SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND | There are words once uttered by Tom Watson on display in the clubhouse here at Sunningdale Golf Club. “It’s how golf should be,” he is quoted as saying. “It is unique and brings out the child in you.”
The eight-time major champion was actually reviewing the club’s Old Course, but his words might just as easily apply to the tournament it hosts every March. The Sunningdale Foursomes is a reminder of the simplest pleasures associated with the tricky business of clattering balls with sticks: beautiful surroundings, intriguing tests, a welcoming bar, a halfway hut full of chatter, old friends, new friends and fun competition that is open to all.
There is, it might be said, more than a touch of tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief about the field, which is to say that it is gloriously eclectic – as one would expect of a championship which welcomes professionals and amateurs, seniors and youngsters, men and women (male professionals play off plus-1, male amateurs off scratch, female pros off 2 and female amateurs off 3).
Last Tuesday morning, for example, the participants wandering around the putting green ahead of the first round included an agent, a manager, a commentator, an ex-footballer, two sons of Ryder Cup legends, multiple DP World Tour winners, a major champion, numerous minor tour stalwarts and a hatful of amateur talents.
There may or may not have been a butcher, baker and candlestick maker among the amateurs, but there were at least two bankers plus a builder and a plumber.
“It’s like a box of delights,” said one old boy strolling down the second fairway of the Old Course. “The sort of box you pull down from the attic every year, one full of odds and sods that prompt fond and favourite memories.”
As the sun broke through grey clouds, he warmed to his theme and noted that he’d spotted Sam Torrance walking his dog, and Robert Rock in the car park. “Same business-like stride,” he said of Rock, the man who went toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods in the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and emerged triumphant. “Same thick mop of hair, too, the lucky so and so.”
We watched on as two-time DP World Tour winner Eddie Pepperell putted from the fringe at the front of the second green to the fringe at the back of it. “Did you just see that?” the Englishman asked with a wince a few moments later, waiting near the third fairway for the arrival of his friend and partner Rob Harrhy’s drive. (They play foursomes as it should be played at Sunningdale – at speed.) Pepperell chuckled and said: “First winter golf I’ve played in a while. Had to play from wet mud on the first, and then that. Ouch.”
It was his second appearance in the tournament, and although his first partner, Laurie Canter, was not in attendance, a spectator from eight years ago was. Moreover, he was Pepperell’s first-round opponent.
Yes, quite extraordinarily, Charlie Herbert, a 24-year-old minor tour player, had walked the course that day in 2016. “I’d won my junior county championship, and Eddie had written a letter of congratulation to me,” he said. “He also hosted clinics at Frilford Heath which I attended, so I came down here to watch him play.”
Herbert’s partner, 18-year-old Joe Getley, added: “I’ve also met Eddie before and played a few holes with him.” The sorcerer held off the apprentices, however. He and Harrhy progressed following a 3-and-2 win.
A few groups ahead, Georgia Hall, the 2018 Women’s British Open champion, and one-time DP World Tour pro Ryan Evans were taking on Jack Dyer, a member of the 2021 GB&I Walker Cup team, and his friend George Gennings, who works for his family’s logistics and freight forwarding company.
The unfussy Hall was not only using a carry bag, she was also carrying it herself. She could have been competing in China on the LPGA or in Florida at the LET’s lucrative Aramco Team Series last week. “But I’d pick here every time,” she said. “I love it. Great golf courses, playing with an old friend [they met through Charley Hull], what’s not to like?”
While the romantics among the galleries might have been thrilled to be drawn against Hall and Evans, Dyer and Gennings are competitors who had been rather more interested in playing a lot of golf throughout the week. “Wasn’t ideal, to be honest,” Gennings said after they were defeated, 2 and 1. “It was always going to be tough, and you can see why Georgia has done what she’s done.”
He added “major champion, four-time Solheim Cup player” with the air of a man who had Googled her achievements following the draw. “This was my debut in the event; took the week off from the desk job, and we get drawn against them.”
Sunningdale members Anthony Wall and his son Nicholas were also knocked out in the first round, but Wall was more sanguine about it. “Early bath for us, tails between our legs,” Wall said with a smile when asked how he’d got on by a fellow member.
“This event is still very special. Two of the best courses in the world, a field of good players, pretty decent weather and a handicap system that’s proved itself. It’s something you want to win, but it’s also wonderful to see so many old friends.”
Anthony Wall
A two-time winner on the DP World Tour, now a commentator with Sky Sports, Wall already has his name on the trophy, following his victory with Steve Webster in 1994. “Nowadays youngsters travel all over, but in those days it was pretty much the first thing you played as an amateur,” he said. “It was a real boost to the confidence. The funny thing is that Steve and myself beat David Howell and Gary Harris in the final. At the time Harris was the best of the four of us, and yet he’s the one who never made it on tour.
“Spin it forward 30 years and I was a bit emotional on the first tee. My mum and dad were out watching, so we had three generations out here. Having a son who’s good enough – more than good enough – to play this, but who also wants to play with his old dad, that’s lovely. And once we got over that experience, you’ve got to actually play, and unfortunately we played two French guys who really could play.
It’s easy to concentrate on the nostalgia, but the Sunningdale Foursomes is more nuanced than that. The present (and future) matters as much as the past.
Sam Torrance and Luke Donald are among previous winners who have used Sunningdale victory as a launchpad for Ryder Cup glory. In 2019, Linn Grant and Maja Stark did so ahead of a Solheim Cup triumph.
This year’s winners were the English boys’ internationals Harley Smith and Dylan Shaw Radford, 5-and-4 victors over William Shucksmith and Darryl Gwilliam in Friday’s final. If they have been dreaming of their future, it could reach similar heights representing Europe rather than emulating Wall and returning with a son as partner in 2054.
RESULTS
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Top: Winners Harley Smith and Dylan Shaw Radford
Kevin Diss Photography