It was a week that every professional golfer hopes to have – one where you’re in control of all facets of your game during a four-day span on the game’s biggest stage where everything seems as easy as ever.
Travis Smyth, the 28-year-old Asian Tour pro from Kiama in New South Wales who played part of last year on LIV Golf, may not claim the claret jug this year, but he can always claim a Hoylake tournament first.
It wasn’t the flat patch of land or Hoylake’s calm conditions that defined the opening 18 holes of the year’s final men’s major, but, rather, the devilish bunkers (81 overall) that litter the place.
Against a changing golf and socio-economic landscape, the head of the R&A said he would not rule out the governing body getting into business with Saudi Arabia.
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championship, yet in a heartbreaking Instagram post on May 15, he announced publicly for the first time that he had withdrawn after being diagnosed with leukaemia.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.