The Old Course Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Open Championship 2022: Cameron Smith is the Wizard of Oz to stun McIlroy and claim Claret Jug at St Andrews

Matt Smith — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 18:31:07 +0000

By Matt Smith
Cameron Smith was the putting Wizard of Oz on Sunday as he put together a stunning back nine to deny Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young — winning by a stroke on the Old Course to lift the Claret Jug at the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.

It is the Australian’s first major, and he did it in some style, with a bogey-free eight-under 64 — including a streak of five birdies in a row from the 10^th hole — to sign for a 20-under total, one better than Young, while Northern Ireland’s McIlroy was forced to prolong his eight-year major drought, finishing a shot further back. Overnight co-leader Viktor Hovland of Norway had to settle for T4 alongside England’s Tommy Fleetwood.

A stunning 64 for Cam Smith, a worthy Champion?#The150thOpen pic.twitter.com/PqGUMtcvYq

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2022

While McIlroy did little wrong, he was powerless to stop a blistering hot Smith putter in the group just ahead of himself and Hovland. The Aussie was four shots back at the start of the final round, but closed the gap with a pair of birdies before the turn. Then came that amazing run from the 10^th, which saw him vault into the lead, and he never looked back, with clutch putt after clutch putt keeping him out of reach. A final-hole birdie meant McIlroy had to eagle the last. Alas, his tee shot caught a soft bounce and he could not get it down through the Valley of Sin to force a playoff, triggering wild celebrations in the signing booth just behind the 18^th.

Smith joins greats such as Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods to have won the Open at the Home of Golf, while Rory’s wait goes on.

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Open Championship 2022: Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland set for Sunday showdown at St Andrews

Matt Smith — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 20:33:27 +0000

Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland. Paul Ellis

By Matt Smith
Ryder Cup teammates Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland were turning the 150^th Open Championship into a two-horse Team Europe showdown as they opened up a four-shot lead on the field ahead of Sunday’s the final round over the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland’s ‘Home of Golf’.

A pair of six-under-par 66s took the Norwegian and Northern Irishman to 16-under after 54 holes, with the two Camerons — Young and Smith — slipping back to 12-under after some costly errors as the Old Course bared its teeth occasionally on a fairly benign day on the Fife coast.

McIlroy, seeking an end to an eight-year major drought, was leading the way but suffered a rare blip on 17 after finding the path and had to settle for his solitary bogey and a tie with Hovland with 18 holes to go.

Overnight leader Smith, whose putter was red-hot of Friday, just could not get his putts to drop on Saturday and also had a nasty time on 13 for a double-bogey six. He carded a disappointing 73.

Smith’s playing partner Young was ticking along nicely until 16, when a chip went wrong and flew through the green, leading to a double. A pair of closing pars left him with a 71 and a lot of work to do if he and his fellow Cameron are to reel in Hovland and McIlroy on Sunday.

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Open Championship 2022: Why a St Andrews Open just hits different

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 06:01:50 +0000

Tom Shaw/R&A

By Joel Beall
It never gets old, the Old Course. All of it but especially its end. As many times as it’s broadcast on television, or framed in clubhouses around the world, or visited by those lucky enough to make the pilgrimage, the convergence of course and town and villagers and history is so picturesque and poignant it seems too perfect to be true. But this writer put his hand against one of the myriad buildings that line the street that hugs the 18th hole as well as the stately redstone Hamilton Grand that sits behind the green and the temporary grandstands that sit between the two, and we can happily report the scenery is not an elaborate cardboard backdrop from a movie set.

Judging by the grins and spirited chatter of those who milled in the area, or from the players and caddies who look up and down and around when they make their ways up to the green, they feel the same way.

Some things really are that good.

It is easy to be romantic about an Open Championship at St Andrews. It can be cheesy and cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Let’s be frank, golf could use a little romanticism right now. Unless you are a fan of chaos, the current state of the professional game has been a drag.

However, while the negative warrants focus and attention and analysis, so does the positive, and at the 150th celebration of this championship, golf is soaking in some much-needed and much-deserved positive vibes.

“It’s hard to believe it’s more historic, but it really is. It does feel like that,” Tiger Woods said. “This does feel like it’s the biggest Open Championship we’ve ever had.”

Rory McIlroy practises at St Andrews. Harry How

“The excitement level this week is obviously off the charts,” Will Zalatoris said. “This is a lot of fun.”

Those sound like throwaway soundbites, but it’s hard to stir professional golfers. Their job is a game, yet it is still a job and most tend to treat it as such. But while there is a competition to be played, there is also a child-like joy not seen at other tournaments, because in an exceedingly paint-by-numbers game they are being asked — maybe the best phrase is required — to paint outside the lines this week. Precision and power, the two tenets of the modern game, take a backseat to vision, artistry and feel.

“I think physically I feel more freed up. I feel that, I think they kind of go hand in hand as far as, like, picking out the shot, enjoying the creativity of the shot or putt,” Jordan Spieth said. “Instead you’re like, OK, I have the wind here, the hill here. I’m going to hit a … it kind of frees you up to be a little more feel-oriented, and I really enjoy that aspect of it.”

They marvel at the sky, watching flags in perpetual extension, and though the Open is played on the ground, the air cannot be ignored. The challenge is knowing when the wind is friend or foe … or recognising it can be both. “It’s not the same as the States to where it’s like I’m going to hit this or this off this tee pretty much no matter what. It’s, like, if it’s into the wind, it’s this; if it’s downwind, it’s that,” Justin Thomas said. “[There are] 18 holes out here that can totally change your line, your strategy and thinking overall based on the wind direction.”

They marvel at the grass, or what we believe is grass. The reason greens are called “greens” here is they are the only things relatively green on the course. The fairways, rough and heather are a brownish-yellow, and while that is an aesthetically pleasing contrast to the royal-blue grandstands that dot the property, the burnt-out surfaces look and feel and play like concrete. Scottie Scheffler believed the grounds are so hard that the fairways are running faster than the putting surfaces, and Spieth noted it’s difficult to hold the fairways, a problem because if you’re not in the fairway forget about holding the green. “From there, if you’re not playing out of the short stuff where they put the pins, the best you can do is 30, 40 feet,” Spieth said.

They marvel at the obstacles in their path, the 112 bunkers they must avoid, the mounds that will ricochet their balls into trouble or safety, the loop where they could go low or could be ejected, the hotel they must somehow hit over or around. They go back and forth between putter and wedge from 40 yards away from the green, discovering, always, the putter is the call. They try to strategise for a course that has a habit of blowing strategy into the North Sea. As Rory McIlroy remarked: “It’s going to be a game of chess this week.”

The tournament itself is overflowing with storylines. Tiger is here, and any notion that he’s here as a ceremonial figure is disputed by the amount of time and effort he’s investing. At Augusta National and Southern Hills, he limited pre-week wear to conserve as much energy as he could. At St Andrews, he is using it all up. It doesn’t mean he will necessarily contend, but it hints he could, and more importantly, that he thinks he can.

There is McIlroy, trying to avenge a St Andrews start taken away in 2015 (his foot in a boot from a kick-about injury) and proving he can still be the golfer he was back then. There is Spieth, who was this close from completing the third leg of the Grand Slam that same year before the Road Hole had other plans. There is Zalatoris, looking to turn those silver medals into gold; Scheffler, attempting to seal an all-time heater season; Thomas, who can jump from the very, very good to possibly generationally great.

In that same breath there were other majors this year and they weren’t short on narratives or drama, and to various extents other rota courses have their idiosyncrasies and wind, their bunkers and moon surfaces. Why is this so special?

The overly simplistic answer, anniversary aside, is it’s just different here. You don’t earn the “Home of Golf” moniker lightly. You feel it with every interaction and every conservation, where the past feels very present. Everyone knows it’s heaven, and everyone can’t believe they got in.

You hear it in the crowd. At the 18th crossing, a marshall implored: “Please, over here, all drivers to the left, even the drunk ones.” A man who, truth be told, looked like he had enjoyed a few pops, yelled out: “You haven’t seen me drunk!” To which the marshall replied: “If this is you sober, I’m sure I don’t want to see it,” leading to a round of cheer.

You see it in on the village streets, where individuals in ties and coats pass by those in swimsuits heading to the beach, who pass by those carrying golf bags, and somehow everyone is appropriately dressed. Or how the course spills into town, and no matter what hostelry you duck into it feels like half the 17th grandstands decided to join. It’s about the easy access to countless links in the area, all of which seem to have an open spot for the weary hacker looking to chase the sun.

Crowds gather at St Andrews ahead of the 150th Open Championship. R&A

It is a place that turns atheists into believers, and cynics into dreamers. There is even a rumour that Tyrrell Hatton was caught smiling. So few things live up to expectations that when they do you don’t know what to do with yourself.

Driven home by the amphitheatre of the 18th. You can see the buildings and grandstands that engulf it from nearly every point of the links. It shines brighter and signals safety more than any lighthouse could. As McIlroy finished up his practice round at the 18th green Wednesday morning, a group of fans asked if they could get their picture taken on the crossing as the Ulsterman rolled putts in the background.

“Didn’t we get photos here yesterday?” one in the party asked. “Yeah we did!” replied a 50-something-year-old kid. “And we need more!” When the photos were done, the man said to no one in particular, “God, I could stay here all day.”

What can we say? This place never gets old. Good things never do.

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The next 150 years and other deep thoughts ahead of The Open Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:14:10 +0000

By Max Adler
The 150th Open. It’s a span of time that’s difficult to grasp. None of us has any experience of what life was like when Old Tom Morris was stuffing featheries in 1860. Although it’d be fun to tell Old Tom what Branden Grace’s caddie made last week.

I recently traveled to St Andrews ahead of this milestone Open. The trip marked 16 years since I lived there as a university student, a period when I went ‘round the Old’ nearly 150 times between playing and caddying. The local caddies — all guys named Dave, Scott, Colin, Willie and Angus — didn’t have to pass the two-hour written exam on the history of the 112 bunkers to caddie like my American-self did, which was fair. You can imagine the initial disappointment golfers experienced after traveling to the mecca only to find the caddie with their bag on the first tee was ‘Max from upstate New York’.

The 150th Open Championship is coming home to St Andrews

This time I returned to St Andrews with my wife, for whom I was a woeful tour guide. There are only three main streets in the city (a designation that has nothing to do with population but everything to do with having a cathedral), and I struggled to remember where all the important heretics were burned as well as some of my favorite haunts. The Castle Pub, Aikmans and The Vic Cafe are where I left them, but Ma Bells is now something called Champions Grill and PMs is no more. Where does one go for a late night haggis roll?

Before golf was even an idea there was a university here, founded in 1413, and you can’t help but wonder what they were teaching before The Renaissance. We walked past a brand new university building that looked like it’d been there forever, and got turned around by some construction scaffolding near my former dorm. Fresh masonry along cobblestone streets tricks the mind. A new stone or two here, a different paint job on a door there, and suddenly you’re not sure where your best friend’s flat was.

The golf was similar. Everybody knows The Old Course wasn’t built by a man, but by many men, and yet mostly sheep, rabbits, rain and wind. Sort of how buildings in the The Auld Grey Toon look different depending on the relative humidity, the fescue and gorse that frames the blind tee shots on The Old is unchanging except for its daily appearance. According to superintendent Gordon McKie, just the ninth keeper of the green in a lineage that dates to Old Tom, the lack of trammeling footsteps early in the pandemic allowed rough to grow high in spots it hadn’t in decades, which really affected my recollection of sight lines. Bashfully, I had to ask my caddie for help to avoid both Cheapes and Coffin Bunkers. I venture it’s more true of The Old than any course in the world: prolonged absence renews the mystery of its angles.

I’ll spare you the shot-by-shot of playing the beginner-friendly Strathtyrum with my wife — a course I never played once in my student days not because I’m a snob, but because it would’ve meant walking past the first tees of The Old, The New and The Jubilee. To be in the Eden clubhouse looking out across the revamped practice facility, I realised how ludicrous it was for me to have thought I could be any sort of tour guide to anyone. Every nook of St Andrews has a story and it would take a lifetime here to know them all.

Gary Player pointed out for us the dune in the West Sands where he slept on the eve of the 1955 Open to save money. If there were a world championship held tomorrow for 86-year-olds, Player would lap the field. The thing about life is that we all die, and Player is that rare individual who is motivated rather than limited by aging. Swinging faster at the end of his tether, as it were. Our dinner lasted until midnight and hardly anybody else got a word in. Not that we minded. The Black Knight has stories for days. My favourite involved impressing Ben Hogan so much that Hogan offered young Gary a sponsorship to play Hogan irons for $2,000 a year. It was a difficult decision, but Player had a new family to support and ultimately went with a now defunct equipment company that paid him $9,000. Hogan never spoke to him again.

When I ordered ice cream to follow my steak, of course I got a ribbing from Player, whose lectures on nutrition and fitness are a masterclass in gesticulation. “One day I will go to your funeral, young man!” In a poignant moment, Player’s animation subsided and he looked down gravely at the one small glass of Cabernet he allows himself, swirled it, and said: “I do this because I love life and I have such gratitude for every minute.” He has friends in the sciences who have reasons to believe the maximal life span of a human being could be 140 years.

The Auld Grey Toon of St Andrews next to the Old Course

These large ideas about time reverberated when I made my selections at breakfast the next morning, and there is no better breakfast in golf than the fourth floor of the Old Course Hotel. Forget the farm-raised eggs, bacon, sausage, potato scones, beans, toast, tomatoes, mushrooms and black pudding — the view of the Old Course backed by the North Sea is … sublime. As the morning sun coming through the giant windows alights the steam of your coffee, it’s puzzling why the golfers in the 2nd and 17th fairway below are bundled in woolies and mitts. It needn’t be said that as a scholarship student once grateful for the food stipend I spent at Tesco, I never set foot in this five-star hotel. Its hallways are literally the length of a par 4 and you could spend a week studying the paintings. Fun fact: in addition to a number, almost all of the rooms are named for Open Champions.

The opposite and corresponding view from breakfast, of course, is the upstairs office of R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers in the Royal & Ancient clubhouse. With a grand window and balcony above the first tee, it’s astonishing he ever gets any work done. Wisely, he’s positioned his desk so as to avoid direct eye contact with the glory. Instead, Slumbers has it rigged so a stray glance will find one of two portraits of Seve Ballesteros, who hugged the Claret Jug just outside this office in 1984. Slumbers’ eyes light up on the topic of sustainability. With a fully electric fleet of mowers, solar paneling and batteries to power all tournament infrastructure, not to mention the eradication of single-use plastics, the 150th Open is far from perfect, but will send a global message about how we might get to another 150 years.

MORE: The top 100 players at St Andrews rated

Downstairs I enjoyed a drink with Iain Pattinson, who is the Chairman of the General Committee of the Royal & Ancient Club (founded in 1754) as well as the Chairman of the Board of the R&A Group of Companies (founded in 2004). The latter licenses the Claret Jug from the former, and when you hear Pattinson explain why, you recognise his distinct voice as the golf rules commentator from BBC. For the longest time the golf club and its members ran The Open, Pattinson will tell you, and the first year they accepted any type of commercial sponsorship around the championship (don’t call it a tournament…) was 1981, when Rolex supplied all the clocks and timekeeping. While the club was initially “cagey” about a sponsor doing anything that might reflect poorly on the event, Pattinson knows as well as anyone that the prestige and reach of The Open has grown considerably in the past four decades thanks to the sorts of things only funding can do. The Group of Companies is the now separate commercial arm that deals with governance, rules, and conducting 25 championships across the world, so that the regular membership can focus on what regular members do best: play golf, eat, drink, enjoy camaraderie. Pattinson is a central link between the two groups, though his term will be over this fall. As a symbol of the success of this first and lasting commercial partnership, Pattinson points out a black and gold clock that hangs high above an entrance in the Great Room. It was a gift from Rolex in 1985, and is pulsed from a satellite so that its time is never off by a second.

Whether you’re watching the broadcast at home or there in person as one of the expected 290,000 record-breaking fans, there’s another clock to look out for: a brand new one on the side of the Rusacks Hotel. This is a clock where there wasn’t one before, and you could hit it with a wild slice off the 18th tee. For the most iconic backdrop in golf, there hasn’t been a more conspicuous change since a top floor was deftly added to the Hamilton Grand. Which was Hamilton Hall in my day. I attended the very last student party there in 2006, where the goal was to make the walls remember.

This is a monumental Open, no doubt. The weight of the 150th sits atop the threat of a new era in professional golf, which may prove to be a blip, or not. If bumbling around St Andrews gave me any clarity, it’s that to be nostalgic, to wish for what once was, is a kind of pointless sickness. Time marches on. This game, and particularly this place, has a way of preserving and honoring what matters most.

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The one thing Shane Lowry is having trouble getting over after an emotional Ryder Cup debut

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 23:59:36 +0000

Maddie Meyer/PGA of America
Shane Lowry reacts on the 11th green during his Friday afternoon four-balls match at the Ryder Cup

By John Huggan
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — He had warned his wife to expect the “dog’s abuse” that came her way at Whistling Straits last week. And he’d told his father not to get “involved with anyone” when it happened. But it did, even if Shane Lowry at first didn’t think the crowd gathered at last week’s Ryder Cup had been “that bad.” Only after talking to his wife did the extent of the verbal torture his family had been subjected to become clear.

“They are obviously a home crowd and they are going to be a partisan crowd,” said Lowry, who is teeing-up in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns this week. “Some of the stuff wasn’t very nice. But look, that’s just the way it is. Some people are idiots, especially when they drink. Nobody turns into a genius drinking, and that’s what they were doing last week. Especially if you were out in the afternoon matches, it was loud. As a team it was hard for us to perform our best. You stand up and you hit a 3-iron into 10 feet from 250 yards and you don’t even get a ripple of applause. You almost get booed for it. It’s hard.”

Still, Lowry tried to give as good as he got. His animated reaction to holing a winning last-green putt on Saturday evening was one of the few positive moments for a European team en route to what would become a record-breaking 19-9 defeat.

“Bethpage in 2025 is going to be horrendous,” continued the Irishman. “But it will be a great chance to shut them up. That’s the way I see it. When I’m out there that’s what I’m doing. There is nothing better than holing a 20-footer and turning around to see them all standing there dead silent. Having said that, I swore to myself last week, knowing what the crowds were going to be like, I said if I holed any putts, chipped-in or did anything cool, I was just going to take it easy and chill. But I holed a putt on the fourth green for par with Rory [McIlroy] on Friday and it just all came out of me. I didn’t understand where it came from, to be honest.”

Indeed, it wasn’t all bad news with regard to the spectators. As Lowry acknowledged the majority cheered loudly and appropriately for the home side.

“When I finished my match on 16 on Sunday, I was walking back to follow the other groups and got a huge ovation off the crowd in the grandstand there, that was pretty cool,” Lowry said. “I thought I get on well with the crowd last week as best I could. I tried to take it as best I could. I think I did. I think I performed OK. I don’t think it’s going to be like that in Rome [at the 2023 Ryder Cup]. We will obviously have the home support, but we’ll be hopefully winning a bit of a different way.”

Thursday morning Lowry will tee-up at Carnoustie alongside Padraig Harrington, his close friend and, of course, his captain last week. Inevitably, Harrington has already come under fire in some British newspapers. Pairings have been questioned, as has the Dubliner’s decision to select Lowry ahead of former World No. 1 Justin Rose. Having had to stop reading one newspaper on the plane over from Ireland—“I was just also annoyed”—Lowry was quick to spring to his compatriot’s defense.

“People think they know what went on, what’s gone wrong, then try to pick holes in the European Ryder Cup system,” he said. “Since 1985, Europe are 12-6 up, so there’s nothing wrong with the system. Yes, we got a big beating. And yes, the Americans are going to be strong for years to come. But the Americans will always be strong. And the Europeans always come back. We will give it a good go in Rome. If we win, we win. If we don’t, it’s not because the players or captains haven’t done their best. What I’m trying to say is I’m just so disappointed for Paddy and the way his captaincy is being picked apart now. People think they know what they’re taking about. But they really don’t.”

Lowry did concede that Harrington was understandably “a bit down” in the wake of what was obviously a tough week to take. Even before the final result was confirmed, Lowry had been aware of the implications should Europe not get at least 9½ points, the figure attained by the U.S. in 2004 and 2006 when the New World went down to the previous record margin of defeat.

“It’s obviously disappointing for Paddy,” Lowry said. “And I’m most disappointed for him. I don’t think he deserves the beating we got last week. It looks bad on paper obviously. It’s hard because he’s a very good friend. We didn’t perform as a team for him. And little things … well, it’s not a little thing, it’s a big thing … like the extra half point. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God’ because I knew about the 18½ points from the K Club [in 2006], I remember that. So I was just devastated for him. He’ll be fine, like, he’ll be grand. But he doesn’t deserve this.”

Still, for all its obvious downsides from a European point of view, Ryder Cup week ended in its now traditional fashion. Late into the night, both sides got together for a drinking session many will surely not remember too well.

“As always, the party ended up in the European team room,” said Lowry with a smile. “It’s always most fun in there. We had a few drinks, and the Americans came in. We chatted about the week or whatever. It was nice. It was a good night. I was very disappointed, but we all got together and tried to celebrate the week we just had even though it wasn’t the week we would have liked.”

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Hill learns ‘tough lesson’ after falling agonisingly short of glory at St Andrews

Kent Gray — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 06:14:12 +0000

David Cannon/Getty Images
Just a matter of time: Josh Hill, seen here in action at the 2020 OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic, is edging ever closer to a major UK amateur title.

By Kent Gray
They say you learn more from failure than success in golf but that was lukewarm comfort at best for Josh Hill as fell agonisingly short of glory on the Old Course.

The 17-year-old Trump Dubai member missed out on a playoff for the prestigious St Andrews Links Trophy title on Sunday by a solitary stroke. Englishman Jack Cope eventually claimed the crown with a -8, 280 aggregate after edging countryman Robin Williams and Scot George Burns in sudden-death.

Hill was one of six players to finish in a share of fourth place on 281. The MENA Tour winner had started the final 36-holes at the Home of Golf just a stroke back but made hard work for himself with a two-over-par 74 in the third round. He fought back gamely with a closing 69 but will now have to wait until the 126th Amateur Championship, starting at Nairn Golf Club on June 14, for his next chance to avenge the disappointment.

Writing on social media, Hill’s father relayed his son’s bittersweet feelings after a week that will at least see Hill Jnr’s World Amateur Golf Ranking improve from 313th place.

“He fell one short and is feeling happy but so annoyed as he feels “I left so many shots out there”,” Hill wrote on Instagram.

“It’s all lessons and when he is so used to leaving shots out there in the UAE and 95% of the time winning, you don’t learn the tough lessons. He has the opportunity to learn the tough lesson now.

“Anyway, I am super proud as he had a bit of a mare in the morning falling to 4 off the lead but still had it in him to come back and challenge for the title! Also mighty impressed that he is doing it caddieless! Super proud to be part of this journey!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Russell Hill (@golf_osteo_path_dxb)

Cope, the reigning English Amateur Champion, started the final day five shots behind overnight leader Charlie Thornton but scored home with rounds of 70-67.

He eventually prevailed at the fourth extra hole after Cope and Williams both birdied the 1st to eliminate the Scotsman Burns. Cope and Williams then halved both the 18th and 1st before Cope won with a birdie, impressively driving the green on the most famous closing hole in golf for the second time in overtime.

Jack Cope is the 2021 St Andrews Links Trophy Champion!
After a marathon 4 hole play off he birdied the 18th twice after driving the green both times.
Full highlights will be on our YouTube channel this week
Congratulations Jack! #LinksTrophy pic.twitter.com/Flk0bPKfnV

— St Andrews Links (@TheHomeofGolf) June 6, 2021

“I was committed to every shot I hit out there over those four holes. I probably played the best I played all week tee to green. I guess that was a nice time to really peak,” Cope said.

“I love the home of golf. I particularly like the Old Course, mainly because I normally score alright round there which helps. Just walking over that bridge, taking photos, thinking about all the players who have won here and played here. This is very special to me.”

Photo courtesy Cope Family

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Josh Hill eyes Old Course glory heading into final day of prestigious St Andrews Links Trophy

Kent Gray — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 05:30:43 +0000

David Cannon/Getty Images
Hill in action during the second round of the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the Majlis Course at The Emirates Golf Club.

By Kent Gray
Josh Hill had hoped to slip under the media radar this UK summer, freeing himself of added pressure in his efforts to refine his pro-tour bound game and importantly reignite competitive embers dulled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The only problem with that commendable plan is that the 17-year-old Dubai-based English Boys’ representative works far too hard and possesses way too much game to stay in stealth mode for long.

After a rare missed cut at the Scottish Men’s Open Championship at Southerness G.C. late last month, Hill’s name is back in lights and at the Home of Golf no less. The world record holder as the youngest winner of an OWGR event will enter the final day of the prestigious St Andrews Links Trophy on Sunday just one stroke off compatriot Charlie Thornton’s halfway pace.

After an opening-round 70 on the Jubilee course, Hill joined Ireland’s Richard Knightly on -6, 138 courtesy of a 68 in his second round on the Old Course on Saturday. It left the duo a shot shy of Thornton (66-71) heading into the final two rounds, both on the fabled Old Course.

Hill’s four-under circuit of golf’s spiritual birthplace was the second equal best score of Saturday’s second round and three strokes better than all but one player in the top-13.

That will undoubtedly give the MENA Tour winner confidence heading into what could be a pivotal and especially memorable Sunday of his amateur career. At worst, it is golden opportunity for Hill to skyrocket up the World Amateur Golf Rankings from his current position of 313th, down from career-best ranking of 257th.

The top 40 players and ties play the final round of the St Andrews Trophy which boasts former U.S. Open champion and Ryder Cup star Justin Rose among its former champions.

Established in 1989, the event is considered one of the world’s top amateur tournaments and has served as a launch pad for major championship-bound careers including Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, Geoff Ogilvy, Padraig Harrington, Rose, Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari. Lee Westwood is another former starter in an event that ranks as one of the strongest in the British Isles outside of The Amateur Championship, the 126th edition of which Hill intends contesting at Nairn, also in Scotland, from June 14.

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Stunning St. Andrews sand art pays tribute to Seve Ballesteros on 10th anniversary of his death

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 08 May 2021 23:34:35 +0000

By Brian Wacker
Seve Ballesteros was one of golf’s greatest artists, escapist and otherwise. Among his 50 career victories—still the most on the European Tour—the Open Championship was his grandest canvas, the legendary Spaniard having hoisted the claret jug on three occasions.

So, it seems fitting that Ballesteros, who died 10 years ago Friday, would be honoured with an incredible and larger-than-life sand art display adjacent to the Old Course at St. Andrews.

In view of the 18th hole at the Old Course, where he claimed his most iconic victory, we paid tribute to @SeveBallesteros at St Andrews West Sands. pic.twitter.com/pX1i1Fqc0G

— The Open (@TheOpen) May 7, 2021

The rendering is of photographer David Cannon’s indelible photo of a fist-pumping Ballesteros on the 18th green, where the Spaniard birdied the final hole for a 69 in a two-stroke victory over Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer in the 1984 Open. The win, one of five in majors for Ballesteros, marked his second in the Open, the others coming at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 1979 and 1988. He also won the Masters in 1980 and 1983.

“This is simply amazing,” Ballesteros’ daughter Carmen replied to the stunning display on Instagram. “Thank you so much.”

Added Sky Sports on-course reporter Wayne “Radar” Riley: “I had the privilege of playing with the great man many times. He is the Mozart of golf. He painted a picture in his head and played that masterpiece.”

A team of four sand artists from London-based Sand In Your Eye created the image and it took about six hours to complete.

Ballesteros, who passed away at the age of 54 from brain cancer, will also be honoured in a series of other works commissioned by the R&A, including a feature-length documentary, a photo book by Cannon and an 18-month exhibition at the British Golf Museum in St. Andrews.

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Old Course at St. Andrews announces re-opening date

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 27 May 2020 00:39:47 +0000

David Cannon/Getty Images
The Old Course at St. Andrews.

By Joel Beall
After two months of closure, the Home of Golf is back.

In a letter to its membership, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews announced it is re-opening four of its links on May 29. All courses in Scotland have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic since March 23.

The Old Course, New Course, Eden and Balgove will be in the first wave of openings, with the Eden turned into two separate nine-hole layouts to encourage nine-hole rounds. The Jubilee, Strathtyrum and Castle will not open at this stage but “will re-open in a phased manner in the future. The St Andrews Links will advise 2 days before these courses open,” according to Ford Horsfield, head of golf services.

It will not be business as usual. The letter states that “at this time all courses are available for Yearly Ticket holders only.” Tee times will be made in 12-minute intervals with two golfers per tee time.

There will also be no walk-ups, so if necessary there is a track and trace record of who is on the links.

Last week Scottish Golf confirmed that May 29 would be the earliest return date for Scottish courses. However, a number of courses, especially those in Edinburgh, are targeting June 8 for re-opening.

As of May 26, there are over 15,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Scotland, according to the NHS Board.

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Bill Murray, true grinder, plays Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with a bum wing

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:08:04 +0000

By Coleman Bentley
Bill Freakin’ Murray doesn’t let anything get between him and a round of golf. Not age, not weather, not vermin, not a bucket hat shortage. Hell, not even a zombie apocalypse can stop him…

But you know what they say, the proof is in the puddin’, and thankfully they have all kinds of puddin’—black puddin’, bread puddin’, banana puddin’—over in Scotland, where Murray is spending his week hacking it around the Home of Golf as part of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship’s celebrity team event. Murray showed up for his practice round on Tuesday with a bum wing, but not willing to let his stunt double have all the fun, he buckled down and played with one arm, much to the delight of the Scottish galleries, many of whom took a sick day just to head down to the course and shout “WHAT AN INCREDIBLE CINDERELLA STORY” at Murray from across the fairway.

P.S. Love the ol’ dress-tie-as-a-sling look. The man really is smoother than a Gibson martini.

View this post on Instagram

Nothing stops Bill Murray and his golf ? #DunhillLinks

A post shared by European Tour (@europeantour) on Sep 24, 2019 at 7:53am PDT

So how did Murray get nicked up just before the season’s first celebrity major? Mum is the word, but the legendary Hollywood human icon did celebrate his 69th birthday on Saturday, so here’s hoping it happened during the festivities and not punching the TV following the Cubs’ six-game losing streak.

Barring some sort Tommy John scenario, however, Murray will tee off in the Team Championship on Thursday alongside Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey), Justin Timberlake, Greg Kinnear, and Luke Wilson, which sounds like a pretty damn good Featured Group to us.

One @jtimberlake lyric to describe his swing?pic.twitter.com/37XuxQEetF

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) September 24, 2019

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