‘Win it for Thommo’
THE OPEN: Newton urges Aussie charge to ...
JACK Newton has challenged Australia’s golf aces to honour the late and great Peter Thomson with a drought-breaking British Open triumph.
The season’s third major starts at Carnoustie tomorrow, almost one month after Thomson died aged 89.
As a show of respect, R&A officials have marked a tribute to the five-time champion on the grandstands surrounding the 18th green.
Greg Norman (1986 and 1993) and Ian Baker-Finch (1991) are the only Australians to have raised the Claret Jug since Thomson’s last victory in 1965.
No Aussie has come closer to saluting at Carnoustie than Newton, who lost a playoff to six-time winner Tom Watson on the Scottish links course in 1975.
Newton believes big guns Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Adam Scott can all contend for golf’s oldest trophy and hopes the trio use the memory of Thomson for inspiration.
“In honour of Peter, you’d think it would probably be appropriate,” he said yesterday.
“I’m sure there will be a lot of people who will reminisce over Peter Thomson at Carnoustie and it would be lovely to see one of our blokes get up.
“There’s a few guys who I think will play well there. It’s a difficult golf course, but no tricks to it.”
A two-time winner on the US PGA Tour this year, Day again enters the Open as Australia’s top-ranked player.
But Newton wants the world No.9 to tone down the hype after missing the cut at last month’s US Open after talking up his chances pretournament.
“He’s got the game to win anywhere. When he’s on, he’s brilliant,” he said. “But he’s putting too much pressure on himself before he even hits a ball.
“I don’t think he can go into a press conference and blurt out that, ‘I think I can win this’.
“If he just goes there and keeps a lid on it and goes about it, that will be a far better proposition than saying, ‘I’m going to win this’. That’s a bit of an old fairytale.
“But it’s the sort of golf course that will suit him if he drives it well.”
Leishman has three topsix finishes in the past four years and Newton reckons “right now he’s probably in as good as form as any of the Aussies”.
Down to No.82, Scott has turned to Nick Faldo’s former caddie Fanny Sunesson to help navigate his way around this year.
“I don’t think he’s finished, but he’s got two young kids now. That will take up a bit of his time,” Newton said.
“He’s always had a great golf swing but you’ve got to keep it refined and he’s gone back to the long putter, so there’s a couple of fairly significant changes there.
“But, look, when he gets going, the way he drives the ball etc, he should be able to perform at Carnoustie.”