Open Championship : tee times click here.
The tee times are out for the 150th playing of the Open Championship
8.36am Corey Connors, Zach Johnson, Billy Horschel
9.36am Mac Hughes, Victor Perez, Scott Vincent
More to follow
Bryan Angus
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
This is golf's greatest prize...
This week I am saddened not to be in the press tent at St. Andrews, or just in the crowd, and this trophy and all it stands for is why.
Although I've spent most all of my life here in Canada my Scottish roots ensured that we grew up imagining 'this putt for the Open Championship"..
Ever since Arnie Palmer came over, sponsored by Wilson Sports in 1960, the Open moved up a notch, especially when he won it in '61 and 62'.
For Scots going about there daily lives, having all these colourful, tanned Americans and others from around the world coming to our home of golf in the normally quiet wee town is a toxic concoction.
One of the beauties of St Andrew's is that the players/caddies, TV personalities, movie stars, music legends etal are right amongst the public, whether on the course or in Rusacks having a pint, or at Tom Morris's grave, it is terribly exciting.
Only Wimbledon has the same buzz, except it's contained within the grounds. I remember standing in the crowd watching John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg coming out to get in their courtesy cars on the front steps after their epic 1980 final.
I turned to the little American standing beside me and said " we're so lucky to have witnessed this match today" He said "absolutely".. as I recognized him he turned and ran along the hedge to the VVIP tent... It was Dustin Hoffman..
Seeing Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Johnny Miller etal up close and personal fighting to win this claret jug along side all the other immortals from the UK and around the world led by the late great Seve and his legendary win in 1984 is what has made this week special. He would have been 65 this year, sadly missing..
This week's field will write their own chapter in the Open Championship history books, and only one of them will hoist this claret jug, for the 150th time.
It's been a fabulous time in my life, and of course millions more.. and always will be..
Bryan Angus
Morikawa vies to join 7 players who have won back to back Open Championships
Winning The Open Championship is an ambition of all golfers from around the world. To do so once is hard enough, but going back-to-back in golf’s oldest Major is achieved by few and far between with defending champion Collin Morikawa the latest to try and join an exclusive club
Morikawa made history last year at Royal St George’s as he became the first player in the history of the game to win two different Major Championships on their debut, following his victory at the US PGA Championship in 2020.
The American carded a brilliant bogey-free 66 in last year’s final round at The Open to win the Claret Jug with a record aggregate of 265 for the Sandwich venue.
Morikawa, last year’s winner of the season-long rankings on the DP World Tour, will make his first appearance at St Andrews as the Home of Golf stages the landmark 150th Open this week.
Seven players have previously done the double at the oldest golf tournament in the world in post-war times, with Pádraig Harrington the last man to do so with his triumphs in 2007 and 2008.
Eight years on from Paul Lawrie’s success at Carnoustie, Harrington ended Europe’s wait for a Major Champion as he beat Spain’s Sergio Garcia in a four-hole aggregate play-off to win The 136th Open at the same links venue in 2007.
The Irishman, who began the final round six strokes behind Garcia, found the Barry Burn on two occasions en route to a double-bogey six to leave the Spaniard, playing in the final group, with the opportunity to claim victory with a par. But, after finding a greenside bunker with his approach shot, Garcia missed the crucial putt.
Harrington seized the initiative in the play-off with a birdie at the par-four first as Garcia made a bogey, before both players parred the 16th and 17th. Holding a two-shot advantage, Harrington sealed victory with a bogey as Garcia saw his birdie putt burn the left edge of the hole.
A year later, Harrington overcame pre-tournament doubts over a wrist injury to shoot a closing 69 to end the week at three over and claim a four-shot victory over Ian Poulter at Royal Birkdale. He became the first European to successfully defend the Open since James Braid in 1906.
Preceding those two Open triumphs, Tiger Woods also won back-to-back Claret Jugs in 2005 and 2006.
Woods led from start to finish to win by five shots from Colin Montgomerie in 2005 as he clinched his second Open title at the scene of his first – St Andrews.
The American defended his title at Royal Liverpool as he held off the challenge of countryman Chris DiMarco to win by two in an emotional victory, following the death of his father Earl two months earlier.
"I just miss my dad so much. I wish he could have been here to witness this,” Woods said at the time.
"He enjoyed watching me grind out Major wins and this would have brought a smile to his face."
You would need go back two decades further to find the next player to retain their Champion Golfer of the Year crown. Already a three-time Open champion, Tom Watson won two further Claret Jugs in 1982 and 1983.
Watson was seven shots adrift of halfway leader Bobby Clampett in 1982 at Royal Troon but a closing 70 saw him claim his fourth Open title on Scottish shores as he finished one shot clear of Peter Oosterhuis and Nick Price, who had held a three-shot lead on the 13th tee.
He made it three victories at The Open in four years at Royal Birkdale as he shot consecutive rounds of 70 to again claim a one-shot victory over nearest rivals Andy Bean and Hale Irwin.
It was at the same links on the northwest coast at Southport where Lee Trevino won the landmark 100th Open in 1971, with a one-shot margin victory over Lu Liang-Huan of Taiwan. Affectionately remembered as Mister Lu, the Taiwanese trailblazer passed away earlier this year aged 85.
Trevino's successful defence a year later at Muirfield ended Jack Nicklaus' bid for the Grand Slam and saw him become the first to successfully defend the title since Arnold Palmer a decade earlier.
Palmer held off Welshman Dai Rees at Royal Birkdale in 1961, with inclement weather resulting in the final two rounds both being played on the same day.
The American backed it up a year later at Royal Troon, where he won by six shots over Australia’s Kel Nagle as he became only the second player after Ben Hogan to win the Masters and The Open in the same year.
After World War II, South African Bobby Locke became the first ever player to win The Open in consecutive years as he won at Royal St George’s in 1949 and at Troon in 1950. His aggregate score of 279 over the four rounds at the latter replaced the previous low winning total of 283 posted by Gene Sarazen 18 years earlier.
Peter Thomson became the first Australian winner of the Claret Jug, with his maiden success achieved at Royal Birkdale in 1954, before he defended his title at St Andrews the following year and completed the hat-trick at Royal Liverpool in 1956.
The five-time Champion Golfer often vied for the title with Locke, who won his third and fourth Opens in 1952 and 1957.
Matt Fitzpatrick English/US Open champion...full Open Championship field..
In this week’s Player Blog presented by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, U.S. Open Championship winner Matt Fitzpatrick recounts tales of New York stardom, Sheffield anonymity and being brought right back down to earth upon his return to the UK.
I’ve heard lots of people from golf and from other sports and they say that when they reach their career goals, get that massive win, it doesn’t feel as good as they maybe expected. It was the absolute polar opposite for me, it was just an unbelievable feeling, one that was way better than I expected. It’s been such an incredible couple of weeks – I can’t believe it’s been two weeks, it’s gone so quickly.
There was a moment after I signed my scorecard at Brookline where Ted, my manager and best friend, was being really serious, organising everything and making sure everything went perfectly, and then he just turned around, slapped me on the back and he just said, “mate, you did it”. I don’t know why, but it really hit home at that point that I was a Major champion.
Straight after the prize presentation at Brookline, I did two and a half hours of media which was just such a whirlwind, and then I was signing hats, flags, shirts – you name it, I was signing it. I finished everything probably around 11:45pm, went back to the house and of course, what was on TV as soon as I got in… the U.S. Open rerun!
We were just about the point of six holes left when we turned it on, so we watched that through to the finish, I’d had a little drink of champagne and by the time we were finished it was close to three o’clock. I didn’t get much sleep that night, woke at probably around 7:30am and then we had some more media to do that day with the USGA. The guys from the USGA were just so good, they were great people and it was a really fun experience.
I flew to New York on Monday night and then Ted took me through a big media run in New York City, with some radio shows, TV shows and podcasts. It was a lot of fun.
On Thursday I went down to New Jersey and just took a bit of time to relax and then last week I flew back to Sheffield.
It’s funny, I haven’t really been recognised or stopped that much around Sheffield since I’ve come back. I was in Manchester last week and two builders did come up and say, are you Matt Fitzpatrick, but maybe that’s because I was carrying the trophy around with me!
But in New York, it was unbelievable, I had a lot of people recognise me and come up to me which was really nice. I guess maybe it’s because it’s their national open that it means a lot more to the Americans, but it was a really good feeling to get such a nice reception, people were just great to me.
After all off the winners’ duties and the media and everything I had to do, I would say there was a point when I had about 300 messages on my phone that I needed to reply to – and that was just my American phone.
It took me a whole week to get back to everyone that had messaged me and then of course when I flew into the UK, I started using my UK phone – I had it with me but never really looked at it – and there were a load more messages on there too.
It was really nice to see all of the messages from players and other people saying how happy they were, not only for me, but for my family as well. My parents and Alex have always kept my feet on the ground throughout my career which I think has been really important. And made me the player and the person I am today.
They’ve never asked me to buy them a nice car or a big house, they’ve never asked me for anything, so it was really nice to have given them that moment at Brookline where we were all together and celebrated together. It made it so special.
It was a massive team effort though, apart from my family I do have a big team around me and they’ve all contributed in their own way
It’s a funny story about when I came home to Sheffield for the first time since the win. My parents are constantly at me about cancelling the subscriptions and shutting everything off in my house in Sheffield, because I pretty much live in America. They just don’t want me to paying those monthly bills, but I like coming home to Sky Sports in my house and all those comforts, so I can just be home and settle back in.
When I came back from the USA I got into the house and there was no wifi and the boiler was off – they’d shut everything off while I was away - so I had to switch that on to get some heating and hot water in the house. I guess that’s just parents for you isn’t it.
I’m really looking forward to getting back to the Genesis Scottish Open now. I guess it’s about time I get back to my real job, if you can call it that! It’s crazy because this week is such a big event but to be honest, I really haven’t been able to think about it up until this point with everything that’s been going on.
But it’s going to be a great week, it’s a course that I really like and I’ve obviously played well there before so that’s nice too. But to be returning for the first time since Brookline in front of British crowds and such knowledgeable fans is going to be really cool and I’m sure I’ll get a really nice reception.
I think it’s incredible that it has been co-sanctioned now with the PGA TOUR and it’s just going to make it a much bigger event. The field is obviously unbelievable with the top players in the world playing and I’m really looking forward to battling it out with those guys.
I thought it was a great announcement by the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR last week. I think it’s amazing for the DP World Tour and it will only make it stronger. It’s not only going to provide a pathway to the PGA TOUR from the DP World Tour but also vice versa, it will give more opportunity for American and world players to come back and play some of the events in Europe and beyond.
You look at the Genesis Scottish Open, the Horizon Irish Open last week and all those other historic events on the DP World Tour, they’re all such brilliant events with big crowds and a great atmosphere and I’ve always loved playing them. I think this deal will hopefully make the DP World Tour and all of those events stronger so I think it’s exciting times for sure.
To be honest, there will be no better place to be returning to Major golf, having become a Major champion, than St Andrews. It’s going to be just incredible to be introduced on that first tee as the U.S. Open Champion.
I think it definitely makes a difference now that I’ve managed to win one, I feel like I’ll approach the Majors a bit different now confidence-wise. You can see why some of those players who win one Major go on to win a few more – they just feel invincible for a while.z
Sunday, July 10, 2022
Schauffelle now a Scotsman !!!..Canadian scores... final scoreboard
DP World Tour : Genesis Scottish Open final Results
Xander Schauffele is the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open Champion after shooting a level-par 70 on a thrilling final day at The Renaissance Club.
Overnight leader Schauffele looked set for a victory march in North Berwick after stretching his two-shot overnight lead early on - but he was forced to dig in to post a seven-under total and clinch his first Rolex Series title.
The Olympic Champion finished one shot ahead of Kurt Kitayama, with Joohyung Kim one shot further back, just ahead of Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay.
Schauffele finished his third round with a pair of bogeys on Saturday evening but he wasted little time making amends with a flying start to Sunday.
He fired his approach from the middle of the first fairway in to five feet and settled the nerves by sinking the birdie putt. He holed another one from 18 feet at the second and had a four-shot cushion to play with.
Schauffele then went bunker to bunker at the par-three sixth on the way to his first bogey of the day and made it two in a row at the seventh after landing in trouble with his tee shot and a bunker short of the green with his second.
He dropped another shot at the ninth and turned one behind Kitayama, while 15 players were separated by four shots at the top of the leaderboard.
Fleetwood was within a couple of after three birdies on the bounce from the 13th. He then gave the hole a scare with birdie putts on 16 and 17 but his chance of glory disappeared with his only bogey of the day when he missed a six-footer for par on the last.
Jordan Spieth looked dangerous for most of the day and was one off the clubhouse lead of six under set by Kitayama when a double-bogey at the par-three 14th, after he left his tee-shot way short in the left-hand rough, ended his hopes.
Schauffele settled into his back nine with four straight pars, two-putting from more than 70 feet at the 11th and 12th, before regaining the lead with a birdie at the short 14th. He used the bank to feed the ball down towards the hole and made no mistake with the putt from 15 feet.
The 16th offers up a birdie opportunity and Schauffele took it to ease the pressure as he played the closing two holes.
It was Schauffele's first win in Scotland and he said: "It's special. It's different playing over here. You've got to play golf differently. The fans are incredible. They pushed me long all day and this is definitely a nice win for my team and myself."
It was also the first time the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour came together and after winning the co-sanctioned event, Schauffele said: "It's incredible. It's just an honour to win the first one."
On letting his lead slip before fighting back to get over the line, he said: "I was trying to find something. Every time I wanted to cut it I hit it way right and every time I wanted to draw it I hit it way left. At least it was going the correct direction, but it was going, you know, miles apart.
"And it was nice to sort of hit a few better shots coming down the stretch and kind of calm the ship here. It was looking pretty bad for a bit but this one is extra special because of that."
Kitayama, Jamie Donaldson and Brandon Wu finished in the top ten to punch their tickets to next week's Open Championship while Connor Syme won the Jock MacVicar Trophy awarded to the top Scot.
Canadians Nick Taylor 55th +5 Corey Connors 61st +7
Bryan Angsus (europeantour.com)
Svensson a shot off the lead at rain soaked Barbasol Championship ... live scoring
DP World Tour : Barbasol Championship Leaderboard
Max McGreevy holds a one stroke lead at the Barbasol Championship after playing just three holes of the third round following extensive rain delays in Kentucky.
The second round of the tournament was completed on Saturday morning as Friday's afternoon tee times were delayed by five and a half hours due to fog and lightning. The third round was suspended on Saturday afternoon for four and a half hours due to more than two and a half inches of rain in Nicholasville.
Matti Schmid, the 2021 DP World Tour Rookie of the Year, shared the lead on 16 under par with McGreevy at the conclusion of the second round after they both carded nine under par rounds of 63.
Both Schmid and McGreevy birdied the first hole of their third rounds after teeing off at 8:00pm, but the German dropped a shot on the second hole and now shares second place with Canada’s Adam Svensson. 62 67 -16
Other Canadians, Michael Gligic 15th 69 63 -12, David Hearn 22nd 67 67 -10, Aaron Cockerill 46th 71 66 -7, Taylor Pendrith 61st 71 68 -5
One stroke further back is 2015 Challenge Tour Number One Ricardo Gouveia on 15 under par, who has also played three holes of his third round.
In a share of fifth on 14 under are the American trio of Trey Mullinax, Sean O’Hair and Kevin Streelman.
The third round has resumed at 7:45am this Sunday morning after play was suspended at 9:02pm on Saturday evening.
The winner of the Barbasol Championship will receive exemptions on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR, as well as the final spot at The 150th Open at St Andrews next week through The Open Qualifying Series.
Schauffele leads ...Conners/Taylor playing for points..Sunday scoreboard...
DP World Tour: Genesis Scottish Open... final Leaderboard
As a Scot I know our National Championship has often been a poor relative to the Open Championship but with the new alliance and a $8,000,000 purse 14/15 of the best are prepping on links golf for the Open at the windy Renaissance Club just outside North Berwick.
With round 4 well underway, the wind is a little less severe around 20kph but still from the west and the course browning out it's the little American Xander Schauffele who begins with the lead at -7 after his 72 65 then -4 66 on Saturday, which could have been lower but for a bogey, bogey finish.
Two behind at -5 is 2017 winner Rafa Cabrera Bello 69 69 67 with in form Englishman Jordan Smith 68 69 69 -4, American Jordan Spieth 68 72 66 -4 and Ryan Palmer 67 72 67 -4.
Leader Cameron Triangle's bubble finally burst with +4 74 and he's at -3.
Canadians:
Nick Taylor T44 75 68 70 +3
Corey Connors T53 70 73 71 +4
Mac Hughes M/C 76 73 +9
Connors and Hughes have already qualified for next week's Open Championship.
For live scoring click Leaderboard
Bryan Angus
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