“Home favourite” has always been a label imbued with good and bad vibes. The biggest benefit is obvious: support from one’s own people always carries with it a psychological boost. But there is a downside in the added pressure the recipient can feel in trying not to let anyone down.
Royal Liverpool member Matthew Jordan knew he was never going to walk alone, even when his girlfriend had to leave the gallery Thursday morning to go to work.
The current majors rota of the Masters, US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship has been established since 1934, when the Masters was inaugurated, and since then, there hasn’t seemed to be much appetite from fans or the golf establishment to add to that. Chamblee calls that thinking “antiquated”.
So far the proposal has elicited strong, emotional responses from all walks of the game, but R&A boss Martin Slumbers said there have been two areas receiving the most interest.
The hope is that the African Amateur Championship will give players from Africa a pathway into the top amateur and professional events, and is part of a wider R&A effort to develop the sport in the continent.
The 43-year-old New Zealander was one of 13 Australasian players to earn a place in golf’s most feted major championship, yet in a heartbreaking Instagram post on May 15, he announced publicly for the first time that he had withdrawn after being diagnosed with leukaemia.
Playing in The Open is a long way to have come from the days in 2020 when he rather famously returned to his Western Australian Golf Club to work as a greenkeeper because there was nowhere for him to play.
Australian Golf Digest
