Cameron Smith was welcomed to the first tee at the 151st Open on Thursday morning to raucous applause and warmly announced as “the defending champion.” Less friendly, though, was the golf course at Royal Liverpool as the Australian began his title defence with a one-over-par 72.
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.
The rakes aren’t the ones Royal Liverpool Golf Club usually uses, according to one member of the club. They’ve been put into play especially for Open week, and the issue specifically is that they’re wide tooth rakes.
It has happened before, but not since 1985 when Manuel Ballesteros joined his wee brother, Seve, in the Open Championship field at Royal St George’s alongside another pair of siblings, Tateo and Naomichi Ozaki from Japan. So the sight of Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick and Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard in the starting line-up this week is unusual rather than unique.
The moves complete the shift in venues brought on by the decision to call off this year’s Open at Royal St George’s in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australian Golf Digest
