It’s not often you drive the ball so poorly that it hits a human, a dog and a road and then grumbles back onto the 18th fairway as if it didn’t just nearly send multiple species to the emergency room. This is “Caddyshack” without the film set and safety precautions.
Winless in two years, Cameron Smith has returned to the site of his dramatic maiden major triumph in the hopes of recapturing the form that saw him hoist the Claret Jug at the 150th Open St Andrews’ Old Course in 2022.
A little more than 16,000 kilometres and nine time zones from the 18th green of the Old Course at St Andrews, host of this week’s AIG Women’s Open, is a golf course in the outback of Australia with a quirky place in the game.
If all goes to plan, a slightly “braver” target a few yards to the right of the clock will be an option for players in the AIG Women’s Open next August.
The first and 18th holes at the Old Course is a magical stretch of golf, but also one that provides plenty of pressure. It’s common to have pretty big galleries watching golfers start and finish their rounds there—even if they’re not named Harry Styles. Plus, there’s all the history. Oh, the history.
The task at St Andrews Opens is to provoke the best players in the world into displaying their peerless talents to the most evocative extent – no matter the winning score.
Gordon McKie is just the ninth superintendent since old Tom Morris. Amid the modern crises of distance and climate, his watch could be the most critical.
There’s little doubt the R&A is excited about hosting the 150th Open Championship this year at St Andrews. And in the run up to the big event in July, the governing body promises to hold a variety of smaller ones to get the rest of the world equally excited.