FOLLOWING ARNIE’S LEAD
Local hero Fleetwood is aiming to emulate Palmer who blazed an American trail 56 years ago
JUST off the burnished 15th fairway at Royal Birkdale, where all was quiet at noon yesterday, a marshal pointed to the grey stone set into the lee of a wee bush.
The weather-beaten tablet has been exposed to the elements over the years, but its inscription is clearly legible. It reads, ‘Arnold Palmer, The Open Championship, 14th July 1961.’
‘That’s where Arnie played from. The tee is back further now but some of them have almost driven this far, even into the breeze,’ said the marshal, who introduced himself as Tom Kavanagh – his grandfather was from Dublin.
Based on the fairway markers, Arnie’s plaque is 328 yards from the tee and is unlikely to come into play during the 146th Open, as it famously did in the 90th Open when Arnie slashed a six-iron from the hay and found the green 140 yards away on his way to victory.
It was the late Arnie who blazed the American trail at a time when interest in the oldest of championships had waned among the wealthy pros attached to wellheeled country clubs in the States.
When the Open was first played at Birkdale in ’54, for example, only four Americans bothered to come over. Palmer changed that mindset as he lit a fuse which Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson all followed.
Today, the field is bulging with Americans, 52 all told, and their accents carried over the dunes on a sunny Southport morning.
On the putting green by the art deco clubhouse, Stewart Cink, clad in emerald green, was handing out some passes to friends.
Tall, elegant and shorn of his baseball cap, Cink was hailed as the spoilsport at Turnberry in ’09 when Watson was odds-on to win a sixth title at 59.
This is his 17th Open since 2000 and he returns after missing Troon last year in order to take care of his wife, Lisa, who has been fighting breast cancer. Cink, who is staying in Birkdale with Tom Lehman, another American winner of golf’s oldest prize, is a likeable fellow who knows his way around links terrain.
At 44, he has shown some decent form this year and will seek a fast start on Thursday when he tees off at 6.57am.
Playing in the match immediately behind him is Roberto Castro who was on his own in the chipping area near the 15th tee. There was no sign of his caddie, or any members of ‘Team Castro.’
In contrast, on the nearby range it was busy for a Monday morning – the weather helped – and the 30 bays were mostly occupied with a strong American presence.
Brooks Koepka bounded out of a buggy like a grenadier guard about to go on watch. The square-jawed Floridian is aiming to become the first golfer since Tiger Woods to complete the US Open-Open double – a big ask as Koepka will have less room for ball-bashing than he had at Erin Hills. In bay 16, Haydn McCullen, a 20year-old Mancunian playing in his first Open was minding his own business with just his caddy for company, when Dustin Johnson arrived, unscheduled. McCullen might have been tempted to pick up his bucket of balls and head off to a quiet corner but he stuck to his pitch.
Johnson’s entourage included his kid brother Austin, who not only looks like DJ, but can spit like him, too. On hand with DJ was Claude Harmon, son of good ‘ol Butch. Both Harmons are highly regarded coaches, who do the odd nixer for Sky Sports.
This is the second clear run at The Open for the sports subscription channel and they are desperate for crowd-pulling drama after the shock of losing the TV rights to the US PGA.
It follows the 11th-hour decision by the PGA of America to look elsewhere to maximise their reach and leaves Sky with a huge hole in their schedule next month.
Even more worryingly for Sky is the silence from Augusta National over the rights for the 2018 Masters, all of which suggests that anyone about to sign up for Sky’s new dedicated golf channel should think twice.
To boost their viewing figures, Sky sorely needs a local hero to star this week and no one fits the bill like in-form Tommy Fleetwood, who leads the Race To Dubai standings. When Tommy was a young man, he played the white ball, not in snooty Birkdale where artisans are frowned upon almost as much as footballers, but in nearby Southport and Ainsdale.
His father, Pete, was allowed play there, at dawn and dusk mind, in return for voluntary course maintenance and it’s where Fleetwood learned his craft. As a kid, he used to ‘bunk’ in to Birkdale by the fifth hole, which is close to the seashore and the furthest point from the clubhouse, when no one was looking.
His first Open was ’98 at Birkdale where he was so in awe of Woods and Co, that he faked their autographs ‘in my little book’ to show his mates. He skipped the ’08 Open in ‘a sulk’ after losing the British Amateur final but the diehard Everton fan is a serious contender this week.
Would Fleetwood be a good winner of The Open? Fleetwood, would.
And his chances will be enhanced once he avoids Arnie’s shrubbery on the 15th.