Heavy rains all week – even by Scotland standards – shortened the DP World Tour pro-am event to 54 holes.
Heavy rains in Scotland over the weekend wreaked havoc on the schedule for the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The annual pro-am event hosted across the Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns was shortened to 54 holes and pushed to a Monday finish after the three courses were “water-logged” and unplayable.
The weather held off on the fifth day of play, where Matt Fitzpatrick shot a 6-under 66 on Monday at the Old Course at St. Andrews to win by three shots over Matthew Southgate (66/St. Andrews), Ryan Fox (65/St. Andrews) and Marcus Armitage (66/Carnoustie) who finished T-2 at 16 under. Sebastian Soderberg was the low round of the day at Kingsbarns, where he shot a 10-under 62 to finish fifth at 15 under.
As if a ninth European circuit win wasn’t enough, the 29-year-old Englishman played alongside his mother, Susan, in the pro-am event.
Matt Fitzpatrick of England poses on the Swilcan Bridge with his Mother and playing partner, Susan Fitzpatrick during Round Three on Day Five of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course St. Andrews on Oct. 9, 2023 in St. Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
In addition to his nine DP World Tour wins, Fitzpatrick has also won the 2023 RBC Heritage as well as the 2022 U.S. Open.
“With all my wins, aside from the major, you’ll forget about them in the future,” said Fitzpatrick, “but you’ll always remember the one you won with your mum.”
Were there any juicy discussions between Al-Rumayyan and Slumbers about Saudi involvement in the future of the game?
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Not since the bold Maurice Flitcroft tried to hoax his way into Open qualifying back in the day by using fake names and false mustaches has there been such intrigue whipped up by a golfing nom de plume.
Here at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the pseudonym “Andrew Waterman” had appeared on the drawsheet for the $5 million Pro-Am contest only to be altered at the last minute to reveal the true identity of the amateur player in question.
It was Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Not quite a humble crane operator from Barrow like Flitcroft then, but the man in charge of the colossal purse strings of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) which bankrolls the LIV Golf Series.
It was fitting, therefore, that Peter Uihlein, one of four LIV rebels competing this week, ended up in a share of the lead after the first day of the event. He added a 72 on Friday and now sits five shots behind leader Matt Fitzpatrick.
Uihlein, invited to the event by Dunhill Links supremo Johann Rupert, had Al-Rumayyan as his amateur partner in a group that also included the R&A’s chief executive, Martin Slumbers.
So, were there any juicy discussions between Al-Rumayyan and Slumbers about Saudi involvement in the future of the game as they ambled up towards their respective balls in the mounds of Miss Grainger’s Bosoms on the Old Course’s 15th?
We will never know because a stern-faced private security guard swiftly intervened when the small gathering of golf writers approached Al-Rumayyan for a quick blether at the conclusion of the opening round.
— Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (@dunhilllinks) October 6, 2023
Al-Rumayyan did manage to say, “It’s a great thing,” before being carted off. Presumably, that was about the opportunity to play the Dunhill Links. Or perhaps he was just expressing delight at escaping from the pesky golf scribblers?
As for Uihlein? Well, he let his clubs do the talking. A rebel with a cause and all that. It was on the Old Course 10 years ago that Uihlein came within a whisker of a magical 59 on his way to a second-place finish in the Dunhill Links Championship. A lot has happened since then.
Along with a host of global big guns, Uihlein sacrificed his PGA Tour membership to defect to the breakaway LIV Series last year as the golfing landscape at the top of the professional game was rocked by the kind of earth-shattering event that was akin to the impact of the mega-meteor that obliterated the dinosaurs.
In the turbulent months that followed, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF, which is governed by Al-Rumayyan, announced an armistice and unveiled plans to work together. On the eve of the Dunhill Links, the aforementioned Rupert was reported to say that, “sport is supposed to unite people, not divide, we need to get peace.”
Uihlein, a former DP World Tour rookie of the year when he was cutting his teeth in Europe, agreed with those sentiments. Asked if the professional game could leave the rancor and division behind, he said: “I hope so. I think Mr. Rupert nailed it in his quotes. Golf brings people together. Time will tell.
“I’m not privy to what goes on behind closed doors. It’s nice that Johann extended an olive branch and he (Al-Rumayyan) is here.”
Uihlein’s cracking opening round on the Old Course included four birdies in his first five holes as well as a raking birdie putt of almost 50 feet on the 14th.
“I’m just trying to make the most of a good opportunity,” added Uihlein, who was 10th here a year ago.
As for partnering with his Saudi paymaster?
“All the other LIV boys were on the other courses so it was nice to have a bit of comfort out there,” he smiled. “I didn’t feel like the only one.”
Al-Rumayyan will play under a pseudonym and in the same group as the DP World Tour’s chief executive.
LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan will play in this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour under a false name, according to a report on Wednesday in the Scotsman.
Al-Rumayyan, the 53-year-old governor of Saudi Arabia’s lucrative Public Investment Fund (PIF), was invited by Johann Rupert, the South African billionaire and man behind the pro-am event held annually at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St. Andrews. Listed under the pseudonym Andrew Waterman, Al-Rumayyan will play alongside LIV Golf’s Peter Uihlein and in the same group as R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers. Fellow LIV players Laurie Canter, Talor Gooch and Louis Oosthuizen are also in the field as non-members playing on sponsor invites.
“Sport is supposed to unite people, not divide,” Rupert, the chairman of Dunhill’s parent company Richemont and also chairman of the event’s championship committee, told The Scotsman. “We need to get peace.”
Al-Rumayyan, also the chairman of Saudi Aramco as well as Premier League team Newcastle United, played in the Alfred Dunhill event last year, as well. If the framework agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF is accepted and pushed through, Al-Rumayyan will be the chairman of the board of the new for-profit company created by the agreement.
“It was suggested to me a while ago that I should extend an invitation to (Al-Rumayyan), but I only got confirmation last week to say he would be playing,” said Rupert.
How a group of women in an R&A program built a foundation to help the golf community in war-torn Ukraine.
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February a group of young players in the Ukrainian Golf Federation’s development program was relocated across Europe.
For the first time since they were forced to flee their war-torn country, seven kids reconnected in Scotland at the Project Ukraine golf camp last week, which was organized by a group of women in the R&A’s Women in Golf Leadership Development Program.
The women were inspired by Veronika Rastvortseva, a colleague of theirs who gave an emotional account of what her family experienced in Ukraine while participating in an online workshop. From there Project Ukraine was founded to support the golf community in Ukraine.
“We’ve all watched the horrors unfold in Ukraine and we were compelled to help after listening to our colleague Veronika Rasvortseva describe what was going on around her in the early days of the invasion,” said Project Ukraine’s Toni Zverblis. “Thankfully, she managed to move her family out of the country but has been working tirelessly from her temporary home in Belgium on this project since then. She has helped the group liaise with the Ukrainian Golf Federation and the families whom we are supporting.”
The camp at the Macdonald Cardrona Hotel Golf & Spa featured golf clinics, health and mental skills sessions as well as Rules of Golf workshops. Last Saturday, a match was held against players from the Stephen Gallacher Foundation, a junior golf program in Scotland. On Sunday the camp attended the final day of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews where they were interviewed on Sky Sports and even met the likes of Rory McIlroy, Adrian Meronk and event winner Ryan Fox.
“I have no doubt this experience has changed their lives. The support they have had during this camp from the Project Ukraine team is enormous. I can’t describe how important it has been for these kids to be back together like a family, getting them back to the tee to play golf, and to just sit and chat in the lobby and share what they have been through over the past months,” said Rastvortseva, who attended the camp with her two daughters.
“Our goal was that the camp provided hope and inspiration,” said Zverblis. “We want to ensure that these young golfers’ dreams and ambitions are kept alive despite the devastation they face at home in Ukraine.”
“Their dreams have come true – they met Rory McIlroy and shook his hand. They had a welcome message from Tommy Fleetwood – it’s a dream for any junior. Unfortunately, all these kids have trauma – but for us, it was so important to keep them away from that for a short time,” added Rastvortseva. “It’s hoped that Project Ukraine will continue to be able to help other families and junior golfers because there are many others that need our assistance. They need support with education and getting them back out onto the golf course regularly. They need to remember those emotions that they felt when they were able to play golf in their home county, which unfortunately they haven’t been able to do for a long time.
“When these kids grow up in a few years they will understand even more how this camp has impacted their pathway. It’s inspiring.”
“To be honest the only person I can really think of at the moment is Warne.”
Ryan Fox didn’t just win for the second time of 2022 on the DP World Tour on Sunday, but he did so at the Home of Golf.
In front of his family visiting from New Zealand, the 35-year-old claimed the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by one shot at the Old Course at St. Andrews. After the final putt dropped, Fox was quick to mention someone who wasn’t there to celebrate his third win on tour.
“It means a lot,” said Fox after the round. “To be honest the only person I can really think of at the moment is Warne.”
The Dunhill Links features both an individual and team championship and is held across three iconic courses in Scotland: Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. Fox and Australian cricket legend Shane Warne, who died in March, finished second in the team championship last year.
“He meant a lot to me and this event and was a great mate. It’s a terrible shame he’s not here,” added Fox, who said he felt his friend’s presence down the stretch. “Obviously I was pretty nervy the last three holes. I didn’t hit very good shots, to be honest, down the 16th, 17th and 18th. He was definitely helping out.”
After starting the final round four shots back, Fox took the lead through seven holes and was three holes clear with just as many to play. A late blemish on the 17th and par on the 18th secured the one-shot win at 15 under over Callum Shinkwin and Alex Noren, T-2 at 14 under. Rory McIlroy, a three-time runner-up at the event, finished T-4 at 13 under with Antoine Rozner.
Shinkwin and Alex Acquavella won the team championship at 37 under.
It was a hell of a day for it but, with the kind of gritty resolve usually reserved for the likes of the Ancient Mariner, we completed round two of a sodden, wind-ravaged Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Within minutes of play finishing, the sun came out. Bloomin’ typical eh?
“It got to a point where it wasn’t even golf,” gasped Robert MacIntyre after a wild buffeting at Kingsbarns that was broadly equivalent to being perched in the crow’s nest of a galleon during a tempest. He may have been drookit and dishevelled but the dogged MacIntyre had emerged unscathed.
While Englishman Richard Mansell clambered to the top of the leaderboard on 10-under after a tenacious 4-under 68 over the Old Course, MacIntyre’s battling 2-under 70 a few miles down the East Neuk hoisted the Scot up 35 places into a share of fifth on 6-under.
Padraig Harrington of Ireland looks on from the 15th tee holding an umbrella in the rain during the second round of the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Kingsbarns Golf Links in Kingsbarns, Scotland. (Photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
During a rancid day, it became so wet, even the laptops of the golf writers just about had moss growing between the keys. Toss in the violent gusts and it was all about clinging on grimly and limiting the damage.
Some fared better than others. Romain Langasque, who led overnight after a record-equaling 61 over the Old Course, came a cropper at formidable Carnoustie with an 80. And spare a thought for poor old Alexander Knappe, whose first four holes in a shotgun start from the 14th of the Old Course produced a five, a six, a nine and an eight. The German eventually signed for a torrid 88.
Even Shane Lowry, the recently crowned BMW PGA champion, found the going tough and toiled to a 79 at Kingsbarns to languish down on 5 over. Other star attractions like Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy sit on 2 under and 1 under respectively.
As for MacIntyre? Well, the in-form Oban man harnessed the appalling conditions to fine effect and bolstered his push for a second victory in three events. The 26-year-old, fresh from his fine success in the Italian Open recently, offset three bogeys with a haul of five, hard-earned birdies to lurk four off the halfway pace with two circuits of the Old Course to come.
Despite the rotten weather, MacIntyre relished the challenge.
Robert MacIntyre of Scotland looks on after playing a shot during the second round of the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Kingsbarns Golf Links in Kingsbarns, Scotland. (Photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
“I’m soaked through, I’ve got water in my shoes but I just had to laugh all the way,” said MacIntyre, who got through three towels and 12 gloves. “It’s the way I play my best golf, with a smile on my face. But it was brutal. It’s probably the hardest conditions I’ve ever played in.”
It was a day for throwing away the yardage book, knuckling down and relying on those old golfing instincts.
“I didn’t look at the book once and it was just a case of moving it forward and being able to see it,” added MacIntyre, whose best finish in the Dunhill Links remains a share of 26th in 2019. “The 12th was playing like a par 6. I hit it out of position so chipped it with an 8-iron about 120 yards. Then I chipped a 5-iron about 140 yards and then hit a 9-iron into the green. I just played it like a par-6. It was just about keeping the ball in play, keeping it out the sky and certain winds and just dealing with what you’ve got. I just want to have a chance on the back nine on Sunday. That’s what determines if it is a good week or a mediocre week; having a chance. Top-10s are alright, but back-door top-10s aren’t what we want. We want to be fighting for wins.”
Mansell, who is seeking his maiden win on the DP World Tour, winkled out five birdies and spilled just one shot in a defiant 4-under round which left the 27-year-old two shots clear of Sweden’s former Scottish Open champion, Alex Noren.
“I can’t feel anything in my body right now,” chittered Mansell as he emerged for a post-round analysis. “It was just gritty and about personality; just trying to stay positive and focused.”
Noren, a 10-time champion on the DP World Tour, added a 69 for his 8-under tally while Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard Moller and Antoine Rozner share third on 7 under.
“I’ve played in wind and rain many times but nothing like this,” said Norgaard Moller after a 74 on the Old Course. “On 12, I was hitting a full driver and it flew 170 metres right into the wind. What can you do but laugh?”
When the 2018 Masters champion joined LIV Golf, he insisted he was sick of the constant grind of the PGA Tour.
As a means of deflecting talk that they were making a jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf for financial reasons, numerous players insisted a reduced workload was the reason they chose the upstart league backed by Saudi financing.
But with a slip in his Official World Golf Ranking as well as an open window in his schedule, Patrick Reed has been announced as a participant in the upcoming Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, one of the more lucrative events on the DP World Tour.
Reed was ranked No. 25 on Jan. 2, then dipped to No. 38 when he announced he was leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf on June 11. With no chance to accumulate OWGR points on the LIV circuit, Reed has dropped to No. 50, a position he has maintained for three straight weeks.
With his inclusion in the Dunhill — a pro-am event played on three courses in Scotland: St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns — Reed will have played in five consecutive weeks.
Reed’s September has included:
• LIV Boston (T-31)
• BMW PGA Championship (T-5)
• LIV Chicago (T-12)
• This week’s Cazoo Open de France
• Next week’s Dunhill
When the 2018 Masters champion and nine-time winner joined LIV Golf, however, he insisted he was sick of the constant grind of the PGA Tour.
“It wears on you as an athlete, wears on you as a person, as a father, and this is for me, I feel like this is the best decision ever,” Reed said at the time. “Now I can compete at the highest level, but also prepare and get ready for every single event and be able to be home, and even though I’ll be grinding at home getting ready, I’ll be able to spend time with the kids.”
Yasir Al Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund, reacts after a putt on the fifth green during the pro-am before the LIV Golf Invitational – Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms on September 15, 2022, in Sugar Grove, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/LIV Golf via Getty Images)
In the calendar year 2021, Reed played 22 PGA Tour events, including the Olympics. So far in 2022, he played in 16 PGA Tour events, four LIV events, and now two DP World Tour events. With three LIV events left on the schedule and next week’s Dunhill on his docket, Reed will have played 26 events this calendar year, barring injury.
With Reed’s addition, the Dunhill field will have 17 LIV Golf players as well as PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Billy Horschel and Shane Lowry.
As for his round Thursday at the French Open, Reed shot 73 and was eight shots behind early clubhouse leader Paul Barjon.
Reed was displeased with the organizers of the event, who he thinks have snubbed him because of his LIV Golf ties. Reed was not invited to play in the pro-am before the tournament and believes he was left off the marquee pairings due to the LIV connection.
“It’s a slap in the face not to invite me to the press conference, or not to have me play the pro-am and all those things,” Reed said to Journal Du Golf.
“At the end of the day, it’s just my golf that I have control over. I’m here to support the tour, France and all the people who are here. But I don’t see why we can’t move from the LIV to the European Tour (DP World Tour) like we usually move from the PGA Tour to the European Tour.”
Playing with his son Tyrrell — the 19th-ranked golfer in the world — has brought some new challenges this week.
Jeff Hatton is an accomplished teaching pro and club fitter, the owner and operator of Hatton Golf, a specialty shop about 30 miles outside of London.
While Hatton works on clubs and helps perfect swings, one thing he doesn’t have much time to do is play golf. So this week, playing with his son Tyrrell — the 19th-ranked golfer in the world — has presented some new challenges.
For example, although Jeff is Tyrrell’s swing coach, the two haven’t had time to work through any tweaks or changes during the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which is played at St. Andrews Old Course, Carnoustie and on Thursday, Kingsbarns.
“He hasn’t sort of looked at my swing on the range or anything,” Tyrrell Hatton said on Thursday. “I think he’s been a bit too excited to play these courses for the first time, and actually he’s probably quite tired. He normally plays once every six weeks. And he did 18 holes on Tuesday, he did nine holes yesterday and obviously another 18 today.
“So the old boy is gonna be tired tomorrow, that’s for sure.”
Just because his father’s a bit winded doesn’t mean that Tyrrell is feeling the effects of a busy week. After returning from the Ryder Cup, Hatton was in fine form on Thursday, using a scintillating 29 on the back to finish at 64 after the opening round. Adri Arnaus, Nicolas Colsaerts and Haotong Li are also sitting tied atop the leaderboard with Hatton.
But the topic of focus in a post-round interview was Hatton’s father, who had promised that he wouldn’t get the jitters playing in the event.
“He admitted that he was nervous, which he said, sort of in the whole build-up to this, he was like, no, I won’t be nervous, I won’t be nervous. And he actually played quite nicely in the practice rounds and he’s gone out there today and obviously not played to the level that you’d like to,” Tyrrell said. “But I think he enjoyed it and we’ll have a good day tomorrow.”
Hatton certainly had fun, using an eagle on the 12th hole to negate the blemish on his card, a bogey on No. 7. He’s looking for his third win in this event after winning the title in both 2016 and 2017. The only other player to win this tournament twice is Padraig Harrington, who captained the Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits last week.
In terms of the course rotation, Hatton pondered when asked which was his favorite before offering a predictable answer.
“I’d probably just say St. Andrews,” he said. “I think just with the history of it and it just it feels more special when you’re playing there and we’ll look forward to playing there on Saturday.”
