State of the Nation - The Insider: 'We don't have the strength in depth we'd like in golf but there are positives'
When two young Scottish amateurs tee it up in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush this week, it will undoubtedly be the proudest moment of their fledgling careers thus far.
All the more so given the manner in which Cameron Adam and Connor Graham had to fight and earn their spots.
Both have been part of the college circuit in America, with left-hander Adam, 22, graduating from Northwestern in Chicago and Graham, 18, recently completing his first year at Texas Tech.
But the pair retain strong links to their roots in Scotland. For a start, Adam is an ambassador for the Stephen Gallacher Foundation, with Graham fulfilling the same role for the Paul Lawrie Foundation.
Adam, a member at Royal Burgess, secured his place at Portrush after winning the prestigious Open Amateur Series, the latest triumph on a stunning run of form over the past couple of years.
Graham, meanwhile, came through a gruelling day of final qualifying at Dundonald, eventually prevailing over fellow Scot Paul O'Hara in a play-off in Ayrshire.
It's going to be a huge week for the pair but both have already shown they have the talent and composure to take it all in their stride.
For everyone connected with Scottish Golf, it will be a massive boost to see Adam and Graham flying the Saltire on the leaderboard at Portrush.
There is also a very good crop of players coming through in the women's game, with Lorna McClymont and Hannah Darling helping Team GB&I win the Curtis Cup last year.
The key is to ensure the pipeline is healthy enough for plenty more to follow in future, as Scotland looks to keep pace with other similar-sized countries around Europe.
'The standard is so high around other European countries,' said Clare Queen, a former player on the Ladies European Tour and now head of performance and pathway at Scottish Golf.
'The bar is being raised all the time, so it's important we continue to improve what we do so our young players understand the level required.
'In terms of numbers, we probably don't have the strength in depth we would like right now, albeit there are still loads of positive things happening.
'We do still have some really strong individuals coming through, especially over the last three or four years. But we want more kids coming through the pathway and pushing for a place in the national teams.
'We all love to see a Saltire up there on the leaderboard. With Cammy and Connor both going to The Open at Portrush, there's going to be loads of attention on them, but what an unbelievable experience it'll be for them.
'I think it's a Scottish thing where we always love to see our own people doing well. I am sure they will have aspirations of doing what Calum Scott did last year at Troon by winning the Silver Medal.
'We are the home of golf, but we are also still a relatively small country in terms of population. It's so important to have these guys coming through as role models.
'We do have some really talented players coming through at the moment, and we've seen a really good group establish themselves on tour over the past 10 years or so.
'Bob MacIntyre, Connor Syme, Ewen Ferguson, Grant Forrest — they all push each other and raise the bar among themselves.
'But, as an organisation, we always want to push on and try and achieve more. Success for us would be really increasing the volume of players — both male and female — who establish themselves on tour.'
One of the key challenges facing Scottish Golf is helping players make that initial transition from amateur to professional and making sure they are ready.
It's an issue which will face Adam and Graham in due course given the trajectory of their careers, but they have solid backing from the Gallacher and Lawrie foundations respectively.
Queen added: 'Giving young boys and girls the opportunity to develop and progress in the game is something I'm passionate about.
'Over the past year or so, we have been doing a big review just to really try and assess where we're at. The pathway system is something we have been really keen to focus on.
'Ultimately, the aim is to strengthen and improve the pipeline of young players coming through. If we can find a more consistent approach, and a way of delivering more consistent opportunities, that will help.'
Although they would like to retain their top talent and develop them at home, Scottish Golf would never discourage any young player from playing on the US college circuit if given the opportunity.
On the path taken by Adam and Graham, as well as a few others, Queen added: 'We would never necessarily discourage anyone from playing college golf in the States. It's very much an individual thing — it's great for some players, not so great for others. With Cameron Adam and Connor Graham, they have both really thrived in the time they have been over there.
'They have both done exceptionally well in that environment, but it's not necessarily for everyone. We've seen other players in the past struggle to adapt, so it's about doing what's right for you.
'There's a human side to all of this. When you're 16 or 17, and you've got a chance to move to America, it's not the easiest thing to decide in terms of what's the right or wrong thing to do. It's a big call.'
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Reliving Rory McIlroy's emotional collapse in the last Open at Royal Portrush
The year was 2019. After a 68-year gap, the R&A took the Open back to Royal Portrush. The influence of major winners from Northern Ireland such as Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell was viewed as crucial in the decision. What followed was an incredibly emotional and fascinating run for McIlroy as he gave himself a mountain to climb in the first round, only to shoot his lights out the next day, agonisingly missing the cut by a shot. This is how it will be remembered. The build-up Having shot a course-record 61 on the Dunluce Links as a 16-year-old, McIlroy is installed as the favourite. 'As soon as it was announced, the first thought was 'Rory'. Even I thought that – and it's my town! Yeah, I'd won a US Open and Darren [Clarke] who lived in Portrush had won the Claret Jug in 2011 and there was Padraig [Harrington, the three-time major winner from Dublin] there as well. 'But Rory wasn't just a four-time winner playing a major in his homeland – he'd shot that 61 as a 16-year-old. So naturally, the spotlight was going to be most on him. I saw him in the days before and he seemed very composed, if a bit quiet for him. I couldn't see him not contending. To my mind, he was the clear choice to win it.' 'When Rory came into the media centre for his pre-tournament interview, every seat was taken. It was the first time and maybe only time that I've seen Rory, or any golfer, have more journalists in an interview room than Tiger Woods. That says it all. 'Rory seemed ready enough, although I do remember thinking that the pressure must have been way over the top. Everywhere you went in the town, everyone was talking about Rory. I popped into a chippy and there were pictures of him all over the walls and one coffee chop was selling Rory Macachinos.' 'It was obviously the biggest sports event ever in Northern Ireland and the demand for tickets was incredible. Because of my connection with the place – I'd held the course record, having taken it off Padraig with a 64, before Rory shot that 61 – I was getting loads of requests [for tickets]. I had a job to get one for myself. Everyone wanted to be there. The tickets were going for thousands. It was Rorymania, all right.' The first day McIlroy is partnered with England's Paul Casey and the American Gary Woodland, who the month before had won the US Open. The trio went out at 10.09am. 'When we saw the draw on the Tuesday, we thought 'oh boy, this will be lively'. And the atmosphere was incredible. Darren [Clarke] had hit the first tee shot at about 6.30am and the crowd was pumped. Walking to the first tee… well, I can best sum it up by saying it was Ryder Cuppy. But Rory seemed very nervous. He kept taking practice swings and was clearly jumpy. He was pacing around, couldn't get settled. I said so to Paul. 'He needs to calm down and focus'. Seeing him like that, I wasn't surprised about what happened next.' 'I can't imagine what it was like for Darren. G-Mac [McDowell] wasn't that far ahead of us and I could hear the roar. But with Rory – it was a moment in golf history right there. I was trying to concentrate on myself, but it was very, very loud. I was surprised by what happened. He had a two-iron and struggled with that club.' 'Harry [Diamond, his caddie] was relatively new on the bag. There was a right-to-left wind and there was out-of-bounds on the left as well as on the right. If I were on his bag, I would have given him a really small target and said, 'just keep looking at that, nothing else, and ignore the rest'. And I'd have been really close by and kept talking the whole time about what we're going to do. It was not an easy tee shot as there was a right-to-left wind and that out-of-bounds on the left.' 'I'd been there since the Friday and did not know there was out-of-bounds on the left.' 'We were all a bit confused by that. Internal out-of-bounds is never great. Apparently that patch of ground used to be a field owned by a farmer with cows on it. The club later bought it but to stay faithful to the original layout, they put white stakes there. It seemed odd. And that day, there was a right-to-left wind, so the fairway was half the width. It didn't take much of a tug to go OB. I'm glad I didn't know it was there.' 'He had waited his whole life to hit that tee shot and to see it sailing left, that was tough. I was deflated for him, the crowd was deflated. You had to feel for him.' 'I was waiting down the fairway but my colleagues on the tee told me Rory started saying 'sit, sit, sit…' as soon as he'd hit that two-iron. I think he said 'sit' six times. He knew. There were discernible gasps. It hit a woman on the stomach and it smashed her phone. She was OK. But Rory had to reload and take three off the tee. The next one went in the thick rough. From there he hacked into more rough, where he had to take an unplayable lie. So he was six on the green and the dreaded snowman – the quadruple-bogey eight – was inevitable.' Nightmare start for Rory McIlroy 😲 After going out of bounds off the tee, the favourite makes +4 on the opening hole 📺 Watch all four days of #TheOpen live on Sky Sports The Open or follow it here: — Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 18, 2019 'At this stage you're just trying not to look and concentrating on your own man. It was extraordinary, though. Like I said, I wasn't too shocked, as Rory is quite prone to nerves, otherwise he'd have probably won a lot more majors really. That's where he differs to Tiger. He gets hyped up.' 'I kept away from him. He knows what to do.' 'In those mad 15 minutes, Rory went from the 6-1 favourite to 33-1. It's golf, things don't happen quickly And at the start of a round, on the very first hole, that wild fluctuation of odds had not occurred before or since.' 'I was down there and the mood was just one of shock. I mean, the balloon hadn't just been punctured, it had been flattened. We all tried to launch into shouts of 'c'mon, Rors'. But at best it was half-hearted. We were already in a form of grieving. It didn't help when he bogeyed the third.' 'As often happens, particularly with a natural player like Rory, a mini-disaster like that eventually frees them up and Rory, with nothing to lose, started to play well. But a few birdies later and the pressure drops again.' 'He played the fourth to the 15th in two-under par and was only three over. He was far from out of it. It had been a nice comeback. But the 16th killed him. He was so gutted to miss his putt for par, he just flicked the one back and missed that as well. The air went out of the sails. He had been trying so hard until that moment. The fans were devastated. And I looked around and saw so many of my fellow media members inside the ropes and hunched around the green and thought 'this is claustrophobic'.' 'He doubled [double-bogeyed] the last didn't he? I said 'what would I prefer, a quadruple-bogey eight at the first or a triple-bogey seven on the 18th?' He did both. Brutal.' 'He fronted up afterwards. Said it was 'inexcusable' and said 'I want to punch myself in the face'. He wowed to fight to make the cut, but the way the narrative works is that the circus goes on. Of course, Rory was of interest on the Friday, but the storyline had well and truly been burst. A 79. He was eight over and 150th in a 156-man field. Nobody envisioned that.' The second day McIlroy, together with Casey (one-over) and Woodland (three-over) went out at 3.10pm 'We all know Rory would have to go really low. Shoot a 63 or something. But he'd shot a 61 as a kid, so we all knew it was possible. We just wanted to watch him to be honest. He then put on an amazing show. Birdie after birdie, really responding and interacting with the crowd.' 'It was the most electric Friday atmosphere I've seen in my time on Tour. It was a crazy change in emotion from Thursday to Friday.' 'Yeah, when Rory is in full-flight it is great to watch. But the pressure was off and he is known for a surge once he's already made his train smash. The crowd were obviously really behind him. Have not heard roars like that simply for someone trying to make the cut.' 'Rory was emotional afterwards, talking about how he had reconnected with the public in that 65. It was good stuff, but in the cold light of the day he had come up a shot short. Everyone had jumped on the Shane Lowry train by then.' "This was a week that I'd been looking forward to for a long time." 😪 An emotional Rory McIlroy speaks to Sky Sports after seemingly missing the cut at #TheOpen, despite shooting a second-round 65 at Royal Portrush. ⛳ Watch The Open Verdict live on Sky Sports The Open now! — Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 19, 2019 The postscript McIlroy held back the tears as he processed he was out, and all eyes switched to Lowry – who roared ahead to finish six shots clear of Tommy Fleetwood, at 15-under. 'It proved to be a big party anyway, as Shane did it for Ireland. Great day, great night. Portrush rocked. As for Rory, the word went round that he had passed Harry the two-iron he'd put in and said 'do what you want with this'. Harry gave it to his father-in-law, Richard Nicholas, a well-known surgeon in Belfast, who is a Portrush member. 'Apparently, Richard offered a few of his mates to have a go with it, but some refused because they thought it might be cursed. 'Well, if it did that to Rory, then there must be something weird going on…' But he has it under lock and key now. A prized possession. As it should be. It's a hell of a memento from an unforgettable week.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
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Dad who took his son on golfing trip of a lifetime hits a hole-in-one - and what happened next has left the sport in disbelief
An Auckland father and son duo have defied unbelievable odds to produce one of the most remarkable moments of their lives by hitting consecutive aces while on a golfing holiday. Jim Rohrstaff, a 46-year-old former club professional, had been traveling around Scotland with his wife Kara and sons Blake and Eric, playing at different courses along the way. Last Saturday, they arrived at the historic Cullen Links and could not in a million years have anticipated what would happen next. Rohrstaff and Blake, 18, made double bogeys at the seventh hole before walking up to the 255m (279-yard) par-four eighth. 'I hit driver and my ball actually landed just left of the green in the left rough, but it was a bit of a slope and it kicked right towards the green and that's all we saw,' Rohrstaff told the New Zealand Herald. 'We could see the green, but from 255m you don't see exactly where the ball is settling.' Blake stepped up next with his driver and told the group he was going to hit a 'a little bullet'. 'He hit his driver and it landed on the front left side of the green and kind of bounced, released and ran just past the pin and then it started to roll back a little bit, but again didn't really think much of it,' Jim Rohrstaff explained. The group approached the green, but could only see the ball that had been hit by Rohrstaff's youngest son, Eric. 'I walk up, and I'm in the left rough, just above the bunker, and I look around for a second. It's wide open. I'm like, where the heck's my golf ball?' he told 'So I'm looking around a little bit, and because there's only one ball on the green, and I'm like, well, where the heck am I? I thought, you know, I'm either on the green or I'm here on the left side and got stuck in the rough.' That's when Eric made an incredible discovery in the cup. 'Oh, well there are two here,' Eric said. Rohrstaff was perplexed. The odds of two golfers making an ace on the same hole are 17million-to-one. 'He's like, there's two balls. And he wasn't excited at all. He's like, there's two balls right here. And we're like, "shut up". 'So of course, we go walking over there, Kara's got her phone out, and, I mean, I started hopping around like an idiot. And we just, we just kind of went nuts. And it was just, it was, and I'm still a bit shell-shocked.' 'That was my 11th hole in one. That's Blake's first one. I've obviously never had one on a par 4. So, I mean, it was just the silliest, most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, heard of or experienced on a golf course. It was nuts.' Blake said it took him a while to 'connect the dots'. 'I heard Dad say there was a ball in there, and I thought it was just his. And he was like, "No, we're both in here." And I started going monkeys as well.' The family continued the celebrations when they made it back to the clubhouse, with Rohrstaff admitting he had trouble sleeping that night while thinking about the rare event. 'I still can't get my head around it. It's the most insane thing I've ever heard of, and if I weren't there, I wouldn't believe it myself,' he said.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Win-or-bust tie with Panathinaikos is coming a little too quickly for Rangers boss Martin, writes John McGarry
Rangers' impending Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos almost feels like a rude interruption this summer. The town of Portrush won't even be back to normal after the conclusion of The Open on Monday by the time Russell Martin takes his seat in the media room at Auchenhowie ahead of the first leg of his side's second qualifying round tie the following evening. The days when football traditionally cleared the stage for other sports for a couple of months are well gone. Martin could be forgiven for feeling this game is all coming a little too quickly. He was appointed Barry Ferguson's successor on June 5. The players only returned for pre-season training on June 23 and there's been a whirlwind of transfer activity since then, predominately incoming. Now here we are, in the middle of July, contemplating a match of the utmost importance at the start of a new era. For all Philippe Clement endured the nightmare of the Ibrox building works fiasco last summer, he at least had a tasty trip to Tynecastle to get his teeth into before his side faced Dynamo Kyiv in the Polish city of Lublin. Martin will have had friendlies against Club Brugge and Barnsley and some closed-door matches before getting down to business. You can do as many double training sessions as you like in the heat of St George's Park. Nothing prepares players for competitive matches quite like competitive matches. The history books are littered with tales of near misses and calamities for Scottish clubs at this brutally early juncture and Rangers have many of their own entries that they'd rather forget. In 1998, Dick Advocaat's expensively assembled squad took the field for the first time against Irish side Shelbourne at Tranmere's Prenton Park. They were three goals down to the part-time outfit inside an hour before finding their sea legs and rallying to a 5-3 win. A decade on, fresh from losing the UEFA Cup final to Zenit St Petersburg in Manchester, Walter Smith's men crashed out of the Champions League by losing 2-1 away to FBK Kaunas after a goalless home leg. 'From the sublime to the ridiculous,' he said ruefully that night in Lithuania. Most infamously, eight years ago, Pedro Caixinha's trip to Luxembourg ended in abject humiliation as he stood in shrubbery while remonstrating with irate supporters. Progres Niedercorn's aggregate triumph was even more remarkable for the fact that Rangers narrowly won the first leg in Glasgow. Even with that game against Hearts cutting the ribbon on last season, Clement's side still came up short against a Kyiv side whose limitations were laid bare by their eventual 34th-place finish in a 36-team Europa League group. Dynamo were then ranked 77th in UEFA's club rankings and have since slipped to 113th. Panathinaikos are currently 94th, up 17 places in the space of a year on the back of an impressive run to the last 16 of the Conference League. Everything points towards them being a tougher nut to crack. While Martin will take a sliver of encouragement from knowing the Greeks don't start their own league campaign until the third week in August, they are coming off an arduous pre-season in Austria which has seen them go toe-to-toe with the likes of Schalke and Braga. Rui Vitoria's team finished second behind Olympiacos in the title race last season and boast a string of class acts including Serbian international attacker Filip Duricic. The task of progressing to the next qualifying round certainly feels a long way from the one presented by Macedonian hopefuls Shkupi in 2018, notably the last occasion a Rangers manager - namely Steven Gerrard - made his debut in Europe. Frankly, if any occupant of the Ibrox hot seat has faced a tougher opening-night assignment down the years, then no-one can quite recall it. Martin will need all his experienced players to step up to the plate. Although Leon Balogun and Vaclav Cerny, two of last year's better performers, have moved on, there is still the core of the team which reached the quarter finals of the Europa League last season - Cyriel Dessers, James Tavernier and John Souttar. Speculation linking Dessers with a move to AEK Athens continues to swirl around but, as things stand, the forward will be travelling to that sprawling city as a Rangers player. Aside from Dessers' goals, you can understand Martin's reluctance to part with the 30-year-old. Only one of the seven players he has has signed to date - Nasser Djiga - has previously sampled European football while playing for Red Star Belgrade. In contrast, a Panathinaikos side which held its own against the likes of Ajax and Lens last season, is brimming with seasoned operators at that level. Max Aarons and Joe Rothwell, who have both joined Rangers from Premier League Bournemouth, would be expected to immediately look at home on the European stage. Djeidi Gassama, who has just joined from Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, should also comfortably make the step-up if available and selected. But it remains to be seen how Thelo Aasgaard and Emmanuel Fernandez, both of whom were playing in the English third tier with Luton and Peterborough respectively last season, bridge the obvious jump in quality. The same applies to Lyall Cameron - notably the only Scot among Martin's seven summer recruits. Demonstrably good enough to play in the Premiership during his time with Dundee, the 22-year-old must also show he can cut it on the continental stage. Tasked with changing the fortunes of a team who have become strangers to success in recent times, Martin had no choice but to change so much of the personnel in little over a month. Although still shy of the round dozen players Clement brought in last summer, he's thrown a lot of darts at the board. Football being football, chances are not all of them will stick. By the time his side leave the Ibrox arena for the first time next week, though, it's imperative that their trip to Greece for the second leg counts for something. The group stage of the Champions League is primarily where Rangers' new American owners feel they can make good on their investment. No matter how arduous this task appears for the new man at the helm, a failure to clear the first hurdle is clearly not in their thinking.
