as the argument raged on, I stood in the corner of the locker room with Stewart. “They should give the kid a cart,” he said. “They’re worried about what it will look like for carts to be on the golf course. What are we talking, one, two carts? Maybe? They should be worried about looking completely heartless, because I think that’s the way people perceive it.”

The tour fought Martin to the Supreme Court. In 2001, the court ruled 7-2 in Martin’s favor that the ADA gave him the right to play in a cart. It saw the case almost exactly as Stewart had: If you’re injured, you don’t qualify for a cart. If you have a certifiable medical condition, you qualify.

By then, Martin had finished 14th on what had become the Buy.com Tour money list in 1999 and had qualified for the tour. He had played in 2000 with nary a complaint from anyone, although he failed to keep his card and was back on the Buy.com by the time the ruling came down.

“What bothers me is the notion that some guys think it gives me an advantage to play in the cart,” he said one day in Tucson in 2000, when he ended up having his best finish (T-17). “The cart means I have a chance to compete, that’s all. Walking from the cart to greens and tees wears my leg out. Climbing out of a bunker is an adventure. Sometimes I fall. I’m not complaining. I’m just telling you what it’s really like.”

He wasn’t complaining. I had asked the question.

In the 18 years since the court ruled for Martin, there have been very few cases of carts being used on tour. Erik Compton used one for one week in October of 2009 after his second heart transplant. Scott Verplank, who is a diabetic and experiences constant pain in his feet when walking, was given a cart by the USGA for the 2017 U.S. Senior Open. By then, Verplank was playing the PGA Tour Champions Tour, where anyone can use a cart because the tour apparently concedes that age is a medical condition.

Martin, now the golf coach at Oregon, qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open and was allowed to use a cart—as in 1998, when he finished T-23.

If you watch the over-50 tour on television, you rarely see the players climbing into carts. There’s no doubt the tour “suggests” to its TV partners that it avoid shots of players riding in carts.

Image is everything.

Which brings us back to Daly.

Perhaps the best way to sum up his roller coaster of a life is with a simple golf statistic: He’s the only player to win two majors who was eligible to play in the Ryder Cup but has never done so.

He’s 53 now and has osteoarthritis in his right knee, a painful degenerative condition that makes walking difficult for him. He was also diagnosed as a diabetic last fall. There’s no doubt his weight, even though he has lost almost 30 pounds in the past year, doesn’t help the condition in his knee. There are also those who would argue that his lifestyle through the years has contributed to his knee problems and the diabetes.

Certainly he doesn’t present the image one might want to see in an athlete taking part in a major championship with a cigarette stuck in his lips, Diet Cokes all over his golf cart and the very loud pants he wears in a sponsorship deal.

But all of that is irrelevant. If a smoker develops lung cancer, you can say it was their fault, but does that mean you don’t sympathize? Do you tell them, “Hey, you did this to yourself, deal with it”?

Of course not. Daly’s condition isn’t nearly as serious, but he has been certified by the ADA as having a legitimate medical condition that makes walking difficult. He’s not injured; he has a medical condition. Like Martin, like Compton, like Verplank.

The USGA turned down his request to use a cart to try to qualify for the 2018 U.S. Senior Open, using a rather shaky loophole, saying he hadn’t filled out the two dozen pages of medical forms it requires. Rather than take them to court—where he would almost certainly win based on the Supreme Court ruling—Daly said he’d never play another USGA event again. The USGA, no doubt, was relieved.

Daly did fill out the required forms this spring and was granted a cart to play in the PGA Championship. Once again, many players, failed to understand why he was given the cart.

“I won the U.S. Open walking on a broken leg,” Tiger Woods said when asked about Daly.

That’s right. The fracture in his leg and the torn ACL he later had surgery to repair were INJURIES.

The R&A was able to turn Daly down because Supreme Court rulings don’t apply in Great Britain. It had the right to say no. There is, however, a difference between having the right to do something and doing what’s right.

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