The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Swilcan farewells galore
It was a joke – not a great one admittedly – but we liked it. When the R&A moved around their exemption rules for the Open Championship in 2010 to ensure that Tom Watson – runner-up in such excruciating circumstances at Turnberry the year before – would be able to play on at age 60, myself and mischievous colleagues suggested they open up an entirely new exemption for entry.
This was the Unsatisfactory Swilcan Bridge Farewell clause, whereby the game’s legends could return forever to St Andrews until it was deemed they had a suitably emotional and historic departure picture standing on that (supposedly) medieval bridge, the iconic symbol of the iconic birthplace of the game with the iconic clubhouse in the backdrop (that’s enough icons, please).
This clause would allow the game’s legends to stand waving rather awkwardly on the bridge for as many times and however long they wanted to. Watson was to return in 2015 to wave farewell one more time for actually a second time, just like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer had done before him.
Well, instead of that, we have the Senior Open coming to St Andrews this July, and we’re going to be awash in bridge farewell pictures.
Watson, of course, will be back again for a third farewell wave, although it can’t hope to be as evocative as 2015, when, because of rain delays, he played the 18th in fading light.
There was no huge crowd for the great five-times champion, but it was better than that. Playing under the street lights and the glow from the bars of the clubhouses up Golf Place, people piled out on to the streets and the steps in front of the R&A to cheer him home.
It seems Sir Nick Faldo will also wave farewell for a second time, Sandy Lyle maybe for the first time, and several other legends will be there as well.
It’s the kind of boost the Staysure Tour – the European Seniors Tour that was – really needs.
David McLaren, the newish chief of the tour, is bullish about the rebirth of the senior circuit and thinks a St Andrews Seniors Open will be the kind of impetus and momentum shove it needs.
McLaren doesn’t want to compare the European circuit with the bigger Champions Tour in the US – a lesson the Ladies European Tour needs to learn, I feel – but appreciates that the more legends that play at St Andrews, the better it’s going to be.
“Sir Nick has already entered, and a lot of the promotion we’re doing is on rivalries renewed,” he said at the launch at St Andrews yesterday.
“The lure of St Andrew is phenomenal.
“Last year at Royal Porthcawl we had 34 major or senior major winners, and I think we’ll beat that this year.
“Whether its Tom Watson, Nick Faldo or Bernhard Langer, some of those legends we know will be here already and there might be one or two surprises.”
The European Senior Tour was “at a low ebb” not so long back but European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley took a broad view of it from the start, added McLaren.
“We’re going to end up on the Staysure Tour with 20 to 21 events which will be five or six more than last year,” he said.
“Some of this is cyclical but I have to give credit to Keith. Rather than saying ‘Is this something that needs to be a focus?’, he said: ‘Yes it does, and it has something to offer, let’s try to rebuild and make it grow.’
“The umbrella sponsorship of Staysure is the biggest embodiment of that. I think our future is really bright and the most obvious symbol of that is playing on the Old Course.”
What it most needs, of course, is as many of the legends of the game that have reached the over 50s threshhold to come out, and the hope is the Old Course will be sufficient bait.
What better way to finish off a career, waving from the Swilcan Bridge, but doing it with the Senior Open trophy in hand? A unique opportunity for some treasured figures of the game. No repeat of no Scots in Curtis Cup
GB&I’s handsome win in the Curtis Cup at Dun Laoghaire in Ireland two years ago brought bittersweet reaction from Scotland.
Elaine Farquharson-Black, herself a member of a winning team back in the early ’90s, was the first successful Scottish captain of GB&I for decades. However, her winning team had no Scottish representation.
It doesn’t seem like there will be a repeat of this in 2018. The team to defend the cup at Quaker Ridge later this year looks certain to have one, possibly two Scots in it.
Connie Jaffrey, the Troon Ladies member, has won twice on the US college circuit this season with Kansas State and looks a certainty.
Long-time World Women’s Amateur No 1 Leona Maguire has said she’s finally turning pro and at least one other candidate has declared themselves unavailable due to exam pressures, so it seems likely that Shannon McWilliams of Aboyne will make the cut when the team is revealed on Thursday.
With six players in the top 10 of the Scottish Women’s Strokeplay at Troon at the weekend, the Scottish women’s scene is stronger than for many years.
“David McLaren is bullish about the rebirth of the senior circuitanda St Andrews Seniors Open will be the impetus