If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then call this guy insane. Because it takes him 12 attempts — yes, a DOZEN tries — before escaping the Old Course’s diabolical pit. He tries going forward, sideways, and finally exits out the back on his way to a “smooth 22”. Woof. Have a look — if you dare:

 

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Thank goodness that video was sped up or we don’t think we could have made it through the entire thing. That’s a real-life nightmare right there. Especially when you know one of your buddies is filming — and, understandably, giggling — during the whole ordeal. “The Road Hole at St Andrews claims another victim,” the narrator says. Indeed. And what makes it even worse is that he avoided the hazard getting to the green, but then putted into it. Rough.

Needless to say this guy took a lot of heat in the comments for his technique in the sand. So while he licks his wounds, might we suggest checking out a few of our bunker tips? We’re confident that you’ll get ’em next time, dude. In less than 12 tries, at least.

Main picture: The Road Hole at St Andrews. Golf Digest

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Swede Söderberg birdied eight of his first 10 holes over the Old Course at St Andrews to set the pace, signing for a 64 that would be matched by American Uihlein over the same layout.

Dubai-based Spaniard Arnaus was four shots off the lead with five to play at Carnoustie Golf Links but eagled the 14th before finishing birdie-birdie to join them at eight-under with a 64 of his own and make it a three-way tie.

Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, fresh off his heroics as a vice-captain in last week’s European Ryder Cup victory, was then part of a six-way tie for second at seven-under alongside local favourite Grant Forrest, Dane Marcus Helligkilde, American Billy Horschel and South African duo Zander Lombard and Wilco Nienaber.

On a cold and wet day on Scotland’s east coast, Soderberg turned in 29 and Ross Fisher’s St Andrews course record was looking under threat when he made another birdie on the 10th.

Six consecutive pars ended those hopes, however, and the 33-year-old bogeyed the 17th before a closing birdie ensured he would finish the day on top.

“It was quite easy the first 10 holes or so,” he said. “Then you kind of turn around going into the wind and it rained a little bit more.

“I thought I played pretty good the last eight holes as well. I just didn’t get close enough, didn’t really hole the putts but it felt good to finish with a birdie.

“I’ve had one or two or three really good rounds for a while, I feel like. There’s just always been one or two bad rounds every week. So the weekends, they haven’t been what I wanted in the last two months or so.

“I feel like there’s a lot of good golf in me so I just have to try to clean up the bad golf a little more and try to get around a little better.”

Arnaus has finished in the top 25 at this event for the past two seasons and his bogey-free round represented a stunning start at the course regarded as the most difficult of the three being played this week.

“At times it felt easy but this course definitely can show its teeth and you’ve got to be really careful,” he said.

“We continued to play quite good and then we rolled a few putts. A brilliant start, I would say.

“It actually started quite calm and it came around with wind and rain as well. That’s really what you are going to expect here so you’ve just got to embrace the challenge.”

LIV Golf’s Uihlein was the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year in 2013, the year he lost out in a play-off at this event, while he also achieved a top 10 last season.

“I’ve had good success here,” he said after his bogey-free effort. “I just love it, the golf is pure over here and I like when it gets windy and challenging, it’s just a lot of fun, really. You get to be creative and it’s just something that I enjoy doing.

“I was close here in 2013 when David Howell beat me in a play-off. Looking back on it, it would have been a really special one to win around here.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming back and hopefully I can string together three more good days and see what happens.”

Soderberg’s remarkable start came thanks to some dialled-in iron play, as he put approaches inside 15 feet on seven of his first 10 holes. A three-putt at the Road Hole then brought the only bogey of the day before he holed an 18-footer for birdie on the last.

Arnaus started his round with three gains but had to wait until the par-five 12th for another before he holed from 12 feet for an eagle on the 14th. Another birdie came at the 17th and he put his approach to 12 feet on the last.

Uihlein also put on an excellent display of approach play as he made birdies on the first, third, fourth, fifth, ninth, 10th and 12th before holing from nearly 50 feet on the 14th.

Horschel turned in 29 at Carnoustie en route to his 65, while Colsaerts, Helligkilde, Lombard and Nienaber all played at St Andrews, and Forrest went round Kingsbarns.

There was then a group of 13 players at six-under including defending champion Ryan Fox.

Main image: St Andrews. Dunhill Links Championship

The post Adri Arnaus, Sebastian Soderberg and LIV Golf’s Peter Uilhein lead the way in Scotland appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It all turned out all right in the end. For the USA that is. But only just. Although armed with what appeared to be a vastly superior side (if the World Amateur Golf Rankings are to be believed) it wasn’t until Georgian David Ford won the 26th of the 26 games (one was still to be decided) and took his side over the 13.5-point winning threshold that the American side eventually clinched victory on Sunday in the 49th Walker Cup match on the Old Course at St Andrews.

Until then, doubt of varying degrees permeated what turned into the visitor’s 39th victory (against nine losses and one halved match) in golf’s long-running biennial contest, one that stretches back exactly a century. At the conclusion of each of the first three series of matches over the last two days, it was the Great Britain & Ireland side who led. But by the close, that had changed, the final score 14½ -11½ to the visitors, who have now won the trophy four times in succession.

While it is forever invidious to single out individuals within a team contest, much credit for his side’s success must go to the world’s No. 1 amateur, Gordon Sargent.

Although only two of his teammates failed to score even one point, the Vanderbilt junior was the only player on either side to emerge from this hard-fought contest with an unbeaten record, winning all four of his matches. Every one of the other 19 participants lost at least once.

But even Sargent had his struggles. The 1-up victory over Englishman John Gough he all but clinched with a magnificent 3-wood to the 18th in the second series of singles was the third of his four wins to conclude on the final green. In all, Sargent had to play a tiring total of 70 holes over the two days.

A commanding afternoon of Singles Matches for the USA team ?? pic.twitter.com/qHlIrlKaVl

— The Walker Cup (@WalkerCup) September 3, 2023

“This is the biggest achievement of my career so far,” said the Birmingham, Alabama, native. “Winning four points for the US is huge, especially seeing what it means to everyone else. It’s such a big deal. I played well all four rounds and capped it off with what was my best shot of the week on the 18th tee. It was a full 3-wood. My caddie told me on the tee I could rip it, so I did. I don’t see going up the right side as aggressive. I’ve been hitting the ball well all week so I just went ahead and hit it.

“What is really nice for me is that, in match play recently, I’ve had trouble finishing games off down the stretch,” he continued. “So this week it’s been nice to see some success. To win three matches on 18 is huge. This just gives me so much confidence. We don’t play a ton of match play. But to see some success is nice for me to take back to college, where there is some match play. To know I can compete with the best players in the world is pretty special.”

Certainly, Alan Tulleth, Sargent’s caddie, is one who has no doubts as to where his man is headed.

“I think he can go to the very, very top,” said the man who makes his living walking the Old Course. “Everything about his game is absolutely amazing. If he keeps working hard, I can see his career going only one way.”

Before that, however, the Americans had some celebrating to do, much to the relief of captain Mike McCoy. The Iowa native narrowly dodged adding his name to what remains a short list of two (Francis Ouimet and John M Winters) visiting Walker Cup captains who have lost at St Andrews.

“We just played hard, right to the bitter end,” said the 60-year-old, who was part of the last US Walker Cup team to lose, at Royal Lytham in 2015. “We had those two [North Carolina] Tar Heels [Austin Greaser and David Ford] in those last two spots. I had a lot of confidence in them. Nick Dunlap fighting through to get a half point [from three down with four to play against Barclay Brown] was huge, and, of course, Caleb [Surratt] led us off by beating Calum Scott. They all played great. But I feel very fortunate. All credit to the GB&I team. They really fought hard. It was, I think, an epic Walker Cup.”

On the other side of the aisle, GB&I skipper Stuart Wilson was rightly proud of his 10-man squad, all of whom recorded at least half a point against a visiting team most observers felt would triumph handily. A rare feat for any losing team, that statistic alone speaks to what was a stubborn and persistent performance by Wilson’s men, whose leading points scorer was Irishman Mark Power (3-1-0).

“I’m obviously disappointed,” said Wilson, who won the Amateur Championship over the Old Course 20 years ago. “We always knew it was going to be a tight match. Everything went our way yesterday. Six matches went up the last, and we got four and a half points out of them. But all the momentum was on the US side today. Things seemed to be going their way. But they are a great side, and they handled the conditions a lot better than our guys. We had a nice lead this morning, but we let it slide quite a bit in the foursomes. The guys will be hurting most because they know themselves that they haven’t turned up this afternoon in the way we know they can.”

Indeed, as Wilson hinted, there was ultimately a familiar feel to the final day’s singles. Of the 10, GB&I won only two. As so often and in the end, the greater depth in the US squad made the crucial difference.

The post GB&I made US team nervous, but Americans’ depth came through in Walker Cup victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Almost a half-century after its last visit, and exactly 100 years after its first, the Walker Cup is heading home. Back to the Home of Golf that is. For the first time since 1975, the match between the leading amateurs from the United States and those from Great Britain & Ireland will take place this weekend over the Old Course at St Andrews.

Time for a big call. Forget the 2007 American team that included Rickie Fowler, Billy Horschel, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Chris Kirk and Kyle Stanley. And dismiss the claims of a 2017 crew that boasted the likes of Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Champ and Maverick McNealy. Both powerful squads, no doubt. But the 1975 side, it says here, is at least for now the best US Walker Cup team in history.

The evidence for that bold claim is vivid indeed. Three members of the 10-player squad led by captain Ed Updegraff went on to become major champions: Curtis Strange, Craig Stadler and Jerry Pate. And three more, George Burns, Jay Haas and Gary Koch, played with more than a little success professionally. In all, those six men won 57 PGA Tour events and four Grand Slam championships.

That’s impressive enough, but three of the four remaining members, Dick Siderowf, Vinny Giles and Bill Campbell, won either or both the US Amateur and British Amateur while remaining career amateurs. With John Grace (an eventual member of the Texas and Michigan Golf Halls of Fame) rounding out the squad, this was a team with real depth, top to bottom.

But it was also a group under an unusual level of pressure. Only four years before at St Andrews, the GB&I side had pulled off a massive upset of an American team boasting the likes of Tom Kite and Lanny Watkins to record what was their only Walker Cup victory between 1938 and 1989.

“There was a different vibe in our team going into the 1975 matches, if only because we had won in 1971,” says George MacGregor, a future R&A captain who played for GB&I both years. “Back then, it was quite unexpected. We hadn’t won in more than 30 years. So this time round there was a greater expectation.”

Equally, for the visitors, where Giles (age 32) and Campbell (age 52) were the lone returning players from 1971, a repeat of what was almost unthinkable would be, well, completely unthinkable in a series that today the US leads 38-9-1.

“Our captain had us over there early,” Koch, a 22-year-old at the time who played college golf at Florida, recalls. “We played a lot of practice rounds, more than once playing 36 holes a day. His theory was that the 1971 team did not know the course well enough. I think we got there Monday morning and we were out there twice a day. He had a plan that we needed to know the course as well as possible.”

That made sense, as more than half the US team (Koch included) had never before set foot on golf’s most famous course, a place notorious for its foibles and one where local knowledge is so often the difference between success and failure. But the Americans proved to be quick learners.

“We had to deal with things we had never seen before,” Strange, the reigning NCAA champion from Wake Forest and the youngest American on the team at 20, says. “You have to be there. You can’t get it from a book. The shots inside 100 yards were amazing to us. The trajectory was different. Then there was the bounce and roll of the ball after it landed. Over there, it’s a game played on the ground. We were all taken aback by the Valley of Sin on the 18th. Every day we all hit maybe a dozen balls, running the shots up there.”

Koch, too, was embarking on what has turned into a lifelong love affair with links golf. Twice, the Louisiana native would go on to be low American in the Open Championship.

“What was fun for me was that the course and the shots it asked us to hit got me into what I call ‘play mode’,” says the six-time PGA Tour winner. “Not ‘swing mode’. It was so different, bouncing the ball in. It brought out my creative side more than my analytic side.”

“When we arrived, I was looking out at the course and asking where we were going to play,” Haas, Strange’s 21-year-old teammate at Wake, adds. “I was told: ‘right there.’ I couldn’t believe it. It was brown and didn’t look like anything. And on our first practice round I’m not sure the cups hadn’t been moved in more than a week. The edges were all broken down. We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.”

Across the aisle, GB&I captain David Marsh (who played in ’71) was leading a side containing three other returnees (Scots Hugh Stuart and Charlie Green, and MacGregor) from 1971. But 48 years ago, the GB&I squad was amateur in the true sense of the word.

“The Walker Cup was a softer competition back then, much more than it is now,” Siderowf, 37 at the time, says today. “The atmosphere was different. Now it’s like a fight or a war.”

Recall if you will this was an era before GB&I players made their way to American universities as a highly competitive prelude to a professional career in golf. Of the home players, only future Ryder Cup captain Mark James — who claims to have “no memory” of a Walker Cup in which he won three points from his four games — would go on to any kind of success in the paid ranks. Seven of the 10 never turned professional.

“They didn’t have any college kids,” Haas confirms. “And some of them were in their 30s. We thought they were ancient.”

So the stage was set, one the younger members of the American side were determined to enjoy. Koch talks of trips into the Auld Grey Toon to sample fish suppers wrapped in newspaper. And Strange and Haas spent an enraptured hour watching legendary clubmaker Laurie Auchterlonie lovingly construct a wooden-headed driver.

Ah, but before play would even begin, there was trouble in the American camp. Immediately after the pairings for the first day’s sessions were announced at the opening ceremony on the eve of the event, Burns was stomping off in the direction of the Old Course Hotel. Expecting to feature in all four series, the then 25-year-old college golfer at Maryland was less than pleased to find his name omitted from the Wednesday’s Day 1 singles (interestingly, the matches were played on a Wednesday-Thursday that year).

So unhappy was Burns that he announced he was flying home and would not play in the opening foursomes alongside Stadler, a threat Siderowf and Giles heard after hustling down the 18th fairway in pursuit.

“George felt he was the best player on the team,” Giles says. “But Pate was the US Amateur champion and Curtis was NCAA champion. They had earned the right to play all four games. The plan was that everyone would play three times and they would play four. But Burns didn’t like that. Dick and I actually took him behind the hotel for a talk. George was a big strong boy and could have beat the hell out of both of us. But we got him to listen. He eventually came around.”

George Burns had to be coaxed by teammates to play after threatening to fly home when he learned he wasn’t going to start for the US team in all four sessions. Peter Dazeley

Not completely though. As Stadler tells it, Burns was still in a foul mood the following morning.

“Our tee time was 10am,” says the future Masters champion. “I was hitting balls around 9.40 and no one had seen George. So Bill Campbell and I got a cart over to the Old Course Hotel. We pounded on George’s door and it finally opened. We had about 12 minutes until we had to tee off. But George said he wasn’t going to play. He was so [angry] at being left off the previous morning.

“I told him to get his butt out of bed, into the cart and we were going to play. Still he wouldn’t come. ‘Bull, you’re not coming,” I said. ‘We’re going. Let’s go. I can’t do this by myself.’ After a bit more grumbling, I got him out of the room and into the cart. He didn’t hit any balls before we played, only a couple of putts. And we won 5&4. We obnoxiously destroyed them.”

Today, Burns acknowledges he didn’t make things easy for the American team, maturity having had its time-honoured effect on perspective. Still, he actually might have had a right to be shocked at being omitted. A little more than a month earlier, Burns finished low amateur in the Masters and the previous year he played a prominent role in the four-man US side’s victory at the World Amateur Team Championship. Later in 1975, he would lead the qualifying for the Open Championship at Carnoustie, finish T-10 there and win twice on the European Tour. Then, at year’s end, he finished second at the PGA Tour Q-School (which Pate won, with Koch T-3). Clearly, he was a player.

“I have to apologise for my conduct back then,” he says. “I made a big mistake there. But if my not playing one series had been discussed previously, that would not have been my reaction. It was never discussed, though, and I was taken by surprise. But I overreacted. As my dad would say: ‘I spoke before I thought.’ Giles, Siderowf and my dad tried to talk some sense into me. I just didn’t think it through, which I’m very sorry for.”

Still, amid the bad feeling there was, too, an amusing aspect to this sudden rift in the American ranks.

“Stadler’s reaction made everyone laugh,” Giles says. “He was George’s foursomes partner. So when George said he wasn’t going to play, Craig told everyone he would take the opponents on by himself. We let that go for about 10 minutes before we told him it was alternate shot. It never dawned on him.”

Burns wasn’t the only member of the US squad creating mild controversy. Pate, a renowned chatter-box not slow to, in the British vernacular, “toot his own horn”, was causing some embarrassment with his non-stop banter.

“Pate was a bit mouthy in the lunch room,” recalls a teammate who prefers to remain nameless. “Some of the language wasn’t exactly what you would want to hear in public. We called Campbell ‘the saint.’ And eventually he had had enough of Jerry, who never shut up. He was making comments to the waitresses and things like that. So Campbell took Jerry outside into the hallway and gave him a lecture. It was like a father-son meeting. Jerry was told to moderate his language and a whole host of other things too. We all thought that was very funny.”

Still, it should be noted that Pate’s high opinion of his own worth was shared by others in his team. Giles, for one, was a fan.

“I thought Pate was the best of them,” says the two-time US Amateur champion. “Had he not been hurt later, he would have been in the Hall of Fame. Curtis was comparable. His record speaks to that and he proved to be the best. But Pate was every bit as good. He was cocky as hell and had that ‘it’ factor. He wasn’t scared of anything. But he was a heavy load at St Andrews.”

Jerry Pate struggled during the week at St Andrews, finishing 0-4 while the US won 15 1/2-8 1/2. Peter Dazeley

Pate’s play didn’t necessarily live up to his own hype, losing all four of his matches. One week later, Pate would lose in the first round of the Amateur Championship, thereby completing a miserable trip across the Atlantic. “Pate was a great ball-striker, but I’m not sure links golf suited him,” says GB&I’s Ian Hutcheon, who defeated him in singles, 3&2. “He hit the ball high and didn’t get the ball on the ground quick enough.”

Which is not to say Pate was down for long, although his play did maintain a level of inconsistency unusual in such a fine player. One month after the Walker Cup, the Georgian was low amateur in the US Open, which he eventually won in 1976 en route to being the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year.

While the visitors were weathering their various self-induced storms, the home team was readying itself like, well, amateurs. In slight mitigation, however, luck was not on their side. Originally selected to play on Day 1, Englishman Peter Hedges was hit by a revolving door at the team hotel, needed stitches in a head wound and ended up being withdrawn from the first two series. And the May 28-29 date meant the emerging talent that was then 17-year-old Nick Faldo would miss out. The future six-time major champion won a number of events that summer, including the English Amateur championship, but his run of form came too late for the Walker Cup.

“I don’t think we were nearly well enough prepared,” concludes Hutcheon, who would go on to win the individual title at the 1976 World Amateur. “Certainly not when you compare it to today. There wasn’t much thought put into the partnerships or order in which we were sent out. There was no sitting down for a team talk, no discussion about what ball we should use. And there was no sign of any psychologists. I don’t recall any expectation other than that we thought we might just win. But that was normal. Back then it was always a daunting task to face the Americans. We were a lot less familiar with them.”

Captains David Marsh (GB&I) and Ed Updegraff (US) speak to the press. Notice a young Renton Laidlaw listening in at the left. Peter Dazeley

Stuart, too, was struggling. The then-31-year-old arrived in St Andrews with his game a mess. Just three months before on the advice of swing coach John Jacobs he had made drastic changes to his address position.

“I couldn’t hit the bloody ball,” says Stuart who, like his fellow Scots, would emerge pointless from the two-day contest. “We had a weekend get together at St Andrews in April. The press were all there. I was hitting one shot 50 yards left, the next one 50 yards right. They thought I was mucking about. But I wasn’t. I cried in the car going home that night. But I went to the Walker Cup still persevering with that new address.”

For all his struggles, Stuart did at least influence the destination of one point. Playing with Green against Burns and Stadler, the Scots noticed that, on every green, the Americans would ask to change their ball, claiming it was “damaged.”

“We didn’t realise exactly what they were doing until we talked at lunch,” Stuart says. “They were changing from the wee ball to the big ball to putt, which was legal at that time. But we raised the issue. John Davies was playing Burns in the afternoon. On the first hole, Burns found the green with his approach. When he marked he shouted over that he was taking the ball out of play. Davies went over and told him it wasn’t damaged. So Burns had to putt with a small ball. And Davies beat him. The captain of the R&A referred to what they were doing at dinner that night. It caused a wee bit of a ripple.”

Amid all of these on- and off-course shenanigans, it was clear that the visiting side was, with something to spare, the superior team. The final score of 15.5-8.5 is a pretty fair reflection of the strengths on both sides, but it could have been worse for the home players. The Americans strode to convincing victory while “carrying” Pate, much to the amusement of his teammates. Even now, they never fail to remind him of his lack of success. And one shot in particular — the opening blow on the opening hole on the opening day — stands out.

“I had played the Old Course in all kinds of wind,” Pate says. “So I should have known better. Siderowf was telling me not to hit driver off the first tee in the first match. He knew it was too much club. But I went ahead and did it anyway. Sure enough, the ball finished in the burn near the Swilcan Bridge. So Dick’s first shot was taking a drop. My dad was there shaking his head. Needless to say, we lost that hole.”

It was, however, a false dawn for the home team. By the end of the next day, the US side had won three of the four series of matches and halved the other. It was a dominant performance by a stellar team packed with past, present and future stars, one “better than most” as Koch might say.

But the final word must go to Giles.

“You can look at more modern teams, but I still think the 1975 side has to be at least one of the strongest we’ve ever had,” says the now-80-year-old. “Today, if you were putting together that team, Campbell probably wouldn’t make it. He was still a heck of a player, but he was as much a leader as a player. So some hot-shot college player would get his spot now. But if someone was to say that side is still the strongest ever, I would not disagree.”

Not many would.

The post The best US Walker Cup team in history also might have been the most contentious appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland rests on sand, not rock, but it might as well have been chiselled from rock, as little as the layout has changed in the course of the past 150 years. That would seem especially true of its 17th hole, the Road Hole, the long par 4 with a blind tee shot over buildings and an awkward approach to a diagonal perched green guarded by a piece of Tarmac and a wall on one side and a black-hole-looking bunker on the other.

Visually, there’s virtually no change between the hole as it existed in 1910 and as it exists today. But as we point out, subtle but significant changes to the Road Hole have occurred in the past century. Par dropped from 5 to 4 while its length increased. The blind tee shot was eliminated, then restored. Out of bounds stakes were established, but none anywhere near the road.

Watch the video below for all the facts.

Keep in mind a curious fact not mentioned. In 1948, the St Andrews Town Council passed a resolution to plant a row of Douglas firs along the 17th hole to obscure what they felt was an unsightly entrance to the railway yards. After a vigorous protest from local golfers, the idea was dropped, but just imagine how different the Road Hole would look today with a row of pine trees along its perimeter.

The post Course expert reveals little-known facts about the famous Road Hole at St Andrews’ Old Course appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There’s always a measured sense of calm on Sadom Kaewkanjana’s face. But mention links golf and he brightens up, considerably.

That’s a bit surprising, considering that the 25-year-old Thai hardly played on links courses in his growing years. His first stint came well into his teenage years in amateur tournaments, and the love story reached a peak last year during the 150th Open Championship at the Old Course where he closed with a stunning seven-under par 65 for a tied 11th place last year — the best-ever performance by a player from his country in the event.

Ahead of this week’s $1.5 million St Andrews Bay Championship, being played Fairmont St Andrews, he says there is a very specific reason for his love for links golf, and the excitement is palpable.

“I love links courses. I have been looking forward to this tournament,” said Sadom, currently in sixth place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.

“Honestly, I don’t like to chip much. But the links courses give you an amazing opportunity to be creative with your putter. To be able to putt from way off the green is a challenge that I love. It’s a great satisfaction when you hit a long putt and can see it snaking all the way to the hole.”

Sadom, who eagled the fifth hole at the Open last year with a well-read putt from 45 feet, finished third in the inaugural International Series England at Slaley Hall last year, another indication of how comfortable he is in British conditions.

“I really like playing in the UK. I don’t mind the cold and I don’t mind the wind,” he said. “I am also OK with the rain. I played well at The Open last year and also at Slaley Hall. Hopefully, I will be able to carry on the great memories I have from the Old Course to Fairmont, which is just a few miles away in St Andrews.

“St Andrews is such a special place for golf and all the courses in the area are a dream to play for any golfer. One should not be worrying about the weather when we get a chance to play here.”

Sadom Kaewkanjana. Asian Tour

The Thai star recently spent a month as a practising monk in a monastery back home, and feels the lessons he learned there will become a powerful 15th club in his arsenal when on a golf course.

“It was something that I wanted to do and when I got the break in Asian Tour schedule, I went ahead with it,” he said.

“It was all about leading a very simple life, and a very regimented one. We had to follow a strict schedule. We only ate breakfast and lunch, and that felt good. We were not allowed to use our mobile phones when in the monastery.

“It was a great experience as a person, and I really believe it is going to beneficial for my golf. We had to do a lot of meditation, and it has helped me concentrate better. It was all about living in the present, and those are just some of the things that you need to do when playing golf.”

The St Andrews Bay Championship starts on Thursday.

The post Sadom Kaewkanjana on his love of links ahead of Asian Tour’s International Series St Andrews Bay Championship in Scotland appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The first and 18th holes at the Old Course is a magical stretch of golf, but also one that provides plenty of pressure. It’s common to have pretty big galleries watching golfers start and finish their rounds there — even if they’re not named Harry Styles. Plus, there’s all the history. Oh, the history.

Legends like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and (gulp) Tiger Woods have gotten memorable final send-offs there. So it’s a truly special spot. And you couldn’t pick a better place to shoot the round of your life.

And thus we get to the star of today’s saga. A regular golfer shared a video on reddit claiming he needed birdie on the final hole to shoot a career-best score (Nice!). But he walked away crushed — after crushing his final approach over the green and on to the street (Ouch!). Have a look:

All I needed was a birdie on the 18th hole to shoot my career low (-5, 67) at the Old Course, and then all my hopes and dreams were crushed by a bladed wedge. Bounced on the road a few times and did not come back.
by u/thedormgolfer in golf

Brutal. After hitting his second from close range out of bounds on the easy closing par 4, he would have had to get up and down from the same spot just to make bogey.

Hey, it happens — especially with the firm turf over there. But, yeah, that’s a tough finish. However, it’s also one heckuva sneaky humblebrag. This dude is obviously a great golfer in his own right — and now a lot of people know it following this video going viral.

Besides, playing a round at THE Home of Golf can never really be viewed as a bad result. Well, provided this guy didn’t hit anyone or any cars and isn’t getting sued, that is.

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NBC Sports and the St Andrews Links Trust announced that the “home of golf” is set to host a college golf tournament featuring a few esteemed American universities.

The inaugural St Andrews Links Collegiate, presented by TopGolf and World Wide Technology, featuring the men’s and women’s golf teams from Georgetown University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Notre Dame and Vanderbilt University, will take place on October 23-25.

The men’s programmes at Vanderbilt and North Carolina finished the spring ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the US, respectively.

The event will consist of two days of stroke play on the Jubilee Course followed by a day of match play on the historic Old Course, which will also host the 2023 Walker Cup in September.

“We are honoured and proud to partner with St Andrews Links Trust on this new collegiate invitational at the Home of Golf,” said Tom Knapp, NBC Sports Executive VP, Golf. “The St Andrews Links Collegiate elevates and enhances our already impactful college golf platform.”

“We are delighted to partner with NBC Sports to bring the first collegiate event to the Home of Golf, creating a new invitational which will see some of the game’s brightest young stars from four distinguished institutions compete in the birthplace of the game,” said Neil Coulson, CEO of St Andrews Links Trust, the organization responsible for the management and upkeep of the seven courses at St Andrews.

The Old Course — which has hosted the Open Championship on 30 occasions — is cited by course architects and historians as the most important golf course in the world.

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The R&A has launched an ambitious pilot initiative to encourage people to learn to play golf at a diverse range of golf facilities across Scotland.

The launch of Golf.Golf was supported by R&A ambassador and singer-songwriter Niall Horan at an event held at The R&A World Golf Museum in St Andrews.

The initiative has been developed using extensive research into how to attract new people to the sport and is targeted specifically at those who already had or have an active interest in sporting activity but not necessarily in golf.

Its aim is to change the perception of the game and drive new players to a host of venues where the sport is played, from driving ranges to simulators to municipal courses, as well as existing facilities so they can learn how to play golf.

The Golf.Golf digital platform provides an easy-to-use searchable list of all participating venues. Prospective players – from beginners to those who want to pick up the sport again – can use the platform to find their local venue and book sessions directly. Prices are set at an affordable rate so that cost barriers are reduced and venues can get involved at no cost and benefit from attracting an untapped source of first-time golfers.

Backed by a global social media strategy which includes a fun film starring Niall Horan and a host of Scottish sporting stars – including former football coach and player Gordon Strachan OBE, Olympic gold medallist and curler Vicky Wright, Scotland rugby captain Jamie Ritchie and fellow internationalists and brothers Matt and Zander Fagerson of Glasgow Warriors – Golf.Golf portrays the game as fun, inexpensive, easy to understand, a place to make new friends and a great way to stay mentally and physically fit.

Golf.Golf is also being supported by The R&A’s development ambassadors, who include tennis commentator and former player Daniela Hantuchova, footballer Gareth Bale, cricketer Kevin Pietersen and golfer Michelle Wie West.

The R&A’s ambition is to successfully pilot the programme in Scotland during 2023 through working with Scottish Golf and for its affiliated national federations to then roll it out across global venues and so increase worldwide participation in the game.

Sessions are aimed at a wide range of potential players, from children to women-only groups and one-to-one coaching is delivered by professionals and volunteers that will support them in learning to play golf in a fun and welcoming environment. Administration of the platform is done centrally leaving venues to focus on delivering fun and inexpensive golf experiences in welcoming environments.

Global superstar Niall Horan launches golf.golf, a new initiative by The R&A and Modest!Golf to boost participation in golf. (l-r) Niall Horan and Ruaridh McCallum. Image supplied

Niall Horan said, “Next to making music, golf is a huge passion of mine, which is why I want to inspire people from all walks of life to give it a try. By supporting Golf.Golf and The R&A’s work to inspire more people to get involved in the game, I want to show people that learning to play golf is great fun, good for your health and can be enjoyed by anyone whether alone or with friends and family. This way we can begin to change the perception of golf and attract new players into the game, especially young people – which is why I am so proud to be working alongside my management company Modest! Golf on this.” 

Phil Anderton, Chief Development Officer at The R&A, said, “We have seen golf’s popularity boom in recent years with more people playing golf more regularly. We must capitalise on this growth by promoting the many positive social and health benefits of golf and offering opportunities to learn to play that is fun, accessible and inclusive.

“This is why we have created a promotional campaign featuring global stars, national sporting heroes and everyday people to build awareness of how fun and easy it is to learn to play golf and which offers a simple-to-use digital platform so they can freely book lessons at facilities near to them.

“We look forward to seeing the results of the pilot being run in Scotland and learning from the experiences of those people who take part in the activities.”

Fraser Thornton, Interim Chief Executive of Scottish Golf, said, “This campaign is perfectly placed to encourage people who are already warmed up to the idea of sport, into our great game of golf. The Golf.Golf digital platform is beautifully simple to use and directs people to whatever form of learning golf is right for them, whether that’s at a driving range or a club. It opens new participants up to the idea that golf isn’t and doesn’t have to be just one thing. It’s a very exciting initiative.”

Sandy Smith, Head PGA Golf Professional at Ladybank Golf Club said, “What has been proposed with the Golf.Golf program is what I believe is a total game-changer for the game of golf.  I’ve been involved in this industry for 30 years and this is by far the best initiative that I have seen.”

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The British Open isn’t expected to return to the Old Course at St Andrews until 2027 after the sport’s most historic site hosted last year’s tournament. But on Thursday, there was a British Open-sized gallery watching one golfer play at the Home of Golf. One celebrity golfer, that is.

Harry Styles was in town, and clearly word of the pop star’s presence spread. Because by the end of his round, he had quite a crowd following him. Take a look at these images, in particular the fourth one.

OK, here’s another look:

Harry Styles putts out on 18 with a crowd.

St Andrews is the best. pic.twitter.com/L4uR6Roote

— Ru Macdonald (@RuMacdonald) May 25, 2023

What a scene. To be fair, there are always some people around the first, 17th, and 18th holes at St Andrews. The course literally runs through the town. But still, that’s pretty wild. And there’s more. Here’s video of Harry drawing cheers for a tee shot:

Harry golfing in Scotland today.

?: TheOpen pic.twitter.com/IIFDGtsC8L

— HL Daily (@UpdateHLD) May 25, 2023

He even played a shot off the path on the famed Road Hole!

Lui crede davvero di essere bravo a golf. Ne è convinto. Povero. Chi glielo dice che… #harrystyles pic.twitter.com/XGktSPawDI

— GinniGyy??? (@Massharry2) May 25, 2023

Nice touch! And here’s a video showing the ovation Harry received upon tapping in on No. 18:

Esulta come un bambino non ci capisco una mazza di golf ma quasi quasi mi appassiono vedendo Harry giocarci #harrystyles pic.twitter.com/Vp5PNyTqkd

— GinniGyy??? (@Massharry2) May 25, 2023

Love the fake golf ball toss to the crowd. What a showman! Finally, here’s the reaction as he walked off the 18th green:

Harry out golfing today.

?: hannika83 pic.twitter.com/Q7OzODGJPF

— HL Daily (@UpdateHLD) May 25, 2023

Seriously, Cam Smith might not have gotten a cheer that loud when he won the Claret Jug there last year. Unfortunately, we don’t know what Harry (reportedly a 13-14 handicap) shot, but we do know (thanks to Styles’ website) that he has concerts in nearby Edinburgh on Friday and Saturday. Then he has five days off until his next concert in France. A nice little tour break in Scotland, huh? Well planned, Harry. Well planned.

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