Well, the R&A finally made a decision and somewhat surprisingly for some the decision was to cancel the 149th Open Championship because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Tournament will now take place at the same venue, Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, in 2021.
As the various tours are losing millions each week in TV and sponsorship income and the Coronavirus trundles on the R&A continues to put out woolly statements about continuing to look at the options. Given the likely time frames for the lifting of social distancing and the issues over international travel, the R&A must postpone.
Royal Troon first hosted The Open in 1923, and the great event will return to the famed links course in South Ayrshire a century on from that first staging. In 2023 Royal Troon will be staging the event for the tenth time, the last time being 2016 when Henrik Stenson prevailed in a mighty battle with Phil Mickelson.
Take one bike, one set of clubs, 14 different Open venues and one complete nutter and you have the ‘The Great British Open Challenge’. London-based PGA professional, Luke Willett, he with a famous golfing namesake, is to pedal his way between all the Open venues playing 18 holes at each and cycling with his clubs on his back!
Brooks Koepka had just teed off in the final round of the Open. We then heard ‘on the tee, JB Holmes from the USA’, the camera zoomed in on the man sitting in third place at Royal Portrush, then nothing. The guy looked confused as he suddenly wasn’t sure about something. Was it the wind had shifted? Had he changed his mind at to which club to take? Or perhaps he’d left the cooker on back at the house? Whatever it was he’d been standing on that tee for a good few minutes waiting for his tee time and he clearly was not ready.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry produced what he called "one of the most incredible days of my life" shooting an eight-under-par 63 that gives him a four-shot lead going into the final day of the Open at Royal Portrush! Englishman Tommy Fleetwood is the closest rival on 12 under after a 66 with JB Holmes third on 10 under. World number one Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose sit one further back but there are tough weather conditions forecast for the final day.
They needed it to be tough out there if they were going to challenge Shane Lowry but in the end, it was too tough and the conditions actually played in to the hands of the big man. For a man who grew up playing links golf up and down Ireland he was always going to be one of best equipped if the really high winds came.
It’s etiquette right? You hit the ball in the direction of another person on a golf course, you shout ‘fore’. It instilled in you from almost your first shot on a golf course, be you ten year’s old or eighty. However, it seems for some professionals that once they have reached the lofty heights of the tour this unwritten rule no longer applies to them.
A front nine of such resplendent grace, your heart could stop and you would not notice... In the week the Open comes to Royal Portrush GolfPunk recalls its splendid neighbour Portstewart Golf Club - You Little Beauty
Lee Westwood backed up a first day 68 with an impressive 67 and is currently tied in 3rd position with Tommy Fleetwood, just one shot off the overnight lead. Based on his recent form this is somewhat unexpected. What has changed you might ask? Well he’s brought Helen Storey, his girlfriend, in as his looper and, despite her not knowing much about golf, it just might provide the fairy tale story for one of the finest golfers never to win a major.
There were a number of rulings made by the R&A officials on day three of the Open but none was more interesting as that for Lee Westwood. And hats off to the 46 year-old Englishman who showed pure class and honesty in dealing with the situation.
The fairy tale has slowly unwound. Local boy, Darren Clarke, who led the field off on Thursday in the 148th Open Championship, took seven at the last to miss the cut. Rory McIlroy, who famously shot 61 around Royal Portrush at the age of 16, shot 65, equalling best score of the day, but agonisingly missed the cut by one. And our man, Gmac, held firm just making it through on the cut line, nine back from the leader.
