When the 150th Open Championship begins at St Andrews on Thursday, there will be 11 Australians taking part. A century ago there was only one, and if not for one dramatic collapse he would have been Australia’s first Open champion.
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.
The first hole Justin Thomas ever played at St Andrews, back in 2013, gave him an incredible story that could probably only be topped by winning the Open at the Home of Golf.
The rapid six-year gap between Opens is nothing like the wait from 1951 to 2019 and a further endorsement of the triumph of that staging two years ago.
Collin Morikawa is a multiple-Major winner, Jordan Spieth remains the best show in golf, and the Open Championship scratched a links-golf itch two years in the making.
While nothing is official, multiple reports in the UK and Ireland last weekend hinted that the R&A is leaning towards returning to Royal Portrush after the Northern Ireland course hosted most recently in 2019.
Australian Golf Digest
