On Thursday at the Senior British Open, the 2005 U.S. Open winner accidentally hit his golf ball with a practice swing. Yep, pros are capable of doing this too. Thanks to Michael Verity for sharing the funny clip on Twitter:

Cambo went full Zach Johnson at the Senior Open ?

Apparently wasn’t even the first time he’d done it in a Tournament! pic.twitter.com/n6GDtEaHh0

— Michael Verity (@MichaelVerity) July 22, 2021

Whoops. And yes, somewhere, Zach Johnson—a reference to his similar gaffe at the 2019 Masters—is smiling.

For those of you who aren’t aware, since the ball hadn’t been put into play yet on the hole there is no penalty for doing this, and Campbell was able to re-tee. So that annoying guy you play with that always yells, “That’s one!” when someone in your group accidentally knocks his/her ball off the tee is wrong. And annoying.

As you can see, Campbell had a good chuckle over it when it happened, probably in part because he knew there was no harm, no foul. The eight-time European Tour winner also confirmed after his round that he knew this from experience:

Yes that’s right, it was my second time. ?

— Michael Campbell (@MCampbellgolf) July 22, 2021

Unfortunately, there weren’t too many other funny moments for the 52-year-old during an opening a five-over-par 75 at Sunningdale that left him 10 shots off the lead shared by Darren Clarke and James Kingston. In any event, if you ever find yourself on a tee box with Cambo, keep your head on a swivel.

The post Past U.S. Open champ accidentally hits ball with practice swing, gets a good chuckle out of it appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — He was a little less than convincing towards the end of his final round, but Miguel Angel Jimenez did just enough over the closing holes to hold off defending champion Bernhard Langer and claim the Senior British Open Championship at St. Andrews. The pony-tailed Spaniard, two shots clear of the rest of the field overnight, shot a three-under 69 in weather conditions that ranged from thoroughly unpleasant to relatively benign to win by one shot with a 12-under-par 276. For his trouble, he earned $314,330.

As well as being Jimenez’s second senior major title of 2018, it was surely one of the most emotional victories of his career. To win on the same green where his late compatriot, Seve Ballesteros, had indulged in one of golf’s most iconic celebrations was, for the 54-year-old, a clearly emotional experience.

“I didn’t play too good over the last few holes,” Jimenez admitted. “I didn’t hit many solid shots. And I missed short putts on both the 14th and 15th. At that stage I was feeling the stress. My heart was really pumping very fast. But it is such a great thing for me to win here at St. Andrews, the Home of Golf. This is the place where everyone wants to win and the place where Seve won his second British Open. It has always been my ambition to win here. It feels like I am part of history.”

As ever, Langer was generous in defeat. The man to beat every time he tees-up in a PGA Tour Champions event, he left disappointed but happy enough with the way he played during his closing 68. The three-putts he expended on the 13th green will surely live on in his memory though. The three-shot edge he gave to Jimenez was just too much to retrieve.

“Miguel played an awesome four days of golf, and he’s a very well-deserved winner,” Langer said. “I was pretty happy overall. It wasn’t easy in some of the conditions that we had.”

Related: Pro’s tee shot hits seagull on Road Hole, ricochets out of bounds

It could have been worse. As things turned out, the leading groups got by far the best of the conditions. At its worst, the wind and rain sweeping over the ancient links transformed the back nine into a procession of virtual par 5s. Despite the late improvement in the conditions, the 72-man field was a collective 136 over par.

And finally—probably literally—playing perhaps his final round over the only Scottish course on the Open rota where he did not claim the claret jug, Tom Watson closed with a disappointing round of 77. Only three strokes back at the start of Sunday, the 68-year-old fell into a tie for 21st place. None of which seemed to matter to the hardy souls braving the conditions. Many gathered to wave goodbye to one of the greatest links players of all-time.

“As ever, the fans were really very good to me,” said Watson, a three-time Senior British Open winner. “I gave it right back to them. I appreciate what they do for me. This is a unique setting in golf, probably the most unique. You come into the town on the last hole and finish amongst all the buildings with the people hanging over the rail up there. There’s no other place like it.”

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By John Huggan

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It was, not surprisingly, a time for looking back rather than forward. One day before the Senior British Open Championship tees-off over the Old Course at St. Andrews, Nick Faldo arrived back in the Auld Grey Toon in a nostalgic mood. Eight months on from his last competitive appearance at the hit-and-giggle Father-Son Challenge in the U.S. and 28 years removed from his Open Championship victory at the Home of Golf, the CBS commentator and knight of the realm took time to reminisce.

Unlike some, Faldo fell in love with golf’s most famous venue “from the word go.” Armed with detailed written instructions provided by the grand old man of British amateur golf, the late Gerald Micklem, the now 61-year-old knew immediately what he was trying to do.

“Gerald gave me all the lines,” said Faldo, who played in eight St. Andrews Opens. “When people think hit it left, he was saying hit it right to give a better angle. He had all the bunker names. So the very first time I played here, I knew where to aim. He gave me all the angles. So I loved it. That was right up my street. There was a way to play the golf course, a route and a plan to it.”

So beloved is St. Andrews—the scene of his only comfortable Open victory in 1990—in Faldo’s mind, he is planning to build a replica of the short 11th hole in his back garden.

“I love the Strath Bunker because it is right in play,” he explained. “A lot of the bunkers here are left-to-right, but that one is right in your face. Plus, it fits in the corner and the shape of my garden. When I hit a couple of great shots there at the Open—I’ve made one or two 2s, there—I thought it would be a nice look.”

Looking back wasn’t the only thing on Faldo’s mind, however. The six-time major champion is also keen to play the Old Course backwards. While it has been eight or nine years since that has been possible, word has it that the St. Andrews Links Management committee is considering a return, maybe in November next year, to what proved to be a very popular feature.

“We were walking down the 12th fairway and turned round to look back,” Faldo said. “There is a bunker [the Admiral’s Bunker] that isn’t normally in play, but if you were hitting from the 13th tee to the 11th green, it’s fantastic. You have that bunker in the middle of the fairway and you have the biggest [Strath] bunker in front of the green. I’ve got to come and play backwards.”

But that is (maybe) for the future. In the meantime, Faldo is one of an army of leading seniors lured to the Senior Open by the opportunity to play the Old Course competitively for perhaps a final time. He isn’t going to win, but he remains hopeful of putting on a jolly good show after what he described as a “couple of decent sessions” with swing coach Nick Bradley. What he was loathed to confirm was whether or not this week might be his farewell to competitive golf in the U.K.

“I’ve got some constructive thoughts going, which is great,” he said. “I’m looking forward to hopefully being half-decent on the course. And I never say never. The great thing about this game is it doesn’t let go. It tortures you. It keeps saying, ‘come on, you can go and practice.’ I still think I can play. I always want to go play. So I’d like to think I can tee it up and actually enjoy myself. That’s the bottom line.”

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