The Open Championship will be staged at Royal Portrush in 2025, the R&A has announced. The game’s oldest major will return to Northern Ireland six years after Shane Lowry won the Claret Jug over the Dunluce course. It will be Royal Portrush’s third hosting of the Open along with the 1951 championship, when England’s Max Faulkner was crowned champion golfer of the year.
“We could not be more thrilled to be bringing the Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said. “There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men’s players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again.”
One of the first people to applaud the decision to return to Royal Portrush was 2019 champion Lowry.
“It’s great to be going back so quickly. Obviously, I’m very biased, it’s one of the best Opens I’ve played in,” the Irishman joked.
US captain Steve Stricker named Daniel Berger, Harris English, Tony Finau, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth as his six wild-card picks for this month’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
The sextet join automatic qualifiers Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay.
The biggest surprise was the omission of Patrick Reed, who played in the past three Ryder Cups and was dubbed “Captain America” after being top scorer for the USA in 2014 and 2016. Reed recently was hospitalised with bilateral pneumonia and also had been dealing with an ankle injury.
“(I) kind of lost sleep over that one,” Stricker admitted. “He’s a tremendous competitor. He brings a lot to match-play golf. His record here at the Ryder Cup is pretty darned good. It was just the uncertainty of his health and really the lack of play that led to our decision down the stretch.
“It was a very hard conversation,” the US captain added. “I called him first thing. He was my first call. I knew, you know, it was going to be hard, but he took it like a true champion. I apologised many times to him and just wanted to make sure that he knew that it was a very difficult decision.
“(He was) very disappointed, as you can imagine, but he said all the right things and handled it very well.”
Webb Simpson, Billy Horschel, Kevin Kisner, Sam Burns and Kevin Na were among the other players thought to be under consideration for a wild-card selection.
Iconic Australian golf club Royal Melbourne has instituted a strict “no jab, no play” policy to try to battle COVID-19. The club’s 200 staff members have been told that players will have to show proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccination before they can play the course when it re-opens following current closure because of the pandemic.
Club captain Andrew Kirby told The Age: “We got incredibly strong support from the members, an amazing number of notes and passionate support from staff and from other clubs.
“We’ve got lots of rules in golf and here’s another one. If you want to play, you’ll have to be vaccinated. At least one jab, then two and of course there’ll be a system of registration.”
Kirby, a commercial litigation barrister, said there will be exemptions for those who can’t get vaccinated because of medical reasons. However, he insisted the club would clamp down hard on anti-vaxxers:
“A legitimate medical reason will not be: ‘I am waiting for Pfizer; I could not get a vaccination appointment yet; I don’t trust the vaccines; the vaccines are a conspiracy to embed us with 5G network tracking devices, etc.,’ ” Kirby told Royal Melbourne staff.
Sky Sports has committed to a three-year extension of its existing rights to cover the Ladies European Tour and LPGA Tour and will continue to cover all five women’s majors.
“Sky Sports has been a proud supporter of women's golf for decades,” said Sky Sports director of golf Jason Wessely. “Today we are pleased to announce new agreements with the LPGA and LET, both of which are adding new events to their schedules.”
The Women's Scottish Open and the Solheim Cup will continue to be shown as part of the extension. Sky Sports estimate 100,000 golf fans tuned in to watch all three days of the Solheim Cup won by Europe at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. The network also claims interest was high for the final day of the AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie, with all three days of the Curtis Cup drawing good viewing figures.
Trust Golf’s “Birdies for Better” campaign during the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open raised more than $46,000 for NHS Charities Together and the Ramathibodi Foundation in Thailand.
Trust Golf pledged to donate $200 for every score of birdie or better made during the third round of this year’s tournament. The 232 birdies made by the players in the field meant a total of $46,400 was raised for both charities.
“We are very proud to be making this donation to NHS Charities Together and matching the same amount to the Ramathibodi Foundation in Thailand and thank everyone in Scotland – especially our partners VisitScotland – for giving us the warmest of welcomes and the most stunning week at Dumbarnie Links,” said Trust Golf founder Prin Singhanart.
Anne-Sterre den Dunnen’s position as the No 1 woman amateur in Dutch golf has been consolidated with a move inside the World Amateur Golf Ranking top 100.
Den Dunnen climbed 15 places to a career-high 98th thanks to victory in the Internazionali d’Italia Femminile U-18 event. She added the title to the Dutch Amateur Championship she won three weeks previously. She also holds the Dutch National U-18 Stroke Play title and finished runner-up in the Dutch National Stroke-Play Championship.
Christiaan Burke’s 17-shot victory in the Mpumalanga Open took him inside the world top 300 for the first time. The South African made a 54-ranking rise to No 271. It also reinforced his 16-under 56 at Potchefstroom Country Club in a medal round in July.
The R&A Students Tour Series is back after COVID-19 scuppered the 2020 series. The first tournament was played at Fairmont St Andrews last week.
The Series, launched in 2019 to offer student golfers throughout Europe a chance to gain high quality tournament experience, consists of four events. The other three will be played in Ireland, Spain and Portugal over venues which have staged the Open Championship, Final Qualifying, LPGA and European Tour events.
Those who compete in two or more tournaments earn Order of Merit points, with the leaders qualifying for the Tour Series Final in St Andrews.
“The R&A has been a longtime supporter of student golf and the Student Tour Series provides elite amateur golfers with opportunities to enjoy competing against each other in a world-class environment while they undertake their academic studies,” R&A chief development officer Phil Anderton said.
University of Stirling student Louise Duncan is set to play in the series after a season that has seen her win the Women’s Amateur Championship, earn the Smyth Salver as low amateur in the AIG Women’s Open and represent Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup.
Colin Callander and Alistair Tait