BAIRSTOW STEELED TO DO SHEFFIELD PROUD

HERE’S an Open fact that will leave you wide-eyed: there are more golfers from Sheffield taking part at the Home of Golf this week than from Scotland. The last two British winners of majors hailed from the Steel City and now, hoping to follow the trail laid by Danny Willett and Matt Fitzpatrick, are two highly-regarded amateurs who survived the rigours of final qualifying, Barclay Brown and Sam Bairstow. On the same weekend that Fitzpatrick was claiming the US Open, Bairstow was falling just short against South African Aldrich Potgeiter in the 36-hole final of the Amateur Championship at Royal

Lytham. Finishing runner-up in the Amateur must be a horrible feeling. The winner gets exemption spots into The Open, the Masters and the US Open. The losing finalist gets people shaking his hand and telling him: ‘hard luck.’ Bairstow’s response? The 23-year-old showed what he is all about by going out and making it to St Andrews anyway. He tied the leading score at the qualifier staged the following week at St Anne’s links near Blackpool to earn a spot into The Open for a second year in a row. ‘I think once you have played in The Open you never want to miss another and particularly one as special as the 150th,’ he said. ‘I felt a bit in awe at Royal St George’s last year but I’m hoping it will feel a bit more natural this time, although it might be hard with Tiger Woods in the field. I remember going to watch him at Hoylake in 2014, and there were more people following him at the bottom of the field rather than watching the leaders. He’s everyone’s golfing hero, isn’t he?’ Bairstow was hoping last night to arrange a practice round today with Fitzpatrick. ‘I know his brother Alex from the amateur scene and I know Barclay, of course, but it would be great to play a few holes round the Old Course with Matt,’ he said. ‘Sheffield is doing really well when it comes to golf at the minute. I think a lot of that is down to Pete Cowen’s Golf Academy, where Danny and Matt came through and, of course, they’ve set a great example for the rest of us with their victories and their work ethic. ‘I got home on the Sunday night from the Amateur in time to watch the final round of the US Open and Matt was so impressive. It does give you a bit of a buzz knowing he comes from the same city.’