Things got decidedly less boring at Harbour Town’s par-4 16th, and not in a good way. Coming off a par at 15, Knox’s drive found a waste bunker left of the fairway, leaving him with just 125 yards to the hole. His second went to the dreaded ‘unknown’ on the PGA Tour’s TourCast technology, traveling all of 71 yards and forcing Knox to have to re-hit from the same spot in the waste bunker.

Knox’s adventure had only just begun. His fourth went 34 yards, staying in the same waste bunker. His fifth? Back to the great ‘unknown’, forcing him again to re-hit from the spot he hit last. He was able to advance his seventh to a greenside bunker, where he then hit his eighth over the green and managed to get up and down for a … wait for it … 10.

The shot tracker version of the above is an absolute crime scene. John Madden-on-the-video-marker type stuff:

Knox wound up finishing par-par at 17 and 18, a strong recovery. That gave him one birdie, one bogey, 15 pars and one week-ending 10.

The post Scotsman’s round blows up at RBC Heritage: The shot tracker of tour pro’s double-digit score at Harbour Town is an absolute crime scene appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But we need examples to back up such extravagant claims. This week’s Scottish Open is being played at the Renaissance Club in East Lothian, a course surrounded by famous links. Muirfield is next door. Gullane is just down the road, as is Luffness, Kilspindie and Longniddry. North Berwick is less than five miles away in the other direction, with Dunbar a little farther down the North Sea coast.

Those courses vary in standard and length, but they share one thing in common: especially in a wind, they all demand thinking and strategy that goes outside the relatively one-dimensional stuff that is professional golf around the globe. And the opening round at Renaissance was no different. A variety of players found themselves hitting a variety of shots with a variety of clubs and to a variety of distances.

“Today the par-3 sixth hole was playing 137 yards,” says Luke Donald, who shot a level-par 70. “I stood there thinking I could hit a 7-iron, which for me is a 175-yard club. The wind wasn’t blowing that hard, but it was enough to make me pause. It always makes me smile to think of Americans coming here for the first time. They will be scratching their heads thinking they don’t really know what to do in certain situations.”

Not just Americans. Russell Knox is a Florida resident these days. But he grew up in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands and played much of his golf at Nairn Dunbar on the southern shore of the Moray Firth.

“The short sixth today was great fun, even if I made a mess of it and made bogey,” says Knox, who shot 68. “I could have hit just about any club off the tee. I could have run a 5-iron in there or hit a full 8-iron. Which is what I would have done in the States. But faced with that shot growing up I wouldn’t have looked at the yardage. It would have been all about feel. I’d have stood on the tee and imagined the shot. But as a pro it’s different. I’m so into yardages I forget how to play. Sometimes, you just have to really switch off and go with what feels right.”

As you’d expect from an Open champion, Jordan Spieth knows a thing or two about links golf. But even he is always learning.

“I think you can throw pins out more than yardages,” says the Champion Golfer of 2016, who opened with a 68. “Sometimes you have to realize that hitting to 40-feet is actually a good result. And today I can think or two or three shots where, with hindsight, I would play a totally different shot. I like that aspect of links golf. And that’s the kind of stuff I’m trying to gain from this week. If I hadn’t played some links golf in Ireland last week, I had a couple of shots today that I might have messed up. I would have played different shots and been worse off. That experience and knowledge helped me for this week.”

Nicolai Hojgaard

Happily, the joys of links golf are not lost on the younger generation. Exactly how Nicolai Hojgaard had to go about achieving his round of 67 was clearly relished by the 21-year-old Dane, who next week at St Andrews will play in his second Open Championship.

“I had to think differently on a few shots today,” he said with a smile that was only slightly dampened by hearing that his identical twin brother, Rasmus, had nipped him by a shot.

“On the third, a par 5, I played the hole in a way I never would on a non-links. After my drive I was hitting a 4-iron approach from 260-metres [285 yards] and trying to roll the ball onto the green. I ended up on the front edge which was all I could hope for in that situation. Revising expectations is something you have to learn on a links.

“It was windy today and you had to avoid the bunkers,” he continued. “So sometimes the semi-rough was a good place to be. Sometimes you want to drive into the rough. That can give you a little jump on the second shot. You just have to think creatively. You have to create the feel and go with what seems right at that moment. It’s fun. And it’s a great test.”

Yes, it is, all of the above, as Donald confirmed during an eve of the championship walk around the inward half at Renaissance.

“Today it wasn’t quite blowing hard enough to provoke too much confusion,” says the former World No. 1. “But yesterday I walked the back-nine and bumped into Scottie Scheffler. He told me hit a 6-iron, a 5-iron and a 4-iron to the 14th green. And came up short with them all.”

Links golf at its best then. And its most confounding, of course.

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The post DP World Tour/PGA Tour Scottish Open provides examples aplenty of links golf at its best and most confounding appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
After three long days and a one-hour “fog” delay, the PGA Tour returned in Napa Valley at Silverado Resort, site of the first event of the 2020-’21 “Super Season,” the Safeway Open. This year’s field is even leaner than usual, as many of the world’s best are gearing up for next week’s U.S. Open on the other side of the country.

But a certain 18-year-old is threatening to make this week’s Safeway a must-see event on the weekend. We are of course talking about lanky lefty Akshay Bhatia, who shot the lowest round of his still nascent pro career on Thursday in Cali. Those who have followed his junior career know he is going to be special, but immediate success was always going to be a very tall order.

That could change with another strong round on Friday, which would put Bhatia in the hunt in just his eighth career PGA Tour event. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, here are our five takeaways from Day 1 of the Safeway Open.

The Akshay Bhatia era has begun
Collin Morikawa? Old news. Viktor Hovland? Flash in the pan. Matthew Wolff? Never heard of him. The PGA Tour now belongs to Akshay Bhatia.

OK, OK, that screech you hear is me slamming on the brakes, but an 18-year-old shooting a six-under 66 on the big tour will always be impressive. What’s more impressive, though, is that it came in his 16th career round on tour. It already feels like this kid has been around a while and he literally hasn’t even gotten started yet. For those who need a refresher, Bhatia was the former top-ranked junior player in the world and finished runner-up at the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol. He then skipped college entirely and turned pro at 17, his first pro start coming at the 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship. A year earlier, he played in his first PGA Tour event on a sponsor’s exemption at the Valspar.

This week’s Safeway marks Bhatia’s eighth tour start, and he has not made the cut in any of his previous seven. Barring a second-round 78, he should safely make the weekend in Napa, which would be the biggest accomplishment to date in his young pro career. Something tells us he has much bigger aspirations than making cuts, though.

Sean M. Haffey
Russell Knox putts on the 13th hole during round one of the Safeway Open.

We see you, Russell Knox
Well, considering he’s at the top of the leader board, everyone sees him, but it’s somewhat shocking to read his name there. When you think of Knox, two things immediately jump to mind: 1. The hat throw celebration when he holed the winning putt at the 2016 Travelers Championship and 2. His implosion at the 17th at the 2016 Players (which included a shank). In other words, this guy has had some very high highs and some very low lows. At one point in 2018, the Scotsman climbed all the way to 18th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He then fell as low as 116th before getting all the way back to 49th. At 35 years old, he’s seen all the ups and downs.

Coming into this week, Knox had fallen to his lowest ranking ever, 208th. On Thursday, he shot a bogey-free nine-under 63, with just one of his birdie putts coming from longer than 14 feet. He’s always been a machine with his irons, but poor play off the tee and some even worse putting have plagued him even during his good years. Last season was arguably his worst on the PGA Tour, ands it featured a stretch in which he missed 10 consecutive cuts. But as he’s shown throughout his career and particularly on Thursday, he has the ability to keep grinding away and eventually snap out of his funk. Don’t be surprised if he keeps up this stellar approach play through the weekend and remains in contention until the very end.

Jed Jacobsohn
Jordan Spieth walks on the third hole during round one of the Safeway Open.

Jordan Spieth did Jordan Spieth things (not a compliment)
A few years ago, that sentence would lead you to believe Spieth was hitting his irons better than anyone in the field and holing putts from everywhere. Today, in September of 2020, that sentence means Spieth was erratic with his driver (he lost 0.905 strokes off the tee), not great with his irons (he lost 1.063 strokes on approach) and didn’t make anything with his putter (he lost 1.880 strokes putting). All that added up to a one-over 73 on a course where 32 players are currently four under our better. To his credit, he made two late birdies, but those feel a lot less like momentum heading into Friday and a lot more like Spieth patching up a torn apart teddy bear with a couple of pieces of scotch tape. It’s bad right now, real bad. We’re writing about Jordan Spieth’s (three-time major champion Jordan Spieth) middling round in the Safeway Open a week before Winged Foot right now. THAT kind of bad. It goes without saying since it’s been said roughly a billion times now, but we’re all pulling for him to get it together, but it’s not happening this week and it’s definitely not happening next week either.

It’s so good to have live golf back in our lives

I’m sorry, I had to. Let’s all agree that that’s the final “how about that offseason!” dad joke, OK?

The post The Akshay Bhatia era has begun and other takeaways from Day 1 of the Safeway Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
From the dramatic to the historic. At least that’s what Russell Knox will attempt to achieve when the much-anticipated Dubai Duty Free Irish Open begins today.

The 34-year-old Scotsman will look to become the first player since Colin Montgomerie in 1996-97 to successfully defend the prestigious title at Lahinch Golf Club after his incredible playoff victory over big-hitting Kiwi Ryan Fox at Ballyliffin 12 months ago.

RELATED: Dubai’s Links to Lahinch

Knox tees it up in the company of Tommy Fleetwood and big home country home Shane Lowry at 8.40am (Ireland time) with TV coverage in the Middle East expected on Dubai Sports Channel.

Lowry won the year’s first Rolex Series event in Abu Dhabi and is among the big names in a stellar field Knox will need to overcome if history is to repeat 22 years after Monty’s double in the second $7 million Rolex Series start of 2019.

You wouldn’t write off anything though given the way Knox triumphed last year with the U.S.-based Scot holing a 45-foot birdie putt to force a play-off before sinking an almost identical one on the first extra hole to claim victory over the incredibly unlucky Fox.

The European Tour has produced an awesome mini-doco of last year’s event which you can enjoy here:

A Champion’s Story – Déjà vu with @rooknox.#DDFIrishOpen #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/KRxNMLuFFz

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) July 3, 2019

Four-time European Tour winner Matt Wallace, 2017 DDF Irish aOpen chmpion Jon Rahm, major champions Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Martin Kaymer and Ryder Cupper Thorbjørn Olesen are among those in Knox’s path.

Harrington, the 2007 Irish Open champion, begins his first round at 1:10pm (Ireland time) alongside Englishmen Ian Poulter and Tyrrell Hatton.

RELATED: Ian Poulter – You’ve got Mail

Fox tees it up alongside Belgian Thomas Pieters and Dubai-based Rafa Cabrera Bello, also off the 1st tee, at 8.50am.

Co. Clare is hosting the DDF Irish Open for the first time in the event’s 127-year history. Check out stunning Lahinch G.C., regarded as the St. Andrews of Ireland, in this sumptuous European Tour preview (Scroll to the embedded video):

Course Guide of @LahinchGolfClub ?#DDFIrishOpen #RolexSeries

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) July 3, 2019

You can also access the full DDF Irish Open first-round draw here.

The post Knox eyes history 12 months on from his dramatic Dubai Duty Free Irish Open triumph appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
Russell Knox punched his ticket to the Open Championship by finishing second at the French Open a few weeks ago, an event that’s part of the claret jug’s qualifying series. His reward? A tee time with Tiger Woods and Hideki Matsuyama. Way to treat one of your own, Scotland. With a massive Japanese media contingent and the usual Tiger trackers, there were more people inside the ropes than there would be if they were handing out free pints down in St. Andrews at the Dunvegan.

At 33 years old and a three-time winner, Knox has been around. He turned pro in 2007 and this week marks his 161st career start on the PGA Tour. Fourteen of them have been in majors. But Thursday marked the first time he pegged it up alongside the guy who has WON 14 majors.

“I just didn’t feel normal,” Knox said. “My swing, it was just like I had too much tension. But I mean, first round with Tiger, obviously, I expected to feel a little bit different.”

How was it different? Take it away, Russ.

“I don’t know really,” he continued. “I mean, it’s Tiger Woods. How would you feel playing with him?

“I’ve won three times. I’ve played in front of loads of people for the last eight years. But, I mean, I think it’s a little different knowing who you’re playing with. I think he’s the best golfer of all time. He’s definitely the person I looked up to. So getting to play with him is pretty unique.”

Hey Russ, don’t be so nervous. After all, it’s been five years since Tiger last won. You won two weeks ago at the Irish Open. Actually, you’ve won three times since he last did. Take that Big Cat!

“I don’t know how nervous he can be,” Woods cracked. “He’s playing well. We’re in a major championship. So, obviously, we’re all nervous. We all have to battle those nerves, and this golf course, as I said, it’s not easy.”

Both of them found that out. Woods shot even-par 71, Knox 73 after a bogey on the last.

But playing alongside Tiger proved just as difficult as taking on a baked out, bricked out Carnasty.

“He’s a person which I’ve seen on the range in the past, and I mean, he’s almost like a mythical figure,” Knox said. “Of course I settled into it and enjoyed being out there and enjoyed playing with him. That’s just a part of golf. Some days your swing feels awful, and some days it feels great. I battled through it, and [Friday] there’s a huge chance that I’m going to feel much better than I did today.”

Hate to tell you this, Russ, but you’re playing with Tiger again in the second round.

“I wanted to chat with him a little bit,” Knox continued. “Obviously, Hideki is not the easiest person to talk to with the language barrier. So I was like, yeah, I’m out here with Tiger for five hours, might as well talk to him.”

What did they talk about?

“It’s kind of a blur, to be honest. It’s like, oh, I’m chatting away with Tiger here like normal. I don’t even remember what I was saying.”

He figured the round would be, too. Expecting the worst and hoping for the best kind of thing.

“I feel like I should know what I’m doing,” the affable Scot said. “It’s cool playing with Tiger, but I’ve got to get over that. I’m here to win, not just enjoy my walk around the course.

“I knew it was going to be an uncomfortable round for me. Like I was never going to feel like I was out playing with my buddies, just freewheeling it, and that’s understandable. Major championship, Open in Scotland, playing with your hero, you’re never going to feel like you’re just winging it.”

Carnoustie tough? I’d hate to meet the guy who made THIS pairing.

The post The Open 2018: Russell Knox feels the heat playing next to Tiger appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Russell Knox of Scotland hits a tee shot on the sixth hole. (Photo by Stan Badz/R&A/R&A/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

Justin Thomas plays his second shot on the 14th (Photo by Matthew Lewis/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama watches his iron shot from the 11th tee during his first round. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP)

Tiger Woods walks down the 17th hole during the first round. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Phil Mickelson of the United States hits his second shot on the second hole. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Justin Rose of England makes his way through the stand towards the first tee (Photo by Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A via Getty Images).

Jordan Spieth reacts to a tough finish on the 18th hole. (Photo by Jan Kruger/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy plays out a bunker on the 1st fairway (Photo by Matthew Lewis/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

Sandy Lyle of Scotland walks across a bridge over the Barry Burn on the first hole. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Dustin Johnson tees off on the ninth hole.(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

The post The Open 2018: The best photos from Thursday at Carnoustie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
It was the late, great Arnold Palmer who once said that the hardest thing in golf is making a birdie when you really need one. By that measure, the new Irish Open champion can feel pretty pleased with himself.

Make that doubly pleased.

Standing on the endlessly picturesque Ballyliffin’s 18th green 13-under par for the 71 holes he had already completed, Russell Knox was pretty certain he would need to hole from 35-feet to tie Ryan Fox in the group behind. When he did so, the 33-year old Scot was round in 66. Fox narrowly failed to make what would have been a winning birdie, and the two went to a playoff.

It lasted just one hole. After being outdriven by 60 yards, Knox found the green and almost exactly the same spot, 35-feet from the cup. Fox then pitched to maybe ten-feet, making him a strong favorite to clinch what would have been his maiden European Tour victory. Amazingly, however, it was Knox who holed again, before Fox’s tying effort cruelly horseshoed out.

“It is tough to describe how great this feels,” said Knox, who finished second in this event two years ago behind Rory McIlroy. “I can’t believe I’m holding this trophy. After I made eagle on the 4th I knew I was in it. I hadn’t missed shot. And the putts have been going in for me lately. I wasn’t even really aiming, just reacting to the greens.

“Making putts like those why I play golf. All the practice days, all the bad moments are taken care of with moments like that. On the first one, I told myself not to aim and I flushed it. And to make two from almost exactly the same spot, is such a bonus. I told my caddie, ‘I’ve already made this putt, it can’t be too difficult.’ And for it to go in, I guess it was my time.”

Slightly less happy with his lot was defending champion Jon Rahm. One week on from making a last day triple-bogey en route to finishing two shots behind French Open champion Alex Noren, the burly Spaniard repeated the feat in County Donegal. The triple arrived as early as the second hole, after which Rahm was on fire. Seven birdies and an eagle later, he was 12-under par for the week and, yes, two-shots short once again.

The last birdie is worthy of mention. Sixty meters short of the final green after a mighty drive on the 452 yarder, Rahm’s pitch—albeit one that would have run well past—struck the pin full-on and finished inches away. It was a suitably dramatic end to his down-and-up day.

One that belonged to Knox, who earned €998,425. Two years on from his controversial omission from the European Ryder Cup team at Hazeltine—he would have qualified as of right had he been a tour member at the time of his victory in the 2015 WGC HSBC Championship in China—the Inverness-born son of a Scottish mother and American father has hoisted himself into the frame for a second time. Which is not to say he is taking anything for granted. Still just outside the eight automatic qualifiers, he knows much work remains to be done if he is to tee-up in Paris, where he finished T-2 last week, come September.

“I needed a stretch like this if I am to make the Ryder Cup,” continued Knox, who was T-12 at the U.S Open last month. “You need to win tournaments to qualify. This is a start, but I have a bit to go yet. I’d like to win the Scottish Open next week too of course. I’m not greedy though. Right now i just want to enjoy this one.”

For the record, Spaniard Jorge Campillo was alone in third on 13-under par, what was his sixth top-five finish of the season. Rahm was next, tied with the 54-hole leader, Erik Van Rooyen of South Africa. And finally…by way of consolation Fox claimed one of the three Open Championship spots available to non-exempt players who finished in the top ten. The others went to Zander Lombard of South Africa and Englishman Andy Sullivan.

The post Russell Knox wins Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in dramatic fashion appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Luke Kerr-Dineen
If you’ve played enough golf, you’ve probably come across a similar story: A tour pro graces your home course and rattles-off a ridiculously low round with ease. I grew up hearing about Fred Funk, then stuck in the no-man’s land between 45 years old and the Champions Tour-eligible 50, shooting a 62 on my home course on his first visit. A friend of mine recently told me a similar tale involving Fred Couples carding a 59 on a visit to his home course, taking impossibly difficult lines off certain tees.

Who knows if those stories are real—perhaps they’re just legend. But I’m reminded of them every year during U.S. Open sectional qualifying when a host of seemingly struggling pros cruise through “golf’s longest day” with relative ease. It’s just another reminder that these guys are, dare I say, good. So much so that the top-tier players don’t even need to be in great form to shoot great scores at non-PGA Tour events.

Here’s what I mean …

Andrew (Beef) Johnston
England’s beloved Beef has been serving up a game that’s been pretty raw this year—just two top-10s in European Tour starts and none since March. And yet Johnston looked entirely comfortable finishing tied for medalist honors at the deeply competitive Walton Heath qualifying site outside London. Following a missed cut and a T-42 in his previous two starts, Johnston shot 10 under in his two rounds on Monday, marking the third straight year he has made it through qualifying.

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Cameron Wilson
The 25-year-old qualified for the U.S. Open in 2012 while at Stanford, and then capped his collegiate career by winning the NCAA individual title in 2014. Since turning professional, however, the lefty has struggled finding his way. Last year, he missed 10 of 21 cuts on the Web.com Tour and finished inside the top 25 just three times. This year? He’ll be fitting the U.S. Open into his mini tour schedule after shooting 69-66 in his New Jersey qualifier.

Copyright USGA/Michael Cohen

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Adam Scott
Scott’s terrible putting has dogging his performance all year on the PGA Tour, and it almost cost him his streak of 67-straight major starts. Forced to playing in sectional qualifying for the first time in 17 years, Scott made hard work of it, grabbing one of the last spots on the number at the Columbus, Ohio, qualifier. In truth, it was always in his hands: Scott was inside the cutoff line midway through the back nine only to slip outside, before then playing his way back inside.

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Russell Knox
Like Scott, Knox qualified via the deep Columbus, Ohio, qualifier and, like Scott, Knox has struggled to perform this year. He has just three top-10s in 20 PGA Tour tournaments this season dating back to last October, but wound up finishing seven under to book his spot at Shinnecock Hills.

Copyright USGA/Fred Vuich

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Aaron Wise
Wise won the AT&T Byron Nelson just last month, so it’s hard to poke at the quality of his game. Still, since the victory he has had a bit of a hangover, missing the cut in his next two starts. It wasn’t exactly U.S. Open qualifying form, but no matter. Wise’s two rounds totaling seven under was enough to qualify him on the number.

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Eric Axley
The 44-year-old won in a rain-shortened Web.com Tour event in April, but hasn’t been doing much of nothing ever since: MC, MC, T-58, T-59 in his last four starts isn’t pretty on the eye, but he managed to shoot a seven under in Memphis, then make an eagle in a playoff to get into his first Open since 2010.

Copyright USGA/John Gress

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Sam Burns
And finally in the “these guys are on another level” files: Burns has been spending most of 2018 using sponsor’s exemptions to chase his PGA Tour card and, to his credit, has generally played quite well. That was until the Memorial, though, where his third-round 81 resulted in a MDF. Bad news, with the U.S. Open qualifier next week? Nope: Burns shot 62-65 to collect medalist honors at the Memphis qualifier by five shots.

The post For more proof tour pros are even better than you think they are, check out these U.S. Open sectional qualifiers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.