SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND | Any visit to Sunningdale is good for a golfer’s soul, but last Tuesday morning was especially nourishing because in a golf landscape that is ever-more homogenous (and wilfully, cynically so), the cheerfully eclectic nature of the Sunningdale Foursomes remains a magnificent outlier.
Indeed, to stand beneath the golf club’s famous oak tree and cast an eye down this year’s draw sheet felt, even more than normally, a little like reading the opening line of an old-fashioned joke.
Heard the one about three Solheim Cup legends, two sons of Ryder Cup-winning captains, one brother of a Ryder Cup-winning captain, two Tiger slayers, another giant killer, two players who had finished top 10 on the DP World Tour less than 48 hours before, the fifth-youngest golfer to make the cut on the PGA Tour, the brother of a U.S. Open champion, a former R&A chief executive officer, a commentator, a content creator and a superstar former footballer? They played in this year’s tournament.
Yes, male and female, old and young, professional and amateur, likely and unlikely – all are welcome to an event first contested in 1934, playing swift alternate shot from the same tee boxes with a straightforward handicap system (male professionals +1, male amateurs 0, female professionals 2, female amateurs 3).
There is nothing elevated or limited, and the prize is wholesome, too: the simple joy of competitive satisfaction. Even the stages are superior because the Old and New courses are a pair of equally tempting routes to and from the halfway hut, sneaking between still-wintry trees across Surrey’s handsome heathland.
The brief preview of spring temperatures offered in the first week of March was but a memory as players, caddies and spectators milled around outside the clubhouse and putting green shortly after dawn, their breath lingering in the air.
Charley Hull nipped into the pro shop to purchase a woolly hat, and a French visitor rolled a hand warmer through his fingers like an elderly Catholic with her rosary beads. In bemusing contrast, Irishman Paul Dunne – the 54-hole co-leader of the 2015 Open when still an amateur and on this day a spectator – wandered about in a pair of shorts.
Behind the first tee, 16-year-old Charlotte Naughton, a member of England Golf’s girls team, was hitting net balls alongside her playing partner, and coach, Paul Fiddes. The pair had travelled down from Longhirst Hall in the north-east of England, and Naughton is a friend of Rachel Gourley, who partnered 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Lottie Woad to victory in the 2022 Sunningdale Foursomes.
If Naughton is currently dreaming of what she can achieve in the game, her opponent Catriona Matthew has pretty much done it all: 2009 Women’s British Open champion, multiple winner of the Curtis and Solheim Cup as a player, winning Solheim Cup captain both home and away, and Curtis Cup winning captain at Sunningdale last summer. Her first words to Naughton? “Hello,” she said. “I’m Catriona.”
Matthew had been invited to play the tournament by Martin Slumbers, the R&A’s CEO until late last year. After a deep breath, he knocked their ball straight down the middle of the Old Course’s first fairway and they were away.
“I’ve always wanted to play this event. Because if you follow amateur golf, you know about how special it is. I was never able to fit it in and, actually, never quite good enough. Playing in it has lived up to expectations because foursomes golf at this time of year is a beautiful way to play the game, and where else do you get such a wide range of golfers playing?”
Martin slumbers
Up ahead the biggest gallery of the opening day was following Hull and Georgia Hall. The pair are not only England’s leading female performers they are also, in marked contrast to many of their peers for whom sport often appears to be a painful chore, quite transparently in love with the business of clattering balls around a good golf course.
The Solheim Cup duo (who defeated Allisen Corpuz and Lilia Vu, 2 up, in last September’s match) were up against 19-year-old Ella Butteriss and her 16-year-old brother Daniel, who were representing Beaconsfield Golf Club (some 20 miles north of Sunningdale). The siblings took the Hull-Hall combination up the final hole before shaking hands.
“It was unreal, easily the best thing I’ve done in my life,” said Ella. “I was out in Dubai, lying on a sunbed, when my friends started messaging with the words ‘interesting draw’. I had a look and couldn’t believe it. It was a great game, we all had a nice chat and they were such lovely, lovely girls.”
“I’d love to turn pro,” she continued, “and today just makes me so hungry. Playing with Charley and Georgia, in front of those crowds, it was such a cool feeling.”
Daniel, too, would like to pursue the game beyond the amateur ranks. “A long way to go,” he cautioned. “But playing today alongside my sister, with our mum and dad on the bag, with the support of so many Beaconsfield members, it was so good. I’ll never forget it.”
When Matthew and Slumbers reached the oak tree it was after a long walk in from the course after a 6-and-4 defeat. “We played well,” said Slumbers with a wry smile and a shrug. “They just played better.”
“I’ve always wanted to play this event,” he continued. “Because if you follow amateur golf, you know about how special it is. I was never able to fit it in and, actually, never quite good enough. Playing in it has lived up to expectations because foursomes golf at this time of year is a beautiful way to play the game, and where else do you get such a wide range of golfers playing?”
Ah yes, let’s fill in the gaps from that opening joke line. In addition to Hull, Hall, Matthew and Slumbers, there were Daniel (son of Sam) Torrance and Warren (son of Tony) Jacklin, as well as Michael (brother of Paul) McGinley, in the field.
So, too, were Robert Rock, who went head-to-head with Tiger Woods in the final round (and final group) of the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and emerged triumphant, and Jody Fanagan, who partnered Padraig Harrington to a foursomes victory over Woods and John Harris in the 1995 Walker Cup at Royal Porthcawl. Richard McEvoy was also there, the short hitter who defied Bryson DeChambeau to win the 2018 European Open at Green Eagle in Hamburg, a course with three par-5s over 630 yards.
Todd Clements and Sam Bairstow teed it up two days after finishing tied ninth in the Joburg Open and the latter partnered 17-year-old Kris Kim, who made the weekend at last year’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas. Alex (brother of Matt) Fitzpatrick was there, as was Iona Stephen from Sky Sports and Hannah Holden, who makes social media videos playing the finest courses in the world.
And then there was Gareth Bale, the greatest-ever Welsh footballer who played for Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid. He has a practice facility in his back garden, which includes a replica of the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, and when Wales qualified for Euro 2020 he famously (infamously in the Spanish capital city) unfurled a banner reading: “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.”
He made a nervous start, losing his opening tee shot in heather but demonstrated his power (and resilience) by not only driving the 318-yard par-4 third green, but being a little unfortunate to both narrowly miss the pin and also see his ball trickle into a bunker.
Ultimately it was Hull and Hall who progressed farthest in the draw of those mentioned, reaching the last 16 before running out of energy.
The tournament was won by Surrey’s own David Corben and Harry Crockett, who defeated the defending champions Harley Smith and Dylan Shaw Radford in the semifinal before beating Monty Holcombe and Oscar Lent, 1 up, in the final. The winners combined Corben’s experience (he was the 2023 English Mid-Age champion) and Crockett’s promise (he currently plays out of the University of Nebraska).
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Martin Slumbers and Catriona Matthew on the third green during the first round of the Sunningdale Foursomes
Warren Little, Getty Images