Putting golf fore to

With the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship under way, Michael Alexander looks back on 35 consecutive years of Alfred Dunhill golf events in St Andrews

T here’s an autumnal, rimy, nip in the air at the Old Course in St Andrews as the sun rises above the spires of the ‘auld grey toun’.

The roar of waves carries in on a stiff easterly breeze from the nearby West Sands as seagulls wheel across the sky and a sea salt tang fills the air.

There’s a couple of hours to go until the first players are due to tee off in that day’s play of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Yet the links have already been a hive of activity with greenkeeping staff up before the crack of dawn to make sure the course is perfect, with tournament organisers also up before first light to ensure the day’s proceedings run, as far as possible, without a hitch.

From Open Championships to the British Women’s Open, some of golf’s most memorable dramas have played out on the Old Course over the centuries.

But for 35 years, the name Dunhill has also been synonymous with the Home of Golf – from the original team format of the Dunhill Cup first played at St Andrews in 1985 to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which has been played in its current format over the Old Course (St Andrews), the Championship Course (Carnoustie) and Kingsbarns Golf Links since 2001.

Recognised as the only major professional tournament played every year at St Andrews, the championship has a unique format, incorporating two separate competitions – an individual professional tournament for the world’s leading golfers with a US$5 million prize fund, and a team competition which features some of the most celebrated amateur golfers playing alongside the professionals.

Many of the greatest players, such as Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Sir Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Rory Mcilroy, Colin Montgomerie, Louis Oosthuizen and Vijay Singh, have played in the championship.

Amateurs have included entertainment stars such as Michael Douglas, Samuel L Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Hugh Grant and Jamie Dornan. They have shared the fairways with sporting greats like Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Ian Botham, Boris Becker, Ruud Gullit and Michael Phelps.

One man with an unrivalled knowledge of the Dunhill tournaments from the inside out is tournament director Peter German, senior vicepresident of IMG, who has been involved since that very first Dunhill tournament at St Andrews in 1985.

With more than 35 years of golf tournament experience, he has organised more than 230 golf events in 41 countries and in his own words is “pretty experienced”.

What makes the Dunhill special,

They work very well together as a team, and it’s amazing the number of friendships that have developed over the years