The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
The neutrals’ best major of the year was …
Strip back everything to nothing but the golf, which has been the most entertaining and exciting major championship of 2019? History will probably mark the Masters or perhaps the Open as the year’s most memorable majors. Tiger Woods’ cathartic victory at Augusta will be quite rightly regarded in the pantheon, because of all that came before it and all it meant concerning the best player ever to have competed in the sport.
In Ireland, you’ll probably never get anyone to say anything other than Shane Lowry’s victory at Royal Portrush was not the greatest Open ever played. An Irishman winning on the great historic championship’s long-overdue return to the island? I’m not sure I blame them for their hyperbole.
But strip it all back, look at it neutrally and dispassionately (which is what we scribes are paid to do) and my opinion is the AIG Women’s British Open at Woburn was the best major of 2019.
This is not political correctness or virtue signalling, whatever they are. As a contest, as golf-fuelled drama, as a finale, the AIGWBO wins hands down.
The Masters, stripped of all the Tiger-redemption stuff, was actually hugely dramatic for the first 11 holes, when Francesco Molinari was getting up and down from all parts, Brooks Koepka was loitering with intent, and Tiger was just about hanging on.
But then Brooks and Francesco drained their balls at the 12th, Tiger didn’t, and the contest was effectively over. There was some tension in “can he really do it?” and “is it happening at last?” but there was precious little drama in the actual golf shots for the final holes.
At Portrush, it was even less of a drama – in fact, it wasn’t a drama at all. Lowry defended a four-shot lead for most of the final round and eventually won by six. It was the least dramatic Open Sunday since Louis Oosthuizen hosed the field by seven shots at St Andrews in 2010.
This weekend at Woburn, a venue not remotely in the same league as Augusta and Portrush, however, we had the best contest of the year.
Jin Young Ko, aiming to become the latest to win three majors in a calendar year, and Lizette Salas led a double-pronged assault on leader Hinako Shibuno, with Morgan Pressel at their tails.
There was genuine drama and some outstanding golf all the way down the stretch until Shibuno, a genuinely appealing new star playing golf outside her native Japan for the first time in her life, rattled in her 20 foot birdie putt at the last to win her maiden major championship by a shot.
From a pure golf perspective, this was the best contest and definitely the best finish of the year. But...
Lost in a vacuum
You have to wholly concur with those pointing out the rank hypocrisy of Clare Balding, the BBC presenter, who tweeted criticism of Sky Sports’ coverage of the AIG WBO.
Sky wound up coverage on Friday an hour before the end of play, which Balding felt required her tu’penny worth. Quite rightly, there were a number of counter-tweets pointing out how the BBC had effectively abandoned golf, and many recalling the 2015 Open.
Play went into Monday that year because of rain delays but the Beeb didn’t show the first hours of the extra day because of prior schedules, most notably the absolutely essential broadcast of an episode of Cash In The Attic.
But I’m pretty sure that Sky is not the best place for the WBO. I’d prefer it if all golf was on terrestrial TV or accessible to all for the game to thrive, but the Open will always be a huge event no matter where it is broadcast.
Not so the WBO. Crowds were decent at Woburn but this week at Renaissance we have much the same field for the Ladies Scottish Open.
They expect a total crowd of 10,000 spectators, less than a sixth of the numbers who watched the men’s event last month.
If we’re to grow women’s golf – and the numbers of families playing the game as a result– then drama like Sunday desperately needs to be seen.
Terrestrial TV coverage, even if it’s not as innovative and glossy as Sky’s package, is surely essential for this.
“We had the best contest of the year at Woburn
Restore the Scottish Amateur We’re moving in on the centenary of the Scottish Amateur Championship but do the hierarchy at Scottish Golf care? You’d wonder after last week.
Crail GS were proud and fabulous hosts. The players put on a great show. The on-site officials are efficient and professional.
But the championship is now crammed into five days, the final has been reduced to 18 holes, and neither the Scottish Golf chair nor chief executive graced us with their presence.
The Scottish Am was once a great link between the elite amateurs and the club game from where they came, and a reassuring look at the spread of Category A players in this country.
Now, it seems to be almost an afterthought, with some top players not even competing.
Restoring a 36-hole final – the R&A manage it fine at the Amateur – should be their first move.