KIRKBY-IN-ASHFIELD, ENGLAND | There were many ways in which this year’s Brabazon Trophy – formally known as the English Men’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship – was a somewhat discombobulating experience.
For one thing, there is the host club’s name. Although officially titled the Notts Golf Club (Notts itself is short for Nottinghamshire), it is better known as Hollinwell.
Then there is the journey to the course, requiring a drive through old pit country, a landscape scarred and dulled by the large-scale mechanised quest for coal. This is where north England’s green and pleasant land turned grey and sooty.
And yet to turn off the A611 main road onto the single-lane track toward the golf course is to descend into a wide bowl of such lush and verdant nature that the contrast with the wider environment would be laughable were it not simply magnificent.
To add to the feelings of mild disorientation, this year’s Brabazon Trophy also was concluded with an abbreviated round that had echoes of Willie Park Sr.’s victory in the very first Open in 1860 in two trips over 12 holes at Prestwick Golf Club.
For Hollinwell is nothing more or less than an oasis of calm and contentment for any golfer. It is a heathland wonder that creeps across fast-running, sandy terrain with a permanent backdrop of trees originally planted to provide props for the nearby pits (and perhaps create a curtain with which to insulate the middle classes from the realities of local industry).
Moreover, when driving away from the reality of that main road, a traveler also takes a step back in time. Willie Park Jr. designed the course in 1901, and a modern visitor would be only half-surprised if the two-time Open champion should peer from behind a tree and ask whether one had heard the rumour that Robin Hood once sat on the hillside rock above what is now the second green (Sherwood Forest is a handful of modern-day drives away).
Then, the short round was simply how it was. On Sunday, it was a practical decision made in the face of yet more poor weather in a U.K. golf season already marred by persistent rain. Wednesday’s practice day was washed out, so the opening rounds were pushed to Friday and Saturday, whereupon the weather threw another curveball at James Crampton, England Golf’s championship director.
It was not so much the heavy rain forecast for Sunday that presented a problem but more the threat of thunder and lightning. The final round was cancelled, and the third round reduced to those 12 holes.
Two issues were foremost in a decision that, far from being taken lightly, actually caused Crampton considerable anguish. The first was the need to “facilitate a quick course evacuation should it be required,” and the second was “the rules of golf not permitting the number of holes in a round to be reduced once it has commenced.”
Some members of the gallery muttered darkly about the decision, as did some of the competitors, but officials were wary of potentially delicate, if not downright unfair, situations. For example, what if one player flew through the field, led when play was halted, no resumption was possible, and the next option was to revert to 36-hole scores to determine the winner? The grumblers didn’t really have an answer for such an awkward possibility.
So, a shortened shootout it was, and the pre-final round pacesetters appeared to be a little unsure about how to cope with the new circumstances. The leader, Harry Takis from Australia, wilted in the cold rain while England’s Harley Smith, alone in second at the start of play, seemed unsure whether to stick or twist. Takis played his 12 holes in 9-over, probably relieved he didn’t have another six holes to play, while Smith slipped back into a share of sixth.
Scotland’s Gregor Graham, from Blairgowrie, responded best to the unique challenge. Beginning the day four strokes behind Takis, he posted two birdies and six pars over the first eight holes, whereupon he made the walk to the 15th tee past a leaderboard that revealed the final pair’s backtracking.
“Playing a round of 12 holes was a very strange idea at first, but I figured it gave me a big chance to just go for it.”
Gregor Graham
His reaction was decisive. He missed an 8-foot birdie putt on that hole but lashed his drive at the short par-4 16th to 15 feet and two-putted for birdie. Another long drive at the par-5 17th set up a further par-breaker and gave him an edge that allowed for a three-putt bogey at the last.
With a 9-under total of 185, Graham won a one-shot triumph over England’s Daniel Hayes (who was still ruing a missed tiddler early in his round as he left the final green) and Sweden’s Wilhelm Ryding. The latter’s compatriot Wilmer Edero carded the low round of the day (an unlikely 45) in grabbing a share of fourth with England’s Eliot Baker. The biggest cheers of the day, however, were kept for Hollinwell member Jack Sallis, whose birdie at the 17th allowed him to claim a top-10 finish.
Graham was the first Scottish winner of the Brabazon Trophy since Lloyd Saltman in 2005, and Graham emulated another fellow countryman, Sandy Lyle, in winning the championship at Hollinwell. The two-time major winner Lyle achieved his success in 1975. (He won again at Royal Liverpool in 1977.)
“Playing a round of 12 holes was a very strange idea at first, but I figured it gave me a big chance to just go for it,” Graham said. “When I noticed that I was close with four holes to play, I was really pleased with how I responded. I shaved the edge of the hole with my birdie attempt at 15 and hit two great drives at 16 and 17. Driver is probably my strongest club, and I knew I could be quite aggressive on those holes.”
Graham, 20, won the South African Amateur Championship in February, and that journey to the Southern Hemisphere has set him up for the summer.
“It’s always nice to get away from the cold weather of Scotland,” he said. “Winning was 100 percent a big boost to the confidence. I knew I had a chance today, and I’ve learned that you can go for birdies when you’re contending but do it in a patient way.
“I’ve got a big month coming up with the St Andrews Links Trophy, the European Amateur Championship and the Amateur Championship. It’s really exciting to kick it all off with a win here on such an amazing track with great history.”
RESULTS
Matt Cooper