SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND | The first day of the Sunningdale Foursomes has a lot in common with “The Wind in the Willows,” the classic children’s book written by Kenneth Grahame.
Because, like the characters Ratty and Mole, the golfers are emerging from winter hibernation, excited for the many possibilities that lie ahead this spring and summer.
Like the old Badger, many veterans cast wise eyes across the putting green, past the old oak tree, to the 18th hole of the Sunningdale Golf Club’s Old Course.
Like the rascally Toad, Sunningdale legend and one-time Ryder Cup player Michael “Queenie” King has a twinkle in his eye at the clubhouse bar.
And, like the Wild Wood, the Old and the New courses offer adventure, but there is also threat within the trees.
As always, this year’s tournament draw presented an unparalleled cast of golfing characters: men and women, pros and amateurs, veterans and teenagers, unknowns from the farthest corners of golf and superstars from other sports.
Ahead of their first-round matches the former Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid footballer Gareth Bale chatted with his occasional practice playing partner at Wentworth, the three-time tennis Grand Slam champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Andy Murray.
Close by them, 13-year-old Bella Watson putted away, trying to believe it was a perfectly normal day even though a perfectly normal day would have seen her sat behind a desk at school. Instead she and her coach, Tom Jordan, eventually won their opening match, setting up a second-round clash with her hero Charley Hull and her partner, the former DP World Tour player Ryan Evans.
Hull and Evans would win that encounter, but Watson had been thrilled by the experience, not least because, far from spooking her, playing in front of a gallery had lifted her performance.
In that, it turned out, she had much in common with Murray.
Throughout his career on the tennis court he often made a point of using the crowd to his advantage, establishing a rapport with them for a burst of energy or using them as fuel for a fightback.
“I couldn’t believe how many people were set to follow us from the first tee. It added to the nerves a little but that’s no bad thing because it gives me the sort of buzz I don’t experience any more.”
Andy Murray
Last Tuesday he utilised a similar form of crowd engagement when the tournament’s biggest galleries in recent memory followed him and his partner, the DP World Tour player Eddie Pepperell, in their first-round match on the club’s Old Course.
“I couldn’t believe how many people were set to follow us from the first tee,” he laughed afterwards of a gallery of about 250 to 300 people. “It added to the nerves a little but that’s no bad thing because it gives me the sort of buzz I don’t experience any more. And I always felt in tennis that if I was flat I didn’t play so well whereas when there’s pressure, and the adrenaline is flowing, my concentration improved.”
He was also aware of a contrast to the pro-am section of the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which he won alongside Pepperell last October.
“The Dunhill is an amazing experience,” he said. “To be around great golfers, to watch them up close and learn from them. But it also doesn’t really matter if you hit a shot 50 yards right whereas this week there are consequences to missing a putt or hitting a bad drive.”
He also admitted to an extra novelty in that it was his first experience of the foursomes (or alternate-shot) format. He had been warned of the inherent difficulties of it, but he was also immediately alive to the benefits on this particular occasion.
“I figure that I’m playing with Eddie who’s a great golfer,” he said. “He’s going to be leaving me in some great positions and he’s also going to get me out of some really bad ones. So it’s not a bad deal really.”
Sunningdale victors Ellie Lichtenhein and Jamie McGeoch
Kevin Diss Photography
Was the revival of the partnership the consequence of an Edoardo Molinari Ryder Cup-like algorithm? Or did the pair just want to ride the Dunhill vibes?
“Definitely the latter,” laughed Pepperell. “I knew he wanted some competitive golf so I messaged him at Christmas with the words: ‘Sunningdale: fancy it?’ and he did.”
Pepperell admitted to a few nerves of his own on the first tee, but it was their opponents who were a little more twitchy. For the middle-aged pairing of Francois Illouz from Golf de Montfortaine in France and Thomas Gottstein, a Sunningdale member from Switzerland, it was a sensational draw but also a very intimidating one even before they clocked the galleries.
Moreover their opponents were not just big names with a large gallery, they also made a very solid golfing package. The Englishman Pepperell brought all the skill and nous you would expect of a two-time DP World Tour winner while his Scottish partner provided excellent support.
Murray’s opening blow, a solid mid-iron from the left rough to the fairway at the par-5 first, set the tone. Thereafter he could be long from the tee when required, had good control of his irons and was composed when faced with tricky par putts.
He was delighted when Colin Montgomerie said hello shortly after the turn. The former Ryder Cup star lives five minutes from the course and strolled along with his wife, Sarah, to offer his compatriot support.
The tournament was won by Jamie McGeoch and Ellie Lichtenhein, who defeated Jordan Loft and Jamie Dick, 3 and 2, in the final. Aged 17 and 16 respectively, they are the youngest-ever winning pairing in the tournament’s 92-year history and Lichtenheim is the first Sunningdale member to win it since John Stansbury (with Stiggy Hodgson) in 2009.
A sporting warrior himself, Montgomerie nodded in appreciation of Murray’s game and said: “He’s competitive for sure.”
Pepperell’s friend and fellow DP World Tour winner Tom Lewis was also in the gallery, as were Murray’s mother, Judy, and the Scottish snooker player Stephen Hendry, once the undisputed No. 1 in the game.
After completing a 6-and-5 victory Murray was relieved that only one shot had genuinely discomforted him. “I duffed a chip,” he said with a wry smile. “I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to play it. No commitment and I messed it up. Otherwise it was not too bad.”
“He played brilliantly,” added Pepperell. Alas, their progress was halted in the second round, but the experience whetted Murray’s appetite and reiterated the pleasure he is getting from golf.
After last September’s BMW PGA Championship pro-am he talked of the targets he had in mind to further his game, one of which was to enter regional qualifying for the Open Championship.
“I don’t have ambitions of playing in the Open itself,” he emphasised. “But I want to test myself because I enjoy doing that. It’s the competitor in me.”
Unfortunately, while his distinctions were reported by the golf press in attendance, the scribblers of clickbait articles and headlines elsewhere turned restrained subtleties into lofty claims of Murray wanting to play in the Open.
“Just being good enough to play in regional qualifying is the goal,” he re-emphasised. “That’s as far as it goes. It’s still distant, but it’s also a reasonable one.”
And based on last week’s performance, an attainable one, too.
The winners are co-captains of golf at Wellington College in Berkshire. McGeoch is a member of Rutgers University’s 2025-26 signing class and Lichtenhein has verbally committed to attend Arizona State University.
Top: Tennis star Andy Murray (foreground) drew extra eyes to the Sunningdale Foursomes.
KEVIN DISS PHOTOGRAPHY
