ST ANDREWS, Scotland — Greg Norman was not invited to St Andrews this week in hopes the focus would stay on the 150th Open Championship, according to the folks running golf’s oldest tournament.
That was the R&A’s plan at least, and for the most part, it worked. The constant LIV Golf rumours and speculation that hijacked the run-ups to the PGA Championship, the RBC Canadian Open, and the U.S. Open have been more or less absent here at the Home of Golf. Of course, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that no LIV players were brought in for press conferences, or that Phil Mickelson is playing in a less-than-star-studded group with Lucas Herbert and Kurt Kitayama. On a whole, however, the elephant in the room has been noticeably missing.
If that was the goal it was slightly surprising on Wednesday when Chief Executive of the R&A Martin Slumbers met with media at St Andrews, and dove right into it during his opening remarks.
“We all know the disruption that men’s professional golf is facing and the potential impact it could have on the structure of the game,” Slumbers said. “We’ve been saying for some time now that our purpose of the R&A is to ensure that golf is thriving in 50 years’ time and that it remains strong at all levels, from grassroots through to the professional game.
“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” he went on. “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.”
More importantly, Slumbers offered unprompted that the R&A does not plan to ban LIV golfers from competing in The Open going forward but that the governing body intends to review their exemptions and qualifications criteria for next year’s championship. The unmistakable suggestion being that it likely will get harder for LIV golfers to play for the Claret Jug beginning next year without going through open qualifying.
O CANADA
Mackenzie Hughes’ best finish at a major was last year at Royal St. George’s, finishing sixth in his first appearance at the Open Championship. That week in England earned him his first trip to the Home of Golf this week for another crack at links golf.
Hughes played the Old Course for the first time on Monday, before playing his second practice round of the week on Tuesday with fellow Canuck Corey Conners, the only other Canadian in the field. The pair made the most of their day, ribbing each other as they tried to get the ball back in play from the road on the famous 17th, and posing for plenty of photos on the Swilcan Bridge.
“It’s amazing, I’m loving it so far,” Hughes told Postmedia. “The wind has been quite similar all week but from a slightly different angle and it’s been two different golf courses.”
Conners also had a good result last year at Royal St. George’s, finishing T15. Hughes’s first experience playing links golf was in 2011 at the British Amateur and then the next year at Royal Troon. There weren’t many trips to linksland between those rounds and last year’s great finish at Royal St. George’s (he’s been busy), but Hughes’ short game and putting skills would seem to make him a good fit for the game’s oldest style of play.
“That was the start of it and I’ve loved it ever since,” he said. “There’s so many different ways to play and every day plays so different. That’s what is so fun about being over here.”
Watching Hughes practice this week, he was the only player I saw who routinely got the ball to the hole on long putts, most everyone else lagging it conservatively short. That could be a good sign for the streaky 31-year-old from Dundas, Ont. who has had a knack for holing long putts over his career. Hughes was also the only player spotted using a wedge instead of a putter from roadside at 17.
“I could be out there for hours and just have so much fun hitting all those shots because there are just endless ways to do it,” Hughes said.
Hughes wouldn’t be the first player to find a spark and an awakening in his game at the Old Course.
TIPS FOR LINKS
Plenty of the world’s best are still learning how to play links golf, after spending much of their professional career on American courses.
Jordan Spieth says you’ve got to be easy on yourself: “You just have to have grace,” he said. “You have to give yourself grace because you can hit a putt with the exact same ball speed, two different putts, and depending on which wind hit it, they can be 10 to 15 feet away from each other … and the more you become frustrated by it the next one becomes exponentially harder.”
Scottie Scheffler says he has had to modify and lengthen his putting stroke for the slower greens: “At the beginning of the week, I was kind of still popping the ball in my stroke,” the world No. 1 said. “I was kind of hitting it instead of rolling it. Basically what I did was just get out there and get adjusted and just kind of get my mind in tune to the slower green speeds.”
Cam Smith says you need every shot in the book, and lots of luck: “You have to have all the shots down pat out there,” the Aussie said. “There’s going to be some pretty ugly spots you get yourself into out there. Links golf is trying to hit the perfect shot and hoping for the best … You’ve got to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
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