PORTHCAWL, WALES | The golf writer must be a traveller, and this one is.
In March it was a journey to northern Florida, to the Players, the richest purse and the strongest field in professional golf. In April it was to the Masters. You may have heard of it. In May came the PGA in Louisville, Kentucky, where the bourbon is good and so is the horse racing and breeding.
In June it was to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, a golf-crazed town in the Carolinas that is nearly as important in golf in the U.S. as St Andrews is in the U.K. In July it was to the Open Championship at wet, windy and fierce Royal Troon.
And now?
Now came the lure of watching high-quality men’s amateur golf on a magnificent links in South Wales. Begun in 1956, the St Andrews Trophy is a match-play event between many of the best amateur golfers from the Continent of Europe and Great Britain and Ireland over two days: foursomes in the morning and singles in the afternoon.
Moving from watching the world’s best professionals one week to some of the world’s best amateurs the next reminds one of the breadth of this old game. One week the focus is on millionaires and multimillionaires displaying enormous skill with a golf club in their hands, and there is a price to pay for this privilege; the next offers the opportunity to admire skilled, smiling competitors who are not paid to play the game, though many of whom hope they soon will be, without having to pay an entrance fee. The contrast is striking. It is more refreshing than an ice-cold drink on a hot summer’s day.
Staging the 35th St Andrews Trophy at the historic and atmospheric venue of Royal Porthcawl, Wales’ most renowned golf club, was a happy choice. Whereas Troon’s clubhouse was squat and sturdy, strong enough to withstand any wind, Porthcawl’s wooden clubhouse, parts of which date to the 19th century, is among the most atmospheric in golf. Black and white photographs of past captains hang from its smoke-stained walls. It’s as unlike many modern golf clubhouses as professional golf is from amateur, and being almost within putting distance of the Bristol Channel the ebbing and flowing of the sea can clearly be heard when the clubhouse’s windows are flung open.
At an event such as this, the attractions of amateur golf become clear. Without amateurs there would be no professionals. In professional golf you walk along routes marked by ropes, peer between the heads of spectators, crouch at their feet. Marshals marshal your movement. In amateur golf the fairways are unroped, and there are few if any marshals. You can get close enough to see the colour of the players’ eyes and hear their conversations with their caddies if you so wish.
Spectators at an amateur event are unlike those at a professional tournament. At the latter the men talk about the stock exchange, how their shares are doing, what Donald Trump said or Keir Starmer is doing. Many are there because they have been invited as a perk of business.
“It’s not a huge earner, but it raises the club’s profile, spreads the word about our course in this corner of South Wales.”
Robert John, captain of Royal Porthcawl
Listen in to a conversation between spectators at an amateur event and you’ll hear them saying how sad it is that the term “halved” has disappeared from the game, driven out in an attempt to demystify golf. Now the word to be used is “tied.” Such spectators might also be deploring the removal of the word “dormy,” meaning to be up in a match by as many holes as there are left to play, from the Rules of Golf. Spectators at amateur events are the heartbeat of golf clubs. At professional events they might not even be members of a golf club.
“It’s exciting for the club [to host an event such as this],” Robert John, the captain of Royal Porthcawl, said as he sat in the clubhouse on Friday morning. Sunlight danced on the sea outside. “It is prestigious for us. It’s not too much of an inconvenience for the members. They had tee times on Monday and can’t wait to get out tomorrow and play the course in its current condition. It’s not a huge earner, but it raises the club’s profile, spreads the word about our course in this corner of South Wales.”
The Continent of Europe took a lead that it was never to lose from the opening foursomes on Thursday, and late on Friday afternoon sped to a convincing 16-9 victory, its seventh time winning the biennial match and only the second victory on British or Irish soil since 2012.
On Thursday afternoon, GGP had bumped into Pierre Bechmann out on the course. Bechmann, a Frenchman who is more English than bacon and eggs, was appropriately and impeccably dressed, as he always is. He wore a flat tweed cap, waterproofs and golf shoes and carried a furled umbrella under his left arm. A past captain of the R&A, a stalwart of the European Golf Association, president of Chantilly Golf Club just north of Paris, he understands amateur golf better than almost anyone, having watched many amateur events over the past 40-plus years. “International matches like this are what is best in the game,” he said. “There are no ropes; you can see the shots clearly, admire the golf course. They have everything. For the players, such matches represent the happy times. They are like a cocktail of great things in golf.”
A few minutes later, Jerry Ji, a competitor in the St Andrews Trophy from the Netherlands, passed by heading for the clubhouse having won his singles on the 17th hole. Seeing Bechmann, he took off his cap and extended his right hand. Bechmann, smiling, did the same.
“Thank you for watching us,” Ji said.
When did you last hear a professional do or say that?
RESULTS
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: Royal Porthcawl hosted the 35th St Andrews Trophy, near the Bristol Channel in Bridgend, Wales.
Cameron Smith, R&A via Getty Images