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The R&A has announced that 32,000 fans will be allowed to watch the action on each of the four championship days at next month’s Open Championship at Royal St George’s.
That agreement has been reached following discussions with the government and the public health authorities and the move into the next phase of the government’s Events Research Programme which enables a number of events to take place with higher capacities than the current Step 2 guidance.
The 32,000 will include all ticketholders and hospitality guests who have already purchased. They will receive an e-mail containing all arrangements, including the requirements for COVID-19 status certification.
“We are pleased now to be able to proceed with our plans for having a significant attendance at this year’s Championship,” confirmed R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers. “These fans will play a huge role in creating a very special atmosphere as the world’s best players compete for the Claret Jug and we look forward to welcoming them to Royal St George’s.
“I would like to acknowledge the support and understanding we have received from the government and public health authorities, fans, players, our patrons and partners, as we have worked through this extremely challenging process. The Open is a very special championship in the world of sport and we are fortunate that so many people care as deeply about it as we do.”
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said: “The Open Championship returns to Royal St George’s for the first time in a decade and what better way to welcome its return than with more than 30,000 fans each day watching the best golfers in the world battling it out for the famous Claret Jug.
“We have always said we will do everything possible to return fans to our iconic cultural and sporting events as soon, and as safely, as possible and thanks to the phenomenal success of our vaccine rollout and uptake of the NHS App we’re able to take another step forward through our flagship Events Research Programme.”
Rory McIlroy has become the latest top player to call for greens-reading books to be banned.
McIlroy made his comments shortly after Eamon Lynch of Golfweek published an article suggesting the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council, which McIlroy chairs, had voted “overwhelmingly” to outlaw the books from the start of next season. Lynch said the tour’s full board would soon ratify the ban.
“Everything that’s talked about in those meetings is somewhat confidential, but what I can say, I think, I use a greens book and I’d like to get rid of them,” McIlroy said. “Most guys on tour are in the same boat, that if it’s going to be available to us and it helps us, people are going to use it, but I think for the greater good of the game, I’d like to see it outlawed.”
Greens-reading books, which plot the contours of putting surfaces in considerable detail, are used by the vast majority of leading players, but many feel green reading should be an integral skill. There is also considerable evidence they contribute to slow play.
The R&A and the USGA introduced new rules in 2019 to reduce the amount of information contained within the books, but those restrictions have subsequently been criticised for not going far enough.
Ireland’s John Murphy made a fast start to his pro career when he won on his debut at the Clutch Pro Tour’s Northern Ireland Open at Cairndhu.
The 22-year-old from Kinsale, who won twice in the foursomes in partnership with compatriot Mark Power at last month’s Walker Cup at Seminole, carded rounds of 67 and 68 to claim a four-shot victory ahead of Liam Grehan and Dermot McElroy on 5-under-par 135.
The victory earned Murphy a spot in next month’s ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle. He will be joined there by McElroy, from Ballymena, who claimed second place in the men’s event after a play-off with Grehan and also England’s Thalia Martin, who won the women’s event.
Murphy is one of six members of this year’s GB&I Walker Cup team who have turned professional since the conclusion of the match in Florida. Jake Bolton, Angus Flanagan, Ben Schmidt, Ben Jones and Matty Lamb also have made the switch and 2019 Amateur champion Joe Long is expected to follow them after playing in next month’s Open Championship at Royal St George’s.
Flanagan, from Woking, also won on his pro debut at the Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am, and has an exemption through the new PGA Tour University rankings to play eight events on the Forme Tour, starting this week at the L&J Championship at Jennings Mill Country Club outside Athens, Georgia.
Jonathan Caldwell will perform in front of his home fans when he plays in the ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle and Massereene in Northern Ireland at the end of July.
Caldwell, who claimed his first European Tour victory at the recent Scandinavian Mixed event, will be joined by England’s Alice Hewson, who finished third in the same event in Sweden.
“The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind, to be honest,” the 37-year-old admitted. “I have waited a long time for this breakthrough win. A lot of hard work has gone into getting to this point.
“After winning in Sweden, I said ‘I hope there are more weeks like this,’ men and women competing together. We now have the chance once again in another innovative event at the ISPS Handa World Invitational.
“I can’t wait to get back there. I have fond memories of competing at Galgorm over the years. This year will be very special for me because I will return as a European Tour winner, and it will be great to celebrate with all the Irish fans.”
Former European Amateur champion Hewson moved to fourth place on the LET’s Race to Costa Del Sol money list. “It’s an exceptional opportunity for women’s golf as a whole, to be on the same stage and to prove to everyone how good women’s golf actually is,” she said.
The $1.5 million ISPS Handa World Invitational comprises two separate 72-hole stroke play events for men and women. They will compete at the same courses, at the same time, for equal prize money.
Scotland’s Louise Duncan has made an emphatic rise up the World Amateur Golf Ranking following her Women’s Amateur Championship win at Barassie Golf Club. Duncan, who became the first Scot to win the title in 24 years after defeating Iceland’s Jóhanna Lea Lúðvíksdóttir, 9 and 8, climbed 197 positions to 218th. Lúðvíksdóttir, the first Icelandic player to reach the final, also achieved a personal best ranking with a rise of 274 positions to 670th.
Louis Dobbelaar’s reward for becoming the first Australian to win the Dogwood Invitational is a move into the WAGR top 60. The Queenslander, who won the tournament by two shots, jumped 35 rankings to 56th.
Argentina’s Vicente Marzilio reached a personal best position of 220th with a 59-ranking rise by winning the Mexican Amateur Championship at Club Campestre Torreón.
Chiara Tamburlini returned home to win the Swiss Golf Open Championship after helping the University of Mississippi win the NCAA Championship for the first time. She climbed 22 places to 180th.
Alex Čejka returns to his adopted homeland this week to play in the BMW International Open at Golfclub München Eichenried.
The 50-year-old, who was born in communist Czechoslovakia but fled to Germany with his father as a 9-year-old, makes his appearance just a couple of weeks after creating history by becoming the first player to win on his first two starts in a senior major.
The German began the season playing Monday qualifiers on the PGA Tour Champions, but all that changed when he took advantage of a late replacement slot at the Regions Tradition by beating US Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker in a play-off. That earned him automatic PGA Tour Champions membership. Three weeks later he won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
Čejka will be chasing a fifth European Tour title in Munich against a field including Martin Kaymer, Sergio García, Viktor Hovland, Louis Oosthuizen and Ryder Cup captain Pádraig Harrington. New Japanese star Takumi Kanaya and promising young Australian Elvis Smylie join Čejka among the invitees.
The Vagliano Trophy and the Junior Vagliano Trophy have become the latest tournaments to fall foul of the COVID-19 crisis.
The two events, which pit teams of women and girls from Great Britain & Ireland against counterparts from Continental Europe, were to be played next week at Golf Club de Lausanne in Switzerland but had to be shelved because of travel restrictions.
“We are disappointed to have to announce the postponement of the Vagliano Trophy matches,” said Haukur Örn Birgisson, president of the European Golf Association.
“With the current travel restrictions in place in Switzerland we were unfortunately left with little choice. We will try our very best to host the matches this year and have started exploring alternative options with our friends from the R&A.”
St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson has made a habit of collecting silverware this season, and not just on the football pitch.
Fresh from leading the Saints to a double by winning the Betfred and Scottish Cups, Davidson carded a course-record 62 in winning the stroke-play club championship at his home club, Dunblane New in Stirlingshire.
“It is a hard course to score low on,” the plus 3-handicapper told The Scotsman’s golf correspondent Martin Dempster. Davidson carded seven birdies, two eagles and two bogeys to beat the previous record, held by 2011 Scottish PGA champion Alan Lockhart, by a single shot.
“My uncle, Alec Wilson, held the course record for ages with a 64, and I have always wanted to beat him. The closest I’d come before was a 65.”
Germany’s Martin Birkholz has been crowned as European Senior Men’s champion for the second time in three years.
Birkholz stormed into a five-shot lead after opening rounds of 66 and 69 at Golf de Morfontaine in France but dropped six shots during the first 15 holes of his final round before rallying with two late birdies to post a 75 and win by a shot.
European Golf Association Championship Committee member Christine Petit-Martin won the European Senior Women’s title. The French player recovered from an opening 78 to post rounds of 71 and 70 and also post a one-shot victory.
Colin Callander and Alistair Tait