Guarded reply fails to take heat out of LIV debate
JI just won the British Open and you’re asking about that?
UST in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a heatwave on the go and, according to hysterical bulletins delivered by shrieking reporters, we’re all going to erupt in flames the minute we step outside the front door.
By the time you get round to reading this weekly accumulation of golf-related haverings – providing you haven’t spontaneously combusted en route to the corner shop – the actual paper these musings and meanderings are printed on will probably be smouldering at the edges.
To combat the rocketing temperatures, this correspondent has moved to a DEFCON 1 level of alertness by tying an unprecedented fifth knot in the handkerchief that I have plonked on my head. That should do the trick, eh?
The mercury was certainly rising at the 150th Open at the weekend as Australia’s Cameron Smith conjured a searing Sunday surge that just about left scorch marks on the Old Course turf.
It was a truly wonderful Open, wasn’t it? And it had a bit of everything. Jack Nicklaus was back in the Auld Grey Toun, there was a cavalcade of golden oldies in the Celebration of Champions and a hirpling Tiger Woods savoured a tearful, cap-waving march up the 18th in what may have been his St Andrews swansong.
Everybody was gulping down history and nostalgia like the drouthy denizens of the Dunvegan pub attacking a round of pints. The golf, meanwhile, ebbed, flowed and captivated as the Old Course, that unique and cherished antiquity, once again identified a tremendous champion.
There will be on-going, crotchety mutterings about the distance the modern-day player clatters the ball and the impact that has on the way the Old Course is set up and how it plays. By the time The Open returns to the home of the game, the R&A and USGA, who are embroiled in a deep, expansive study about everything relating to length and equipment, may have brought in some distance-tempering measures. But, in the current circumstances, the Old Course still proved to be a
relevant test of skill and strategy and produced compelling theatre and an elite leaderboard.
The one major drawback, of course, was the pace of play on the first two days. Six hours was preposterous but somewhat inevitable when there are driveable par-4s, par-5s easily reachable in two, shared greens and the odd criss-cross.
At times, play moved with about as much thrusting impetus as a barge on the Norfolk Broads. By Sunday, though, we’d forgotten about all that. Smith became golf’s latest first-time major champion with a fearless final-day rampage for the ages which was packed full of bold links aggression and short-game precision as he putted his way into the record books.
Smith, and the rest of us, now have to wait over 260 days until the next men’s major, the 2023 Masters at Augusta National. Goodness knows what the professional landscape will look like then. Amid all the bunting, the pomp and the cork-popping of The Open’s 150th festivities, the attempts by the R&A to keep the focus strictly on the championship itself proved futile.
Fevered discussion, debate and speculation around the all-consuming LIV Golf Series – yes, that thing again – dominated affairs on the ground. Tiger Woods poured scorn on the Saudi-backed concept with Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, emerging from the trenches to spray withering fire at the LIV model during his pre-championship address.
Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, two veterans who have joined the LIV gravy train, had a few digs at the media’s portrayal of the defectors as pariahs while another rebel, the increasingly crabbit and erratic Sergio Garcia, delivered a sneering put-down of the DP World Tour as he unveiled his plans to quit the European circuit.
As the final round was unravelling, rumours that Henrik Stenson, the current European
Ryder Cup captain, was set to join Greg Norman’s LIV revolution grew in volume. Hideki Matsuyama, the former Masters champion, is another name linked to LIV as the relentless recruitment drive takes on Kitchener-like gusto. It remains fascinating, and somewhat depressing, that so many players believe that 54-hole, shot-gun events with no cuts and guaranteed cash carries competitive sporting merit.
As for the new Open champion himself? Well, at a largely jovial, triumphant press conference in the aftermath of his historic conquest, the tone turned darker for a brief moment when the inevitable LIV question cropped up. Even the
Claret Jug, plonked next to Smith at the top table, just about started backing away from a potentially fiery confrontation.
Asked directly about the circulating links to LIV, Smith didn’t exactly give a categoric denial. “I just won the British Open and you’re asking about that?” snapped Smith. “I think that’s not that good.” Pressed to give some clarification, Smith added: “I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff.”
These are strange times indeed. Smith’s guarded response will have offered little comfort to the undersiege chiefs of golf’s embattled status quo. The 28-year-old is the biggest thing in the game right now and his fellow Australian, Norman, must be licking his lips at the prospect of luring The Open champion to his breakaway circuit. It would be a mighty coup.
The heat continues to be cranked up in this on-going power struggle. Now, where did I put that hanky?
TOMORROW Martin Hannan