Tag: The R&A

This major champion believes his COVID-born tour could become a major feeder league

The winner of this flourishing tour’s order of merit next year will gain promotion to the Challenge Tour.

He may officially be classed as a senior in golfing terms but Paul Lawrie is not one to kick back and doze off.

With the kind of tireless energy that those Duracell bunnies used to display in adverts for long-lasting batteries, the 53-year-old keeps on going with all manner of endeavors and enterprises. And it’s not just golf that enjoys his presence. This week, in his native Aberdeen, Scotland, the 1999 Open champion will be on the tennis court sidelines as a guest coach to the Murray brothers, Andy and Jamie, in the Battle of the Brits.

“As it’s in Aberdeen they’ve obviously thought, ‘right, what idiot can we get from the city to help out?” said Lawrie with a self-deprecating chuckle.

This tennis lark will be a bit of fun away from Lawrie’s serious business of developing golf in his homeland. On that front, the Scot continues to serve up, well, a few aces. The other day, it was announced that the winner of his flourishing Tartan Pro Tour order of merit next year will gain promotion to the Challenge Tour, the second-tier of European professional golf.

For a mini-circuit that was only formed in 2020, amid the ravages of the COVID pandemic, it’s a significant progression in its development.

The demise of the PGA EuroPro Tour this season after 20 years offered an opportunity to fill a void and Lawrie and his team have seized the chance.
When the Tartan Pro Tour launched a couple of years ago, to provide playing opportunities when lower-level circuits had been decimated due to COVID, it had six events. In 2023, it will boast 13, 54-hole tournaments at some tremendous venues across Scotland.

Scotland’s Paul Lawrie kisses the British Open trophy after his victory in the playoff during the 128th Open Championship at Carnoustie in Scotland, in this July 18, 1999 file photo.

“This was always the dream,” said Lawrie. “When we started, we wanted a pathway for players from our tour onto the Challenge Tour. We were actively trying to get a Challenge Tour spot before the EuroPro Tour closed down but there weren’t any additional spots and, to be honest, we thought we might never get one. But suddenly we woke up one day to the news that the EuroPro was being discontinued. Now, I’m certainly not wallowing in that tour’s demise. It was a huge pity but this is business and there was an opportunity for us. They (the Challenge Tour) will review it every year. It’s up to us to grow ours as much as we can to then try to get more Challenge Tour spots. That’s our new goal.”

With more connections than the railway network – well, when they’re not on bloomin’ strike – Lawrie has attracted some sturdy partners to bolster his project.

“When you have good companies and backers behind you, then you’ll go places,” he added of this valuable assistance. “We have Farmfoods and the R&A, for instance. There are things you can do with that kind of support and you can do it pretty quickly.”

As a come-all-ye playing platform for various walks of golfing life, Lawrie’s tour attracted plenty of female entrants over the last couple of seasons. While no discussions have taken place about a possible tie-in with the Ladies European Tour, Lawrie would be keen to open a dialogue.

“We are willing to work with anyone and would certainly have that conversation,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity to progress the career of any golfer then I’m open to discussion.”

Combining competitive action on the over-50s circuit with his myriad ventures back home, Lawrie, who won again on the Legends Tour this summer, takes great pride in his own circuit which is offering a way up the professional ladder.

“It’s probably been the most satisfying thing I’ve done,” he said. “When we first looked at it, all we wanted to do was provide something to play in during COVID. We sort of fell into it a bit. Starting with six events was manageable. Had we gone in with more it would have been a huge undertaking but we have grown as the tour has grown. I spend more time on this than anything.

“If I’m not playing golf, then I’m in my office trying to get people involved with our tour and constantly working to keep it moving forward. To see it get to the level it has in such a short period of time is hugely rewarding.”

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See how the USGA’s rules and ideals kept things fair for golfers with various challenges at the debut U.S. Adaptive Open

The USGA is working to ensure everyone has a chance to play and reasonably compete against one another.

On the 18th hole of his final round at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, Matthew Fitzpatrick’s tee shot went left and landed in a fairway bunker, a few feet from the fescue-covered lip.

Walking to the ball, he talked with his caddie, then looked at the lie. After reaching into his bag and grabbing a club, Fitzpatrick dug his feet into the sand and addressed the ball. His shot got airborne quickly and landed on the green. After walking to the green, he bent down, placed a marker behind the ball, picked it up and then two-putted for a par that won him his first major championship.

The Rules of Golf clearly state several things Fitzpatrick had to do (and could not do) as he played that hole. He had to walk the hole, he could not ground his club or touch the sand in the bunker and he had to mark the ball himself. Fitzpatrick could not anchor his putter as he made a stroke, and his caddie could not stand behind him as he putted.

However, at this week’s U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst No. 6, many golfers were unable to do the things Fitzpatrick did playing that hole.

Some can’t walk, so they got around the course using specially designed vehicles, while others who have lost a leg used traditional golf carts. Some golfers were unable to see the ball because they are visually impaired or blind, and other golfers played with intellectual impairments. 

But these players at Pinehurst, North Carolina — from 29 states and 11 countries — played just like their able-bodied counterparts. Thanks to the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities, developed by the U.S. Golf Association and The R&A with input from adaptive organizations developed in 1996, they were able to compete for a national championship for the first time — inspiring others like them to try the game.

As the organization tasked with developing and updating the Rules of Golf, the USGA wanted the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities to create an environment where golfers with physical or intellectual challenges can play fairly with players with no disabilities, with the same disability or different types of disabilities. 

“Looking back to that time, this wasn’t [the USGA] looking at the Rule of Golf and trying to figure out how to create a new game,” said Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director for Rules of Golf and amateur status. “This was trying to reach out to those communities and understand what adaptations are needed to be able to allow them to play the game of golf. And play the game of golf under a set of rules.”

That means considering many things able-bodied golfers take for granted, developing appropriate accommodations and then being open-minded and aware in the future to modify those accommodations as needed.

2022 U.S. Adaptive Open
Sophia Howard looks at her options on the 10th hole fairway during the first round at the 2022 U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst in North Carolina. (Photo: Jeff Haynes/USGA)

For example, Fitzpatrick’s eyes and experience allowed him to make judgments about how to play his bunker shot at Brookline on Sunday, but faced with the same shot, a blind golfer could not know how the ball rested in the sand, whether it was on an upslope, downslope or a flat lie and how close the lip of the bunker was to the ball.

“If you’re in a bunker, well, that’s a really challenging thing when you can’t see or you have very limited site,” Winter said. “And so there is an exception in [Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities] for players who are visually impaired, where you’re allowed to touch the sand before you you make a stroke out of a bunker. It’s more of like a practical set of exceptions.”

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In that way, the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities acted as a set of common sense concepts that can help create consistency. They also allowed players to get special assistance from others while they play. 

Blind golfers used a coach (or guide), who was allowed to help them with alignment and who they were able to get advice from before playing a shot. They were also able to use a caddie, and a player’s caddie can do many things that non-disabled players often do for themselves, like mark a ball on the green, something that would have been challenging for golfers with only one leg or who played exclusively from a cart. A coach and caddie can be the same person, but someone designated as only a coach was not allowed to touch a player’s clubs, and golfers were only allowed to have one coach.

Intellectually impaired golfers were able to get help from an aide who followed a player and assisted with etiquette and getting around the course. 

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While the Rules of Golf that non-disabled golfers play by is filled with specific instances and rulings, the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities were intentionally written more loosely to allow officials to interpret situations on a case-by-case basis if necessary. Each golfer who played under the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities could have different needs and challenges, so the rules need to accommodate them.

“Ultimately, we’ve decided to go to the simpler side, and there are many individuals that will say, ‘Well, that means they’re actually less fair,'” Winter said. “When you get really complicated, you’re trying to have a whole bunch of nuances. You know, this is for this and this for that, and it becomes just so difficult. Not just for players, but for rules officials too, to make sure that [each ruling is] right. So we went to the simpler side.

“We wanted the rules to be easy to understand and apply. That was the message that we have been sharing for some time that really carries the day. It does lead to what some might see being unfair. However, the rules are applied equally across the entire field. So there is a fairness element to making sure that if everybody’s playing by the same set of rules, everybody is, in fact, being treated equally.”

2022 U.S. Adaptive Open
Cindy Lawrence hits her tee shot on the 12th during the first round of the 2022 U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. (Photo: Jeff Haynes/USGA)

And that’s all the contestants at this week’s U.S. Adaptive Open were looking for, to be treated equally.

If there was a shortcoming concerning the Modified Rules for Players With Disabilities, it’s that they are not written into the Rules of Golf. Technically, they are only in effect when adopted through local rule by the person or group in charge of a competition. However, the governing bodies are looking for ways to ensure the game can be more inclusive, especially for players with disabilities. So, don’t be surprised if this is addressed in the next revision of the Rules of Golf in January 2023.

The Rules of Golf apply to every golfer, and they are an integral part of the game. As more players come to the sport, the USGA is working to ensure everyone has a chance to play and reasonably compete against one another.

Editor’s note: This is the third article of a four-part series explaining the mission of the United States Golf Association. The USGA, which governs the game of golf in Mexico and the United States, serves several functions. What exactly is the USGA? Why is the organization important? This series delves into these questions and others. This article looks at governance and how the organization that creates the rules of golf shapes them to make the game more inclusive and welcoming to players of not just every ability level but also those with unique challenges.

 

 

Lynch: The British Open and Tiger Woods are showing LIV golfers their new reality, and they won’t like it

Finally, someone in golf’s government delivered the unambiguous clarity required to combat the Saudi effort to hijack the game.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Long before Paul Lawrie clipped the first ball off the ancient linksland of the Old Course to begin the 150th Open Championship, it was obvious that the Royal & Ancient was stiff-arming the royal and affluent of LIV Golf this week in St. Andrews.

The maladroit CEO of the Saudi-funded splinter circuit, Greg Norman, won two Opens yet was deemed undeserving of a place at either the past champions’ dinner or the Celebration of Champions exhibition, which are held only when the Open is contested at golf’s ancestral home. That his exclusion was publicly endorsed by multiple players illustrates the disdain with which Norman is widely viewed, but the R&A also suspected he would use the Open to pimp LIV Golf.

The R&A’s chief executive, Martin Slumbers, didn’t stop at wrapping the Great White Pilot Fish in a newspaper and marking him ‘Return to Sender’ to Riyadh. He was strident in making clear his determination to defend the Open but also his willingness to enlist the championship in defense of the broader sport.

“We have been asked quite frequently about banning players. Let me be very clear. That’s not on our agenda,” he said, briefly providing Norman another hopeful moment at a major that was soon dashed. “What is on our agenda is that we will review our exemptions and qualifications criteria for The Open. Players have to earn their place in The Open, and that is fundamental to its ethos and its unique global appeal.”

Slumbers left no doubt that LIV Golf — its ranks oversubscribed with banged-up veterans and no-name journeymen — isn’t a valid pathway into golf’s greatest championship. “Professional golfers are entitled to choose where they want to play and to accept the prize money that’s offered to them. I have absolutely no issue with that at all. But there is no such thing as a free lunch,” he said. “I believe the model we’ve seen at Centurion and Pumpkin Ridge is not in the best long-term interests of the sport as a whole and is entirely driven by money. We believe it undermines the merit-based culture and the spirit of open competition that makes golf so special.”

To players who hoped to continue taking spots in majors based on the vapors of past accomplishments, Slumbers made clear he’s not having it. The Open will remain open to the best players in the world, he insisted, while emphasizing that LIV members are no longer actually proving themselves against the best. The Open will not be used by emeritus golfers who took the lazy, lucrative option.

150th Open Championship: Tee times | Leaderboard

Slumbers then tied a bow around his ‘get lost’ letter to LIV: “In my opinion, the continued commentary that this is about growing the game is just not credible and if anything, is harming the perception of our sport which we are working so hard to improve.”

Finally, someone in golf’s government delivered the unambiguous clarity required to combat the Saudi effort to hijack the professional game.

LIV Golf players competing in St. Andrews can’t have missed the chill, in person and on paper. Ian Poulter, who used lawyers to force his way into the field at last week’s Scottish Open, was booed on the first tee. His starting time — fourth group out, in the company of two little-known Europeans — befitted a 46-year-old ranked outside the top 100 and seven years removed from his last top 10 finish at a major. Some of his fellow travelers might have expected more grace on the pairings sheet, but Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen — a runaway winner here in 2010 — all found themselves far short of marquee group status. Only Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson could boast playing partners of real stature.

The LIV defectors shouldn’t expect their reception in the locker room to remain collegial either, if the words of Tiger Woods are an indicator. “I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position,” he said.

Sniping about loyalty aside, Woods cut to the jugular of LIV — competition, or the lack thereof, and left the impression that he regards its players as akin to Harlem Globetrotters who think they’re entitled to a spot on the roster of Steph Curry’s Warriors, mere entertainers with a guarantee and not athletes with a hunger.

“What is the incentive to practice? What is the incentive to go out there and earn it in the dirt? You’re just getting paid a lot of money upfront and playing a few events and playing 54 holes,” he said with barely-disguised contempt. “I can understand 54 holes is almost like a mandate when you get to the Senior tour. The guys are a little bit older and a little more banged up. But when you’re at this young age and some of these kids — they really are kids who have gone from amateur golf into that organization — 72-hole tests are part of it.”

“I just don’t see how that move is positive in the long term for a lot of these players, especially if the LIV organization doesn’t get world-ranking points and the major championships change their criteria for entering the events. It would be sad to see some of these young kids never get a chance to experience what we’ve got a chance to experience and walk these hallowed grounds and play in these championships.”

Thus LIV’s desperation to obtain world ranking points for its events. The process for a new tour to be granted such status is complex and lengthy, and LIV doesn’t meet several key criteria, but Norman is demanding affirmation a week after filing the application. He knows LIV can only survive as a parasite on the legacy model it vows to upend, can only gain traction and respectability by using the apparatus of the establishment he loathes — chiefly, world ranking points and major championships.

Slumbers made clear that he will defend the integrity of the sport against the stain of Saudi ownership, a war distinct from the lesser battle being waged by the PGA and DP World tours against LIV. It’s not outlandish to assume that his peers will make equally clear that their major championships won’t become collateral damage in this conflict.

A week intended to celebrate a century-and-a-half of history has instead become a polite cage fight for the future. Those surprised by Slumbers’ intervention will have been astonished by that of Woods. For the entirety of his public life, which neatly overlaps with his entire adult life, Woods defiantly avoided being conscripted into causes he didn’t believe were his, social or political. He always did and said what was best for Tiger, and what was usually best for Tiger was doing and saying nothing. But this week, Woods chose sides and made clear his willingness to fight those who would auction golf to the Saudis for their own enrichment. In the fullness of time, those two long-ago Claret Jugs might not be the most significant contribution he makes to this game in St. Andrews.

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As St. Andrew’s prepares for 150th Open, remembering ‘jut-jawed powerhouse’ Tom Kidd and his 1873 win

The Open of 1873 was staged during the R&A’s autumn meeting. It was very much second fiddle.

It’s all happening at the Old Course — a modern-day Open Championship requires the kind of epic production process that the MGM big-wigs embarked on with Ben-Hur.

Grandstands are rising up here, scoreboards are emerging there and the clatters, batters and clanks of hectic industry are generating more racket than Charlton Heston’s chariot race.

Last weekend’s declaration during the Masters by Tiger Woods, meanwhile, that he’ll be at St. Andrews for July’s 150th showpiece whipped up such a flurry of excitement, the weather vane on top of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse just about birled itself crooked.

It should be quite the celebration of golf’s most cherished major. The Herald newspaper had already been on the go for 77 years when the first Open was staged at Prestwick in 1860. Since then, this fine auld organ has reported on every championship. The only omissions, for whatever reason, were the Opens of 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868 and 1870.

“One is tempted to suggest that the sports editor of the time should be retrospectively sacked,” wrote the late, much-missed Douglas Lowe in The Herald Book of The Open Championship. Funnily enough, some readers have suggested the current golf writer should be immediately sacked.

With St. Andrews gearing up for a major milestone this summer, let’s have a venture back in time to 1873 when the Old Course staged its first Open.

It was the first time too that the Claret Jug was officially presented. Young Tom Morris, the superstar of the day, had won the title for a fourth time the previous year but there was no trophy to give him. His name, though, was etched on to the spanking new silver pitcher prior to the 1873 championship.

“To win a trophy that Tommy Morris’ name was on was a real badge of honor,” said esteemed St. Andrews golf historian Roger McStravick.

In 1873, the badge of honor – and the Claret Jug – belonged to Tom Kidd, a 25-year-old Open debutant described as a “jut-jawed powerhouse” who won by a shot from Jamie Anderson. The Herald’s fairly modest report of affairs, which was shoehorned under news of a miners’ strike at the North Motherwell and Braidhurst collieries, suggested Kidd played “a strong game, but if deficient in any way it is when on the greens.”

“He was almost damned by faint praise,” added McStravick.

The weather in the build-up to the championship had been particularly foul with biblical downpours leaving pools of water all over the links.

“In those days, of course, you played it where it lay,” noted McStravick. “There was no distinction between casual water and water hazards. Players could lift out of water only under penalty. There’s a great photo from the late 1800s of Freddie Tait playing a ball floating on water. For some of us, it’s bad enough hitting a stationary ball let alone one that’s bobbing about in a puddle.”

The Open of 1873 was staged during the Royal & Ancient’s autumn meeting. It was very much second fiddle.

“The pros playing in The Open were all working class and they were, effectively, getting in the way of the gentlemen’s game,” said McStravick of this fairly slap-dash arrangement. “It would be like saying to Tiger, ‘can you please hurry this up, we’ve got our own golf to play.’ There were no course closures or big preparations back then. It could be all rather chaotic.”

Kidd won with rounds of 91 and 88. In something of a trail-blazing move, he’d etched basic grooves onto his iron clubs to generate more backspin. “That wouldn’t have sat well with the purists,” added McStravick of Kidd’s innovative efforts to steal a march on his rivals.

As well as the Claret Jug and the plaudits, Kidd’s Open win earned him about $15. Not quite the $2 million-plus that gets handed out today.

“He had to pay a deposit to receive the Claret Jug,” explained McStravick. “Officials would be worried that, because of his working-class status, he’d flog it.”

Kidd didn’t find much fame or fortune. He died 11 years after his triumph and is buried in an unmarked grave in St. Andrews.

As the Old Course prepares for a very special anniversary in July, however, a few bunnets will be doffed to the man who was both the first champion of a St. Andrews Open and the first to hoist the Claret Jug.

Nick Rodger is a correspondent for Newsquest, a subsidiary of Gannett and part of the USA Today Network.

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5 things to watch for at the AIG Women’s British: A Cinderella returns, Solheim Cup drama and a ‘Car-nasty finish’

The fifth and final LPGA major of 2021 is at Carnoustie in Scotland. Here’s a primer to get you ready.

Not a single shot has been struck in the fifth and final major of the year yet, but the tournament is already buzzing after the AIG Women’s British Open announced a purse increase of $1.3 million to $5.8 million, making it the largest prize in women’s golf.

What’s more, in 2022 the purse will increase by another $1 million to $6.8 million when the event moves to Muirfield for the first time.

“We believe that this action to make changes sends a strong signal that more needs to be done,” said Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, “and I believe can be done, by everyone involved in our sport.”

On that high note, here are five things to look for this week at the Women’s British Open.