Tag: St. Andrew’s

Laura Davies reflects on golf’s changing times and LIV Golfers: ‘They are easily replaced’

What does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current state of pro golf?

The swingin’ 60s? Well, maybe not quite.

“I’m not enjoying playing at all,” sighed Dame Laura Davies with a self-deprecating chuckle as she mulled over the state of her game at 60-years-young.

The 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews could provide a wonderful swansong for this decorated, celebrated champion but Davies herself won’t allow sentiment, and the prospect of a dewy-eyed, visor-doffing last hurrah over the Swilcan Bridge, to cloud her judgement.

“Next year will be the final one of my exemption, but at the moment I don’t think I can tee up,” reflected Davies, who was the guest of honour at the PGA in Scotland’s annual glass-clinking luncheon in Glasgow on Wednesday.

“I’m playing in a few senior events before then and if I show any signs of encouragement at all then I might play. But I don’t want to take someone’s spot. It would be lovely to walk over the bridge on the 18th but not at 35-over-par. It won’t be as much fun.”

About those who left for LIV

It’s all fun and games, meanwhile, in the wider world of golf at the moment. Jon Rahm’s colossal deal with LIV Golf – yes, you can roll your eyes again – has had the kind of earth-shattering impact you’d get with a nuclear weapons test.

So, what does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current situation?

“It just goes to show that everyone has their price,” she said. “The trouble is for these players going to LIV is that there are guys going to fill their boots who are very good players. We’ve already got Ludvig Aberg coming through, another superstar in the making.

“And look at Cam Smith? Would anyone actually know how he is doing with LIV and that he was the Open champion before he went? Nobody really knows how he plays any more.

“Don’t get me wrong. If anyone offered me that kind of money, I’d be there. I’m not criticizing them, but they are easily replaced. Maybe people won’t think about Jon Rahm eventually?”

As for Davies actually sitting down and watching any of LIV Golf’s 54-hole product? She’d probably be more interested in gazing at a bucket of soot.

“I’m not interested in the three rounds or the shotgun start,” she added. “As a sports fan, I like 72-hole championship golf where you finish on the 18th, not the fifth. LIV is not for me.”

Davies was making hay in a different financial era.

1998 JC Penney Classic
Laura Davies and John Daly at the 1998 JC Penney Classic in Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida. (Photo: Vincent Laforet/Allsport)

“My biggest check was $240,000 and that was at the JC Penney event with John Daly in 1999,” she reflected. “I think most of my checks on the LPGA were between $60,000 and $90,000 for winning. In the women’s game especially, it has all changed for the better and good luck to them. I’m not envious of these girls one bit as I love to see it.”

With 87 worldwide wins, including four majors, Davies has such a haul of silverware, her mantelpiece is probably the size of the Hoover Dam.

In the team environment, meanwhile, the Solheim Cup would always stir the senses.

“1992 at Dalmahoy is probably my best memory in Scotland,” she said of an against-the-odds European win over a star-studded American team.

“I still think it’s hugely underrated. If you look back over the last 50 years of sport, it’s one the biggest upsets. I think 10 of the U.S. players were all Hall of Famers. We were just a bunch of players who pretty much turned pro in the four or five years earlier and we beat them. Incredible.”

Pearls of wisdom

Davies continues to offer her pearls of wisdom as a broadcaster of both the men’s and women’s game. One wonders what Joey Barton, the former footballer and full-time crank who has made a series of withering, stone age observations about female football commentators, would make of it all?

“I’m a big fan of the fact that if you’ve been there and done it (in any sport) you can talk about it,” said Davies. “Trish Johnson, Dottie Pepper, Morgan Pressel. All the girls who do golf, they’re all multiple winners and major champions. It’s not at the power level of men’s golf but the pressure is no different. I don’t know why Joey would say something like that?”

After a rapid-fire chinwag, it was time for Davies to receive her PGA recognition award.

“I always loved being the certain of attention on the course … but not off it,” she said with a wry smile.

5 things we want to see on the LPGA in 2024: A dominant player, a legendary sendoff in St. Andrews and more

A marquee major championship venue and the need for a dominant player highlight our 2024 LPGA wish list.

Looking ahead to 2024, it’s once again easy to focus on premiere venues and events on the upcoming LPGA schedule. For starters, it’s an Olympic year and a Solheim Cup year, which means there’s plenty to play for beyond the week-to-week grind. Every shot builds toward making a team or the trip to Paris.

And, once again, there’s a jewel on the 2024 major championship rota that’s a household name among non-golfers: the Old Course at St. Andrews. Surely something magical is in store for the third playing of the AIG Women’s British Open on the historic track.

Here’s a look at five things we’d like to see on the LPGA in 2024:

Vanderbilt’s Jackson Van Paris claims inaugural St. Andrews Links Collegiate title

Jackson Van Paris picked a good place to pick up his first collegiate win.

Jackson Van Paris picked a good place to pick up his first collegiate win.

The junior at Vanderbilt captured the inaugural St. Andrews Links Collegiate on Tuesday in Scotland, shooting 9-under 131 on the Jubilee Course to win by three shots over teammate Cole Sherwood. The duo helped Vanderbilt lock up the top spot for Wednesday’s match play, where the No. 3 Commodores will take on top-ranked North Carolina in the championship match at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

The St. Andrews Links Collegiate features the North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Georgetown and Notre Dame men’s and women’s golf teams. The squads faced off Monday and Tuesday in 36 holes of stroke play. Come Wednesday, there will be match play on both sides.

On the women’s side, North Carolina will also face Vanderbilt, while the Georgetown and Notre Dame teams will battle for third place.

Van Paris fired rounds of 64 and 67 to take the title. Sherwood shot 68-66 to earn runner-up honors. North Carolina’s Peter Fountain finished solo third at 5 under.

In the team competition, Vanderbilt shot 23 under with the Tar Heels finishing five shots behind. Both men and women used a 6-count-5 scoring system instead of the usual 5-count-4 for stroke play.

Stars Gordon Sargent for Vanderbilt and David Ford for North Carolina didn’t play at the course the duo won the Walker Cup at last month because last week, they helped the U.S. win the World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi.

Kayla Smith won the 2023 St. Andrews Links Collegiate.

On the women’s side, it was North Carolina’s Kayla Smith earning medalist honors, finishing at 2-under 138. She won by two shots over Vanderbilt’s Ava Merrill. The Tar Heel women also earned the top seed for match play, finishing at 19 over with Vanderbilt coming in second at 29 over.

Matt Fitzpatrick wins water-logged Alfred Dunhill Links Championship alongside his mom

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.

2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
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.”

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Photos: ‘Water logged courses’ force DP World Tour event to 54-hole Monday finish

More than three inches of rain have fallen since the end of play on Friday.

It’s all too fitting that a DP World Tour event featuring LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is being shortened to 54 holes.

The announcement was made Sunday that, due to water-logged courses, the final round of the 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship would be pushed to Monday, Oct. 9, and that the pro-am event would be reduced to 54 holes, with the top 30 teams and ties making the 36-hole cut. Matt Fitzpatrick currently leads at 13 under, with Grant Forrest and Nacho Elvira T-2 at 12 under.

Weather has been an issue all week for the unique event played annually at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St. Andrews, three of the best golf courses in Scotland. The tour reported that about 3.11 inches of rain had fallen since the end of play Friday.

Aside from its trio of stellar hosts, the event made headlines early last week when it was reported that Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s lucrative Public Investment Fund (PIF), would play the pro-am under the pseudonym Andrew Waterman. Not only that, the 53-year-old is alongside LIV Golf’s Peter Uihlein (T-10) and was in the same group as R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers. Fellow LIV players Laurie Canter (T-16), Louis Oosthuizen (T-40) and Talor Gooch (72) are also in the field as non-members playing on sponsor invites.

Photos: 2023 Walker Cup at the Old Course at St. Andrews

The 49th Walker Cup begins Saturday at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.

The Walker Cup is here.

It’s one of the greatest men’s amateur golf competitions in the world, and it’s set for the Home of Golf. The 2023 Walker Cup begins Saturday at the Old Course at St. Andrews, as the best amateurs from the United States will take on those from Great Britain and Ireland. The Old Course has hosted eight previous Walker Cups, more than any other venue, most recently in 1975, when the USA defeated GB&I, 15½-8½.

The USA leads the all-time series over GB&I, 38-9-1.

The United States’ 10-man roster is highlighted by World No. 1 Gordon Sargent and U.S. Amateur winner Nick Dunlap.

Here’s a look at some of the best photos from the 2023 Walker Cup.

Check the yardage book: The Old Course at St. Andrews for the 2023 Walker Cup

StackaLine offers a hole-by-hole guide for the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.

The Old Course at St. Andrews – host of 2023 Walker Cup in Scotland – wasn’t originally designed so much as it evolved in the early 15th century. Architectural contributions were made hundreds of years later by Daw Anderson in the 1850s and Old Tom Morris a few decades after that.

Known as the Home of Golf, the Old Course ranks No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of classic courses in the United Kingdom and Ireland built before 1960.

The Old Course will be stretched to 7,313 yards with a par of 72 for the 49th Walker Cup, the biennial match between amateurs from the United States versus amateurs from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The length of each hole for the Walker Cup is noted in the captions below.

The teams will play four foursomes matches Saturday morning, eight singles matches Saturday afternoon, four foursomes matches Sunday morning and 10 singles matches Sunday afternoon. (Foursomes is often called alternate-shot in the U.S., and each two-man side will play one ball, alternating shots until the ball is holed.)

The Walker Cup will be broadcast on Golf Channel in the U.S. at 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT on Saturday, then 8 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT Sunday.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players face this week.

Everything to know about the 2023 Walker Cup at St. Andrews

The USA leads the all-time series over GB&A, 38-9-1.

It’s time for one of the greatest men’s amateur competitions in the world, the Walker Cup.

The 49th Walker Cup is set for Sept. 2-3 at the Old Course at St. Andrews. The Walker Cup is a 10-man amateur team competition between the U.S. and Great Britain and Ireland. The Old Course has hosted eight previous Walker Cups, more than any other venue, most recently in 1975, when the USA defeated GB&I, 15½-8½.

The USA leads the all-time series over GB&I, 38-9-1.

The United States’ 10-man roster is highlighted by World No. 1 Gordon Sargent and U.S. Amateur winner Nick Dunlap.

Here’s everything you need to know for the 2023 Walker Cup.

New college golf event coming to Old Course at St. Andrews in October

College golf is heading to the home of golf. 

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College golf is heading to the home of golf.

NBC Sports and the St. Andrews Links Trust have announced the inaugural St. Andrews Links Collegiate Presented by TopGolf and World Wide Technology, to be held at the historic Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, from Oct. 23-25.

The signature three-day event will feature men’s and women’s golf teams from Georgetown, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt with two days of stroke play on the Jubilee Course followed by a day of medal match play on the Old Course at St. Andrews.

“We are honored and proud to partner with St. Andrews Links Trust on this new collegiate invitational at the Home of Golf,” said Tom Knapp, NBC Sports EVP, Golf. “The St. Andrews Links Collegiate elevates and enhances our already impactful college golf platform. We’re excited to have TopGolf and World Wide Technology join us as presenting sponsors, and we’re thrilled to showcase men’s and women’s student athletes from distinguished universities like Georgetown, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt this October in Scotland.”

NBC Sports will present live coverage of the St. Andrews Links Collegiate on Golf Channel and Peacock in the United States. Sky Sports will provide coverage in the U.K.

Added Neil Coulson, the CEO of the St. Andrews Links Trust: “We are delighted to partner with NBC Sports to bring the first collegiate event to the Home of Golf, creating a new invitational which will see some of the game’s brightest young stars from four distinguished institutions compete in the birthplace of the game. We firmly believe this event has the potential to evolve and develop over time, exploring the established U.S. collegiate system as well as institutions further afield to create one of the most anticipated events on the calendar.”

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Gordon Sargent, Michael Thorbjornsen and David Ford named to 2023 United States Walker Cup team at St. Andrews

The top three ranked amateur golfers will represent the United States.

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With the Walker Cup nearly two months away, the United States Golf Association announced Thursday its first three selections to represent the Americans at the Old Course at St. Andrews in September.

Gordon Sargent, Michael Thorbjornsen and David Ford, the top-three golfers in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, will don red, white and blue for the United States in the 49th Walker Cup, set for Sept. 2-3 in Scotland.

“Gordon, Michael and David are fantastic additions to the team,” U.S. captain Mike McCoy said in a release. “Not only have all three of these young men had impressive seasons, resulting in these automatic selections, but they are future stars of our game who bring immense talent, enthusiasm and camaraderie to the team. Having them included in the experience at the Old Course is something I am very much looking forward to both personally and as team captain.”

The USGA’s International Team Selection working group will name a second set of additional players to the 10-member team in late July and will name the final selections to the team and alternates immediately following the U.S. Amateur Championship. The winner of the 2023 U.S. Amateur, set for Aug. 14-20 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado, and the recipient of the 2023 McCormack Medal, should they be American, will earn the final automatic spots onto the team.  The Walker Cup Match is a 10-man amateur team competition between the USA and Great Britain and Ireland. The Old Course has hosted eight previous Walker Cups, more than any other venue, most recently in 1975, when the USA defeated GB&I, 15½-8½, led by future U.S. Open champions Jerry Pate and Curtis Strange.

Sargent, a junior at Vanderbilt, won low amateur honors last week at the 2023 U.S. Open and has won five times in college. And if he participates in the Walker Cup (as he’s expected to), Sargent will be up to 18 points in PGA Tour University Accelerated, meaning he’s only two points shy of automatically securing a PGA Tour card.

Thorbjornsen also qualified for the U.S. Open, his third time in the major championship. He won the Pac-12 Championship for Stanford last month and was named the conference’s Golfer of the Year. Ford, a fellow first-team All-American, was named ACC Player of the Year and led North Carolina to the semifinals of match play at the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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