Can someone shock the golf world this week at Hoylake?
The world of golf has returned to Hoylake for the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Nine years ago, Rory McIlroy outlasted Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia on his way to becoming the 2014 Champion Golfer of the Year at this very venue.
McIlroy, who won the Genesis Scottish Open last week, was chased down by Cam Smith last season at St. Andrews and eventually finished third.
Wherever he goes, McIlroy is a crowd favorite but on this occasion he broke a lot of hearts.
GULLANE, Scotland — After Rory McIlroy birdied the final two holes on Sunday to win the Genesis Scottish Open in dramatic fashion, he saw fellow pro Robert McIntyre giving a post-round interview near scoring and went over and wrapped a comforting arm around the tournament runner-up. “I’m sorry,” he said in a tone of genuine sincerity.
Wherever he goes, McIlroy is a crowd favorite but on this occasion he broke a lot of hearts by closing in 2-under 68 at The Renaissance Club to edge Scotland’s top-ranked player by a stroke at his national championship.
“I mean, c’mon,” McIntyre said, breaking into a smile. “Some finish.”
Indeed, it was. McIlroy, the 54-hole leader, sank an 11-foot birdie putt at the last for a 72-hole total of 15-under 265 and earned his 24th PGA Tour title, tying him with Gary Player and Dustin Johnson in 26th place on the all-time win list. It also marked his first win on European soil in seven years since the Horizon Irish Open, and he became the first player to win the Irish Open, Scottish Open and Open Championship.
“It feels incredible,” McIlroy said. “To play that back nine 4-under par to win the tournament, yeah, really proud of how I just stuck in there.”
With all of Scotland trying to will him to victory, MacIntyre handled swirling, gusting winds to shoot 6-under 64 and take the clubhouse lead. He made his move on the back nine with a 6-foot eagle putt at No. 10 and a pair of birdies at 14 and 15. MacIntyre went 33 holes on the weekend without a bogey before missing a seven-foot par putt at the par-5 16th, but he rebounded with a solid up-and-down par at 17.
Rory came over to Bobby Mac and just said, I’m sorry. He know what this would’ve meant to him. pic.twitter.com/o0GR5TB3Nr
McIlroy tied him with a birdie of his own at 14 before MacIntyre delivered just the second birdie all day at 18, drilling a fairway wood from 213 yards to 4 feet. As he headed to sign his scorecard, MacIntyre’s eyes watered, a visible sign of how much winning on home soil would’ve meant to the 26-year-old who grew up attending the Scottish Open as a kid.
“I thought, ‘This might be the one,’” he said.
But McIlroy spoiled the script, just as he had done once before at the 2013 Australian Open, where an entire country was pulling for native son Adam Scott.
Tee times on Sunday were moved up several hours to try to avoid unplayable conditions, but the wind still was whipping with gusts at 40 miles per hour. McIlroy and Tom Kim traded the early lead until Kim (71), who finished T-3, made three straight bogeys at the turn and McIlroy dropped shots at Nos. 8 and 9, giving him four bogeys in all on the front nine. England’s Tyrrell Hatton (69) took a turn in the lead with birdies at Nos. 11 and 13 but made two bogeys coming home and a double at the last to finish at 9 under.
McIlroy, 34, showed plenty of resolve in notching his 16th win on the DP World Tour, his first title worldwide since the Dubai Desert Classic in January, and first triumph on Scottish soil. As he stepped to the 17th tee, the 2013 Australian Open popped into McIlroy’s head. Back then, he trailed Scott with two holes to play and birdied the last to clip him by a shot and spoil the crowd-favorite’s win on home soil. This time, he nailed a 5-iron at the 191-yard par-3 to 5 feet and made birdie. At the home hole, he had 202 yards, which set up for his 3-iron. However, he had taken that club out of his bag this week in favor of a 2-iron so chose that club instead and tried to hit cut it into the teeth of the wind.
“It came off absolutely perfectly,” McIlroy said. “Probably the best shot I hit all year. It was exactly the way I wanted to play it.”
McIlroy’s putter had been cold on Sunday when he was unable to win the U.S. Open, but on this occasion, he had the right stuff, dripping in the 11-foot birdie putt to clinch the title.
“It was straight down wind,” McIlroy said. “I just needed to get it started on line, and gravity and the wind and conditions will take care of the rest. It hung on nicely for me.”
Sweden’s David Lingmerth (68) and South Korea’s Ben An (69) tied for third and Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard (67) tied for sixth to earn their way into next week’s 151st British Open as the leading three finishers who weren’t already exempt into the championship, which will be held at Royal Liverpool.
McIlroy had been plagued by a troubling case of “Sunday-itis,” shooting 75 in the final round of the Memorial to finish T-7, 72 in the final round of the RBC Canadian Open to slip to T-9 and 70 on Sunday at the U.S. Open to finish second.
Rory McIlroy celebrates with putting coach Brad Faxon after winning the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in United Kingdom. (Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
“If there’s anybody asking questions about if he can close out on Sunday, he’s answered them all with this performance,” said NBC Sports golf analyst Brad Faxon, who also doubles as McIlroy’s putting coach.
It should give McIlroy a boost of confidence heading into the final major of the year at a course where McIlroy won in 2014. The last player to win the week prior to a major and then win one of golf’s four biggest prizes? It happens to be McIlroy, who claimed the 2014 WGC Bridgestone Invitational ahead of the 2014 PGA Championship, the last of McIlroy’s four career majors.
“It’s nice to have the validation,” McIlroy said. “it’s great racking up top 5s, top 10s, but it’s much nicer heading away with a trophy on Sunday afternoon.”
A catch-up with Scottish golfer Richie Ramsay tends to lead to a fairly expansive blether. Ask him, for instance, what club he hit into the sixth and he will often respond with the kind of deep, chin-stroking analysis you would get if you had consulted Aristotle for a yardage.
Ahead of this week’s Genesis Scottish Open here at the Renaissance, Ramsay has had plenty to ponder. His ruinous double-bogey on the final hole of the Made in Himmerland event in Denmark on Sunday cost him a fifth DP World Tour title.
Disappointed? Of course, he was but, at 40, Ramsay is more philosophical about golf’s fickle fortunes these days. To say he is mellowing in his advancing years may be stretching it a bit – he still retains a burning intensity that can be as fiery as Prometheus with heartburn – but the native of Aberdeen, Scotland, is certainly more accepting of the cards dished out by those pesky golfing gods.
“Yes, it hurts to lose,” said Ramsay as he reflected on a damaging excursion into the water when leading. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve hated losing. But it’s part and parcel of the journey these days. It makes you stronger and it makes you more determined to get a win.
“I was quite fiery when I was younger. I can still be fiery. But I’ve channeled it and it’s made me better off the course, maybe more patient. Mentally with golf, it’s a roller coaster ride but that’s why we do it and that’s why we love it because you never know what’s around the corner.”
Most of us who play this mystifying, maddening and mesmerizing game will agree with that observation. Ramsay, of course, is no stranger to closing-hole issues. Last season, he dunked one in the water on the 18th at The Belfry and let the British Masters slip from his grasp.
A few weeks later, however, he found redemption at Hillside when he birdied three of his last five holes to win the Cazoo Classic. Easing his Danish disappointment by bringing home the bacon in Scotland would, in ropey football parlance, underline his bouncebackability.
“You shoot for the stars, and I’ll hit one of the stars again sooner or later,” added the former U.S. Amateur champion with confidence.
There are so many stars here in East Lothian, the tee sheet could feature in the Illustrated Guide to Constellations. Eight of the world’s top 10 have meandered through the Renaissance club’s fancy gates for a co-sanctioned event with the PGA Tour that is worth $9 million.
“It’s a tough field to get into these days because it’s so strong,” noted Ramsay of a line-up that is headlined by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Rory McIlroy. “It’s nice to test yourself against the best players, to get a feel for where they are at and where you’re at. We all want to play against the best. You want to beat the best. Like I say, I’m not a good loser, so I’ll be trying to do that (win) this week.”
Like Ramsay, Robert MacIntyre was also left to reflect on what might have been last Sunday as his triple-bogey on Himmerland’s 13th when leading scuppered his title tilt.
“I shared a car with Richie going to the airport on Sunday night,” said the 26-year-old of a journey that must have been about as upbeat as a trundle in a hearse. “Richie was on the phone speaking to his family and friends. I sat in a huff in the front seat. I wasn’t speaking to anybody. I was sitting there in absolute silence thinking to myself, ‘What just went wrong? Why has it went wrong?’… But I’m here now and last week is last week.”
With that sore one out of his system, it is all systems go again for the Oban lefty. Over the past couple of eventful weeks, he has re-hired his old caddie and former coach but swiftly re-hired the coach he had fired. Still following?
“My head is in a good place,” added MacIntyre of this period of chopping and changing which now has clarity. Barring that 13th-hole calamity, the signs were good for MacIntyre in Denmark. “It was probably the best golf I’ve played in a long, long time,” he said. “I feel like you’ve got to take a couple of punches before you can hold a trophy.”
The Scottish Open would be a nice one to get their hands on.
MacIntyre is hoping to play his way onto the European team for the Ryder Cup in Italy later this year.
Robert MacIntyre, whose defense of his Italian Open title was ended by injury last week, has declared he is in perfect physical condition ahead of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
MacIntyre withdrew from the DP World Tour event at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, where the Ryder Cup will be staged in September, before the second round on Friday due to a back strain.
The 26-year-old from Oban had recorded his second professional victory in the tournament following a playoff with Matt Fitzpatrick 12 months earlier and was disappointed he was forced to pull out.
However, the Scot has undergone extensive treatment on the problem since and is confident he will be in decent shape when the second major of the year gets underway in Pittsford, New York, on Thursday week.
“I’ll be good to go next week,” he said at a media event to preview the Genesis Scottish Open in July at the Renaissance Club in East Lothian today. “I’ve seen the right people and am doing the right things. So I’ll get on with it.
“It’s far better. I tried my best when I was out there (in Italy). On the Wednesday morning, when I woke up I could hardly move, just from the way I’d slept. I’ve been in for physio yesterday and this morning and it’s feeling far better.
“If I’m being honest, I push as much as I can. I’ve had niggling injuries already this year, most recently my arm, and pushed through that. I pushed as much as I could on this one.
“I managed to get out in the first round feeling good. But I tried to hit a tee shot hard down nine and felt it going. I kind of tried to manage my way round after that, but I struggled late on in the first round.
“I then almost didn’t have enough time between rounds. When I woke up on Friday morning, I thought: ‘This ain’t good.’ I went into the physio room for about an hour then went out and tried to warm up, but the speed was that far down. It wasn’t good enough to go out and play.”
MacIntrye added: “The guys in the physio truck were absolutely brilliant. They’d said it wasn’t going to do any long-term damage trying to push through it. It was just a case of how much pain I could take.
“I could get through it with an iron, but when I was trying to hit a driver I was full tilt and the way I move the back wasn’t allowing me to tilt. I could have played with an iron, but it was too long a golf course to hit something soft.
“I’ve got a strapping on my arm as well because of the ligaments. I just over-extended it. But a couple of painkillers, a bit of strapping and I’m good to go.”
Gutted to withdraw this morning from the @ItalianOpen with a back strain. Hopefully nothing too serious. Now for a week of rest before the PGA Championship. pic.twitter.com/HRBwokBOWt
MacIntyre is hoping to play his way onto the European team for the biennial Ryder Cup match with the United States in Italy later this year and knows that a good performance in the PGA Championship next week will kick start his season and boost his chances.
He revealed that he enjoyed being at home in Oban with his family and friends as he recovered from his back problem and is feeling good mentally as well as physically heading into his first major since the Open at St. Andrews last year.
“It is going to be really important,” he said. “If you have a good week, it’s a big push in the right direction. I’ve not seen anything of the golf course, I don’t know it, but I try to keep it simple. Good golf takes care of it.
“The traveling I’ve done since I came home has been unbelievable. But it’s good to get home and see the people I enjoy spending time with.
“I was walking along the beach with my little niece, just enjoying it. It was pouring with rain, but I didn’t have a worry in the world, just enjoying myself.
“That’s how I almost recalibrate. There is so much going on in the golfing world that you can get too bogged down in golf. For me, it’s good to get away from the course.
“I mean, I had five weeks off there and I reckon I touched the clubs five times. For me, I don’t need to hammer it. It’s more about clearing my mind, being happy when I go back to work, step on that golf course with Mike (Thomson) carrying the bag. I want to make life easier for him and easier for myself. I prepare the same way at every tournament.”
MacIntyre added: “My game has been good. It was a far better start to the year in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi, if I’d putted halfway decent I would have been there or thereabouts. I’ve played really well.
“In Kenya, I had so many opportunities from 10 or 12 feet. Again, if I’d putted well, I would have got across the line. In Japan, I was coming back after five weeks off, but my game was still good. And Korea was one that almost got away from me.
“But I feel like 2019 (when he finished Rookie of the Year in his debut season on the DP World Tour) again. If I keep giving myself these chances, it’s going to happen.”
Returning to the hustle and bustle of the DP World Tour driving range recently was another sizeable step in Burns’ recovery.
Golf, as we all know, can be a fickle old pursuit. One minute you are striding down the fairway with a chest puffed out like a gorilla at the height of the mating season after clattering a corker right down the middle.
The next, you are groaning like said ape who has just been condemned to a lifetime of celibacy after discovering your best drive of the season has nestled in a divot.
As Jack Nicklaus once observed, “golf is not, and never has been, a fair game”.
It is just like life itself. David Burns will probably agree with that. Not so long ago, the Linlithgow swing guru was riding the crest of a coaching wave. His main clients were Robert MacIntyre and Calum Hill, two of Scotland’s brightest DP World Tour stars.
“They were both flying and everything was going great,” he said.
Life was, indeed, good. And then a couple of spanners were flung into the works. Complications from an insect bite, which befuddled the medical experts, led to Hill being sidelined for almost a year while MacIntyre decided to end his working relationship with Burns after last season’s PGA Championship.
There would be far greater tumult for Burns to contend with, however.
“I’d been struggling with my breathing and it was getting worse and worse,” he said. “I eventually got a chest X-ray. I was expecting a lung infection. But the reason I was struggling for air was that the diaphragm was squeezing the lung.
“It meant nothing to me. Then they hit me with the big one. They had found a tumor the size of a tennis ball on my kidney which was squeezing on the diaphragm which was squeezing on the lung. They told me it was malignant. The tumor and the kidney had to come out ASAP. It was a hell of a shock. It never crossed my mind it would be cancer. It turned my life upside down. Some days I faced up to it and accepted it, other days I was asking, ‘why me?’.”
After a major operation in November, Burns’ rehabilitation process was aided by vast doses of morphine and hours in front of the TV watching football’s World Cup. Well, he thinks it was the World Cup.
“I had so much morphine in me I couldn’t remember what matches I was watching,” he said. “I was told the pain would be severe but I underestimated how sore it would be. You moved an inch and it was like being stabbed. I have a scar about seven inches long. The speedo modeling contract has gone out of the window now.”
Hill, who was making his own tentative steps back to full fitness, also played a major role in Burns’ convalescence.
“I was going off my head in the house and I would see Calum a couple of days a week at Gleneagles to do some work,” he said. “That gave me a purpose. He would visit all the time too. It meant a lot to me.”
Returning to the hustle and bustle of the DP World Tour driving range in the Middle East recently was another sizeable step in Burns’ recovery.
“I was nervous as hell and my wife came with me to hold my hand,” he said. “But what a welcome I got. It felt like I’d never been away.”
While last year’s split with MacIntyre was amicable, it was still such a sore one to stomach even that morphine would not have dulled the pain.
“You have such a close relationship and then suddenly it’s over,” said Burns of an alliance that had brought plenty of rewards. “It was hard for a couple of months after. He was a big part of my life for a number of years. But it’s the nature of this job. It’s like being a football manager. You need a thick skin. We had great times together. He got a Tour win, two top 10s in The Open, a 12th in the Masters. We can both look back on that period with a hell of a lot of pride.”
It is now onwards and upwards. With Hill, a tour winner in 2021, now eager to make up lost ground, Burns is confident that those good golfing times will roll again.
“Calum’s technically very good and he has a very exciting future ahead of him,” he said.
This is a candidate for best golf content of 2023.
This is as good as it gets.
Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and several other DP World Tour stars recreated the famous business card scene from American Psycho with a golf twist.
And it only made sense to make hot-tempered Hatton Patrick Bateman.
The best part? Hatton’s nickname for Fleetwood is “Golfing Jesus.” To be honest, his hair alone is well deserving of that moniker.
To no surprise, Lowry’s ball mark is a shamrock clover, while Thomas Pieters’ is a smiley face with his initials, “TP.”
And the acting? Hollywood should give these boys a call.
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?”
“I get punched but I punch back and the birdies coming in were massive and thankfully I got one in the playoff.”
Roman golf fans will be treated to the best of the best next fall when the 2023 Ryder Cup descends on the city, and they got an early taste of what to expect from this week’s Italian Open.
Robert MacIntyre shot a 7-under 64 on Sunday to match 54-hole leader Matt Fitzpatrick at 14 under and force a playoff at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome, which will play host for the biennial bout between the United States and Europe. Both Fitzpatrick and MacIntyre are poised to feature for Luke Donald’s European side, and it was the latter who left with the trophy for his second DP World Tour victory.
On the first playoff hole, MacIntyre’s tee shot found the fairway on the par-5 18th while Fitzpatrick’s sliced into the thick rough left of the fairway. From there the 26-year-old Scot just missed the green with his approach but got up-and-down for birdie to beat Fitzpatrick, who had to scramble for par.
In his post-round interview, MacIntyre said he, “was down and out two, three months ago, I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know where to go,” before he praised his caddie, coaches, family and friends for supporting him through his struggles. After a pair of bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15, MacIntyre could hear the roars of the crowd as Fitzpatrick made a move, but he wasn’t deterred. Instead, he birdied Nos. 16 and 18 to force the playoff.
“We dug in. I’ve got a dogged attitude, never give up,” MacIntyre said. “I get punched but I punch back and the birdies coming in were massive and thankfully I got one in the playoff.”
MacIntyre was viewed as a snub for the last Ryder Cup matches in 2021 after veterans Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter were selected despite ranking 10 and 14 spots lower on the European points list, respectively.
“It’s my only goal for the next year,” MacIntyre said of making the European Ryder Cup squad. When it comes to team selection, with the future status of players on the LIV Golf series in question for the event, this week is a big step forward for MacIntyre and his 2023 goals.
With two top 10s in the last three years, can Justin Thomas finally win at the Renaissance?
A week before the final major of 2022, a major championship-type field has traveled to the Renaissance Club for the Genesis Scottish Open.
Fourteen of the world’s top 15 players are expected to tee it up Thursday, with the lone missing name being No. 3 Rory McIlroy (who played in this week’s JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor).
Last year’s champion Min Woo Lee, who made the Scottish Open his second DP World Tour win, tied for 27th in his last PGA Tour start (U.S. Open at The Country Club).
The par-3 17th hole is a welcome respite before the difficult 18th hole that plays at 485 yards and likely into the prevailing wind at Renaissance Club.
Key statistics
SG: Tee to green
Par 3 efficiency 200-225 yards
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. TPC Louisiana, 2. Olympia Fields CC, 3. Caves Valley Golf Club
Trending: 1. Xander Schauffele (last three starts: T-18, T-14, 1), 2. Will Zalatoris (MC, T-5, T-2), 3. Matthew Fitzpatrick (MC, T-10, 1)
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Jon Rahm (7.7 percent), 2. Scottie Scheffler (7 percent), 3. Justin Thomas (5.8 percent)
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I’m convinced the next time Lee Westwood speaks, a great torrent of coins will tumble out instead of actual words.
In the cash-sodden upper echelons of professional golf, the amount of chatter about money here and money there never seems to cease. In fact, it’s so relentless, I’m convinced the next time Lee Westwood gets interviewed, he’ll open his mouth and a great torrent of coins and notes will tumble out instead of actual words.
Westwood, after weeks of speculation and rumor, confirmed that he will be playing in the inaugural event on Greg Norman’s Saudi-bankrolled LIV Golf Invitational Series at The Centurion Club next month which boasts a whopping prize fund of $25 million. The rebels are, slowly but surely, rearing their heads. Some of them seem to be losing their heads too. And it makes for an unedifying spectacle.
During the Wells Fargo Championship, the Spaniard was informed – incorrectly, it later emerged – by a PGA Tour rules official that he had exhausted the time allowed to find his ball in a hazard. That provided the catalyst for the former Masters champion to burst into the kind of foot-stamping tantrum you’d see in a supermarket aisle when a toddler lunges for a packet of chocolate and is thwarted by finger-wagging, parental intervention. “I can’t wait to leave this Tour,” he shrieked as the toys came hurtling out of the pram. “I can’t wait to get out of here. A couple of more weeks, I don’t have to deal with you anymore.”
It was a wonderfully awful show of petulance from a 42-year-old with a history of crotchety, childish histrionics and petty grievances. He should’ve been sent to bed with no supper for the rest of the season. With the same sense of entitlement that used to be the reserve of unhinged Roman emperors, Garcia’s antics were perhaps not a surprise.
From throwing his shoe into the crowd at Wentworth back in 1999 during a fit of peevishness to spitting in the hole at Doral, Garcia has built up a dodgy dossier down the years. Getting disqualified from the Saudi International in 2019 for deliberately damaging a number of greens with his putter was the nadir. His latest explosion added yet more intrigue to this ongoing Saudi stooshie. It’s somewhat ironic that Garcia once blamed a significant dip in his form on the break-up of his relationship with Greg Norman’s daughter. Now it seems, he can’t wait to cozy up to her father and his bottomless pit of Saudi reserves.
Garcia, of course, is the perfect fit for the LIV Golf recruitment drive; a 40-something, veteran campaigner with, perhaps, his best days behind him. Among the under-40s, meanwhile, which includes all the game’s current, thrusting young superstars, there is still no enthusiasm for the concept despite the eye-watering piles of dosh on offer. Money can’t buy you love. Well, not yet anyway.
If the likes of Garcia, Westwood and 49-year-old Richard Bland, who also confirmed that he will be competing at The Centurion Club, are waltzing off with mighty checks – last place at next month’s event is worth nearly $120,000 – how long until others give in to the temptation and dip their bread in the gravy train?
On the same day that Westwood was being largely castigated for taking the LIV Golf carrot, Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre was being widely lauded for his comments on the current saga.
“At the end of the day, there’s crazy, crazy money getting thrown at it,” said MacIntyre of the dizzying sums being tossed about in wild abundance. “If you ask me, it’s obscene money to be throwing at sport. There’s only so much money that a human needs.”
MacIntyre is a successful and grounded young man with his head screwed on. He could teach a few of his elders a dignified thing or two as the power struggle at the top end of the men’s game grows ever more unsightly.
The general golfing public, meanwhile, may not give two hoots about all this commotion. The professional game, after all, makes up a tiny percentage of the wider golf ecosystem. As the celebrated American scribe, George Peper, once remarked at the Association of Golf Writers’ dinner a number of years ago: “If professional golf were to vanish from the Earth tomorrow, golfers around the world would observe a moment of silence and then go right on playing the game they love. They’d hardly notice the professional tours had disappeared. Golf would carry on.”
At the moment, though, golf’s obsession with money continues to cause, well, quite the carry-on.
