Latest news with #Carnoustie
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
The British Open Is Special to Tom Watson. He Won It Five Times.
A half century has passed since Tom Watson captured the first of his five British Opens, defeating Jack Newton by one in an 18-hole playoff at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland. Watson's most memorable Open triumph, however, came in 1977 at Turnberry in Scotland when he closed with a 65 to edge Jack Nicklaus by a stroke in what became known as the Duel in the Sun. Turnberry was also the venue for one of Watson's toughest losses. In the 2009 British Open, Watson led by one on the final hole but made a bogey and fell to Stewart Cink in a four-hole playoff. With this year's Open starting Thursday at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, Watson, 75, reflected on his past appearances. The following conversation has been edited and condensed. What stands out about your British Open win in 1975? What stands out is when I was receiving the trophy from the captain of the R&A, he said to the crowd, 'Now I'd like to introduce as the champion golfer of the year, Tom Kite.' That's how unknown I was. What did the victory do for your confidence? It was obviously a victory in a very important tournament, but I was still trying to learn how to win. I hadn't learned how yet. I felt I had the tools to win, but I didn't perform when the chips were down. A lot of it has to do with trusting your golf swing, but it also had to do with swinging too fast and making quick decisions. I finally learned by walking a beat slower and deep breathing coupled with a trust in your golf swing. Things started to fall into place. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
What is a links golf course?
A links golf course is the oldest and most traditional form of course, with origins in courses are typically built on sandy coastal terrain, offering firmer playing surfaces than those found on parkland or Great Britain and Ireland, such courses are commonplace, with Scotland and Ireland holding deep historical ties to the development of links Open Championship always being contested on links courses is one of its most distinguishable term 'links' comes from the Scots language and the old English word 'hlinc', meaning 'rising ground' or 'ridge'.It has been used to describe coastal golf courses since at least the 18th century. What makes a links golf course? While there are no set rules for what makes a links golf course, they are traditionally on or near the coast - often set among sand means links courses often lack trees or water hazards - largely due to limited resources available to early course links courses therefore more open, wind and challenging weather conditions make for particularly challenging play. Links courses typically favour controlled players, with a requirement to play low shots and use the bounce of the course to avoid the wind. Famous links courses Royal Portrush - the home of the 2025 Open - is one of many famous links courses, as are fellow Open hosts St Andrews and 2015, the US Open was held at Chambers Bay, near Seattle. The course is one of a few examples of where a major championship was played on a links golf course outside of Great Britain and article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team. What is Ask Me Anything? Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world's biggest sporting coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio. More questions answered... What is the prize money at The Open 2025?How does qualifying for The Open work?What is a mud ball?What is a birdie, eagle and albatross? Golf terms explained
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
BRITISH OPEN '25: Tiger Woods and Tom Watson part of history at golf's oldest championship
FILE -United States' Zach Johnson celebrates with members of the public as he holds the trophy after winning a playoff after the final round at the British Open Golf Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland, Monday, July 20, 2015.(AP Photo/Jon Super, File) FILE -Tom Watson reacts on the 18th green after sinking a 25-foot birdie putt to force a playoff with with Jack Newton in the British Open golf championship at Carnoustie, Scotland in this July 12, 1975 photo. (AP Photo, File) FILE -Tiger Woods of the United States tees off from the 18th towards the club house of the Royal and Ancient during the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, July 23, 2000. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File) FILE -Tiger Woods of the United States tees off from the 18th towards the club house of the Royal and Ancient during the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, July 23, 2000. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File) FILE -United States' Zach Johnson celebrates with members of the public as he holds the trophy after winning a playoff after the final round at the British Open Golf Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland, Monday, July 20, 2015.(AP Photo/Jon Super, File) FILE -Tom Watson reacts on the 18th green after sinking a 25-foot birdie putt to force a playoff with with Jack Newton in the British Open golf championship at Carnoustie, Scotland in this July 12, 1975 photo. (AP Photo, File) FILE -Tiger Woods of the United States tees off from the 18th towards the club house of the Royal and Ancient during the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, July 23, 2000. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File) PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — A capsule look at key anniversary years at the British Open, including the AP story from those victories: 150 years ago (1875) Site: Prestwick. Winner: Willie Park Sr. Runner-up: Bob Martin. Advertisement Score: 56-59-51--166. Margin: 2 shots. Winner's share: 8 pounds. Noteworthy: Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris did not play because the wife of Young Tom Morris died six days before the championship while giving birth. Young Tom Morris also died later that year. The Glasgow Herald: The annual competition for the golf championship of Scotland took place on Prestwick Links, and resulted in favour of Willie Park, of Musselburgh. The game consisted of 36 holes, and was completed by Park in 166 strokes. In the absence of the famous Morrises of St. Andrews, who are at present mourning a severe domestic calamity, only two representatives of the 'Kingdom' were present, but one of them, Bob Martin, won second place in the competition. Advertisement 125 years ago (1900) Site: St. Andrews. Winner: J.H. Taylor. Runner-up: Harry Vardon. Score: 79-77-78-75--309. Margin: 8 shots. Winner's share: 50 pounds. Noteworthy: This was a period when Taylor and Harry Vardon had won five of the previous six British Open titles. AP story: J.H. Taylor won the open golf championship on the St. Andrews links today. Taylor's win was a popular one. His score was 309 for the four rounds, being thirteen strokes better than his victory on the same grounds in 1895. The weather was dull, but favourable for good scoring. By his victory at St. Andrews yesterday Taylor scores his third triumph in the English open championships. His first success was gained in 1894 over the same links, and it is a noteworthy fact that up to that time the title had never been won by an English professional. Advertisement 100 years ago (1925) Site: Prestwick. Winner: Jim Barnes. Runners-up: Archie Compston and Ted Ray. Score: 70-77-79-74--300 Margin: 1 shot. Winner's share: 75 pounds. Noteworthy: This was the final British Open held at Prestwick. Troon replaced it as the links in the southwest of Scotland. AP story: The British open golf championship will be carried back to the United States by 'Long Jim' Barnes, who won it today. His score of 300 strokes for the 72 holes over links at Prestwick led all the others of the 83 competitors. His victory marked the fourth in five summers of the Americans in the historic tournament. The Britons, Edward Ray, champions of years ago, and Archie Compston of North Manchester, failed by but one stroke of equaling Barnes' winning score. Each scored a 301. They both missed final putts on the last green and lost their chance to tie Barnes. Advertisement 75 years ago (1950) Site: Troon GC. Winner: Bobby Locke. Runner-up: Roberto De Vicenzo. Score: 69-72-70-68--279 Margin: 2 shots. Winner's share: 1,500 pounds. Noteworthy: Locke set the 72-hole scoring record, which he matched seven years later. AP story: Bobby Locke, walking as if the Troon fairways were carpeted with eggs, came up with a fourth round 68 today that won him the British Open Golf title for the second straight year and lowered a scoring mark that had stood since 1932. The South African finished with a 279 on rounds of 69-72-70-68 over the par 70 course. His aggregate wiped out the previous low winning total of 283 posted by Gene Sarazen 18 years ago. Behind Locke came Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina, who carded a 281 and also broke Sarazen's record. Only because it retained the championship for Locke did his hot round overshadow a sensational 66 which Frank Stranahan of Toledo, Ohio, fired in a vain attempt to place the open trophy beside the British amateur award he won earlier this spring. Advertisement 50 years ago (1975) Site: Carnoustie. Winner: Tom Watson. Runner-up: Jack Newton. Score: 71-67-69-72-279 Margin: Playoff (Watson 71, Newton 72). Winner's share: 7,500 pounds. Noteworthy: This was the final 18-hole playoff at the British Open. It was changed to a four-hole aggregate playoff in 1985 (first used in 1989). AP story: Tom Watson, a 25-year-old who has blown chances in three major championships, kept his cool Sunday and won the British Open golf championship on the rainswept 18th hole of a playoff when Jack Newton missed a tying par putt by inches. Watson, who finished the extra round in 1-under-par 71, holed a 30-foot chip for an eagle on the 14th to take a one-shot lead, then bogeyed the 16th, putting him and his 25-year-old Australian challenger even going to the 18th. Watson parred. Newton blasted out of a greenside bunker and needed a 12-foot putt to stay alive. He just missed, and the title and the $16,500 first prize belonged to Watson. Advertisement 25 years ago (2000) Site: St. Andrews GC. Winner: Tiger Woods. Runners-up: Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn. Score: 67-66-67-69--269. Margin: 8 shots. Winner's share: 500,000. Noteworthy: Woods played the ninth hole during the practice round with a replica of a gutta percha. He hit driver and 5-iron just over the back of the green and got up-and-down for par. AP story: Five hundred years of legend and lore hardly prepared golf's hallowed home for Tiger Woods. On the same linksland that Old Tom Morris nurtured and Jack Nicklaus conquered, along came a 24-year-old with a keen eye for history. Woods not only became the youngest player to win the career Grand Slam, he completed it faster than any of the four greats who did it before him. The final piece came Sunday, when Woods held the silver claret jug under the cool, grey skies of St. Andrews after another record-breaking performance to win the British Open. Challenged briefly by David Duval, Woods pulled away for an eight-stroke victory. It wasn't quite as overwhelming as his 15-stroke victory in the U.S. Open last month, but it was the largest in 87 years of golf's oldest championship. Advertisement 20 years ago (2005) Site: St. Andrews. Winner: Tiger Woods. Runner-up: Colin Montgomerie. Score: 66-67-71-70-274 Margin: 5 shots. Winner's share: 720,000. Noteworthy: Jack Nicklaus missed the cut in his 164th and final major championship. Woods won each of the four majors Nicklaus played for the final time. AP story: Sunday brought yet another grand crossing over the Swilcan Bridge: The defiant return of Tiger Woods. Two days after Jack Nicklaus bade an emotional farewell to the majors, Woods took another step toward the Golden Bear's record with another ruthless performance at St. Andrews, closing with a 2-under 70 to win the British Open for his 10th career major. He won by five shots, the largest margin in any major since Woods won by eight at St. Andrews five years ago. This one also had a sense of inevitability, with Woods taking the lead on the ninth hole of the first round. No one caught him over the final 63. He joined Nicklaus as the only players to win the career Grand Slam twice, and Woods completed his own version of the slam that shows how their careers are so indelibly linked — he now has won all four majors that Nicklaus played for the last time. Advertisement 10 years ago (2015) Site: St. Andrews. Winner: Zach Johnson. Runners-up: Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman. Score: 66-71-70-66--273 Margin: Playoff (Johnson 3-3-5-4; Oosthuizen 3-4-5-4; Leishman 5-4-5-4). Winner's share: 1,150,000 pounds Noteworthy: Rory McIlroy was the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 who did not defend his title because of an ankle surgery from playing soccer. AP story: Zach Johnson cradled the silver claret jug in his arms. Jordan Spieth let it slip through his fingers. Spieth was right where he wanted to be in his spirited bid for the Grand Slam — tied for the lead with two holes to go in the British Open, right after making a 50-foot birdie putt that made it feel as though he were destined to win at St. Andrews for his third straight major. And he was still there at the very end Monday, but only as a spectator. The slam gone, Spieth graciously returned to the steps of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse to watch Johnson finish off a sterling performance of his own. Johnson rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that got him into a three-man playoff, and he outlasted Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman to win the British Open. ___ AP golf:
The Irish Sun
15-07-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Huge honour granted to Padraig Harrington ahead of tee-off at Royal Portrush as The Open returns to Antrim course
THE honour of hitting the first shot of The Open at Royal Portrush has been bestowed upon two-time champion Padraig Harrington. The oldest tournament in golf returns to the Antrim course this week for the first time since 2019 when Advertisement 3 Two of his three major wins came at this tournament Credit: Getty 3 Rory McIlroy won at Royal Liverpool in 2014 Credit: Getty 3 Shane Lowry will be hoping lightning strikes twice at the home of his greatest hour Credit: AFP Harrington, 53, triumphed in successive years at at Carnoustie and Royal Birkdale in 2007 and 2008 respectively. In a sign of the standing he's held in on both sides of the Irish Sea, tournament organisers have chosen him as the lucky golfer to hit Thursday's opening tee shot. At the time of writing, the playing groups for the first two days of play have yet to be announced so we don't know who will be alongside the Dubliner throughout the opening 36 holes. While definitely in the back nine of his career, Harrington remains a force to be reckoned with as shown by him once again Advertisement Read More On Irish Sport He famously endured two rounds from hell starting with an errant tee shot on the opening hole as he wound up missing the cut. But McIlroy believes the reason it took him so long to recapture his competitive vibe after his Advertisement Most read in Golf The USPGA and the US Open followed hard on the heels of Augusta, where And he says it was only when he took two weeks off following last month's Travelers Championship that he was able to appreciate what he had achieved. 'People believe what they want to believe' - Golf star Shane Lowry's prickly response to question about his drinking He explained: 'Yeah, I think everyone could see over the last couple of months how I struggled with resetting my goals, after I've done something that I've told everyone that I wanted to do. 'I probably just didn't give myself enough time to let it all sink in. But that's the nature of professional golf. Advertisement "They do a very good job of keeping you on the hamster wheel, and you feel like it's hard to get off at times. 'But it's been an amazing year. The fact that I'm here at Portrush with the green jacket, having completed that lifelong dream. 'Now I want to do my best this week to enjoy everything that comes my way and enjoy the reaction of the fans and enjoy being in front of them and playing in front of them. 'But at the same time, I want to win this golf tournament, and I feel like I'm very capable of doing that.' Advertisement McIlroy proved he is not ready to simply bask in the glory of becoming only the sixth player ever to win all four majors as he launched himself into his Open preparations yesterday. He was still
Times
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
How Ireland conquered the Open after decades in the wilderness
Amid the dreamy flow of drone shots drifting over a dozen of Ireland's most beautiful golf courses, the most striking scene from 'This Is Open Country', Ross Whitaker's gorgeous film broadcast this week on Sky charting the blossoming of an extraordinary relationship between Irish golfers and the Open, was how the landscape for Irish golfers looked before this generation reshaped everything. In the 18 years since Padraig Harrington's first Open title at Carnoustie in 2007, four Irish golfers have shared five Open championships between them; only the United States has a better strike rate in the same period. In 2007, 60 years had passed since Fred Daly's victory at Hoylake. The championships in-between were speckled with Irish golfers occasionally making the top 10. Between Daly's victory and Harrington only Christy O'Connor senior got that close, finishing second in 1965. The idea of winning? O'Connor aside, that was other people's business. All Harrington had as evidence that an Irish golfer could access that sort of success was the childhood memory of the trials and triumphs endured by O'Connor's nephew Christy Jnr around Royal St George's at the 1985 Open. O'Connor started that weekend shooting 64 in the first round to obliterate Henry Cotton's course record. That evening, as O'Connor detailed the glories of his round in the press tent, a voice piped up from the back of the room. 'Not a bad score for 17 holes, young man,' he said. 'Thank you so much Mr Cotton,' O'Connor replied. The rest of his weekend was a mix of everything. 'The second day, I had the best 76 I probably ever had in my life, in a hurricane,' he said in 2015. He was still in contention by Sunday and hit 17 greens in regulation but took 37 putts and slipped back to third. That was the best of it for decades. Ireland's relationship with the Open seemed tied forever to Harry Bradshaw finding his ball wedged in a broken bottle during his final round at the 1949 Open with the title within reach. That evening he recreated the whole scene for the photographers who missed the original snafu, a sporting calamity kindly re-enacted as an Irish joke. 'There was a certain attitude [that] maybe you couldn't win, coming from Ireland in that sense,' says Harrington in Whitaker's film. O'Connor getting close in 1985 was a beginning no one saw. Four years later O'Connor was the lowest ranked player by a distance at the Ryder Cup and left among the tournament's immortals, his two-iron into the 18th green setting up the putt that beat Fred Couples forever stitched into Ryder Cup showreels. Ronan Rafferty also won the European Tour's Order of Merit that year. Irish teams featuring Rafferty, Des Smyth, Eamonn Darcy, David Feherty and Philip Walton won two Dunhill Cups either side of 1989 when those team tournaments mattered. These were the pioneers setting out ahead of Darren Clarke and Harrington in particular, Harrington's first Open title as a self-made golfer eternally tinkering and reassembling his game for maximum effect eventually inspiring the ones with more natural magic in their fingertips. As all of them teased out their own stories in Whitaker's film, the impact of Harrington making that breakthrough becomes even more pronounced. In the five years that followed Harrington first won back-to-back Opens and a US PGA championship in 2008, followed by four more major wins shared between Rory McIlroy (2011 US Open and 2012 US PGA), Graeme McDowell (2010 US Open) and Clarke (2011 Open). That surge didn't merely lift the most incredibly talented ones, either. Since 2007, 17 Irish golfers have shared 85 tournament victories in Europe and America. In the 61 years before that, reaching back to Daly's victory at the 1946 Irish Open, Irish golfers had won 110 tour titles between them. Once the Irish golfers started winning, the values instilled by their upbringings on links courses with nothing easily earned on the courses or in life itself developed the shot-making imagination and resilience that opened up opportunities at various Open championships years later. 'You've got to be comfortable being uncomfortable,' said Clarke. If the golf courses bred character, so did their backgrounds. Nothing ever came easy, even for the greatest of them. McIlroy's father was a bar manager. Harrington's father was a Garda. Clarke's mother worked as a rep for a textile company and his father was an officer manager. McDowell's father was an accountant in Portrush where his son was reared on golf at Rathmore. 'The 'haves' played at Royal Portrush,' said McDowell in 2015. 'The 'have-nots' played at Rathmore. But the golf ball didn't know that.' Lowry's father Brendan was an All-Ireland football medal winner with Offaly who worked for the ESB. His son started out with a pencil-thin golf bag, carrying maybe a half-dozen clubs. 'I maybe didn't believe I was as good as I was when I was a kid,' says Lowry in Whitaker's film, 'which maybe made me go at it a lot harder than other people and want it a bit more.' That attitude eventually yielded historic success but the Open often put manners on them all over the last 17 years. The year after his second Open title in 2008 Harrington finished 65th and missed the next three cuts. When Harrington was winning in 2007, Clarke and McDowell were missing the cut. Before winning at Portrush in 2019 Lowry had missed the cut at the four previous Opens. Clarke and McIlroy both missed the cut that year at one of the most significant tournaments of their lives. 'I'd been dreaming of this tournament a long time,' McIlroy told Whitaker. 'All these different emotions that I had in my head for three or four years leading up. I just didn't expect on that first tee on Thursday how nervous I would be. I put that tee in the ground and my name was called. I had no idea how I was going to feel.' Even victory sometimes brought them to the depths. Before Harrington's nerveless dismissal of Sergio Garcia in the play-off that won the 2007 Open, he suffered the sight of two shots on dropping into the burns of Carnoustie on the 18th and his carefully collated lead disappearing beneath the water. 'That was the first time I've ever been on a golf course where I wanted to give up,' Harrington says. But he persevered. They all did. Available to watch on Sky Sports Golf and NOW
