4 minute read
Editor’s Letter
Openly biased
KENT GRAY kent.gray@motivate.ae • Twitter: @KentGrayGolf / @GolfDigestME
H
IDEKI MATSUYAMA’S historic Masters moment, Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship win for the ages, Jon Rahm’s poetic comeback from COVID-19 at the U.S. Open.
The 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s surely can’t top the theatre of Augusta National, Kiawah Island and Torrey Pines, can it? Then again, the oldest and grandest championship of them all has been pretty handy at serving up the extraordinary ever since Willie Park Snr. fi rst donned the Challenge Belt – the precursor to the modern day Claret Jug – in 1860.
After the year we’d all rather forget, the championship’s return to Sandwich for the 15th Open can’t come soon enough. The postponement of the Ryder Cup last year was a downer but for golf traditionalists, the cancellation of The Open was just as traumatic. Summer just isn’t summer without our annual fi x of British linksland drama.
Sir Nick Faldo’s victories at Muirfi eld (1987 and 1992) and St Andrews (1990), with narration from the inimitable Peter Alliss, remain indelible memories for the author. Mark Calcavecchia’s four-hole playoff victory over Greg Norman and Wayne Grady on the parched fairways of Royal Troon in 1989 also strangely evokes welcomed fl ashbacks.
Just seven years after my boyhood hero Faldo hugged the Claret Jug for the fi nal time, imagine my giddy excitement when I found myself perched atop a giant Royal Troon dune guarding the ‘Postage Stamp’. Superstars I’d previously only seen on TV attempted precarious recovery shots from within touching of my vantage point on the shortest par 3 in major championship golf. I was smitten. Links golf, the way the game was intended to be played, had truly stolen my heart.
There’s something diff erent, almost spiritual, about The Open where the rota of famous layouts builds comfortable familiarity while the severity of the weather ensures you never quite know what you’re going to get next. Sunburn and hypothermia can be bedfellows on the same day and sometimes from one hole to the next. The Open even sounds diff erent with the galleries off ering a unique, orchestral applause for quality strikes and knowing gasps as title shots are blown off course, often literally. And it all carries across the course on the wind. Oh, the wind.
If the pandemic hadn’t of gone and upended everything, we’d be preparing for The Open’s Sesquicentennial anniversary at the Home of Golf this month. While that celebration at St Andrews is on ice for another year, don’t discount another remarkable ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’ emerging this month. History hints as much.
BC - before COVID - The Open has only ever been interrupted three times: in 1871 when there was no trophy to present after Young Tom Morris had won three successive times and kept the Challenge Belt as per the rules of the time, and by the Great Wars (WWI from 1915-1919 and WWII from 1940-45).
After each hiatus, a big name has triumphed. Young Tom made it four successive wins at Prestwick in 1872, fellow Scot George Duncan, known as the “pro’s pro” in his day, won at Royal Cinque Ports in 1920 while Slammin’ Sammy Snead was the victor on the Old Course in 1946.
So maybe Hideki, Lefty and Rahmbo will have good company as the sun (or will it be wind and rain) settles on July 18. If that day comes even close to the drama of Stewart Cinks’ playoff victory over Tom Watson in 2009, the quality of Henrik Stenson’s final day duel with Mickelson in 2016, Shane Lowry’s six-stroke runaway at Royal Portrush two summers ago or any number of unforgettable Open Championship before that, the fi nal major of the year might just steal the show again. Here’s hoping
editor-in-chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer managing partner & group editor Ian Fairservice
editor Kent Gray art director Clarkwin Cruz editorial assistant Londresa Flores instruction editors Luke Tidmarsh, Euan Bowden, Tom Ogilvie, Matthew Brooks, Alex Riggs chief commercial officer Anthony Milne publisher David Burke general manager - production S. Sunil Kumar assistant production manager Binu Purandaran
THE GOLF DIGEST PUBLICATIONS editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde
director, business development &
partnerships Greg Chatzinoff international editor Ju Kuang Tan
GOLF DIGEST USA editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde general manager Chris Reynolds editorial director Max Adler executive editor Peter Morrice art director Chloe Galkin managing editors Alan P. Pittman, Ryan Herrington (News) chief playing editor Tiger Woods playing editors Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Tom Watson
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