golfweloveit

American broadcaster NBC put up this map with Royal Lytham and St Annes placed in Leeds. Two great courses there – former Ryder Cup venue Moortown, and Alister Mackenzie designed Allwoodley, but no where near the sea.

23 year old Matthias Schmid is the low amateur of this year’s Open Championship. On Friday he had a magnificent round of 65 to tie Tom Lewis for the all time lowest round at The Open by an amateur. He had five birdies and no bogeys. Today he is +1 for the championship.

Playing in his second Open, the University of Louisville senior is on a good run of form. He qualified to play in the recent US Open at Torrey Pines and achieved 14th place as an amateur in the BMW International Open in Germany. He is also twice European Amateur Champion.

His stats this week show a 336 yard longest drive, 69% fairways hit, 76% greens in regulation and 1.77 in putting, slightly above the field average of 1.67.

Matthias turns pro tomorrow and will tee up at the Wales Open on the European Tour this week.

Although he tossed his club in frustration on the 13th, and the finish of his round wasnt what had been what had promised, I walked all the holes with Rory yesterday and it was one of the best experiences on a golf course for a long time.

His front nine was nrilliantly played, and shows that he can still perform at the highest level. The crowds were roaring his excellent iron shots and brilliant putting on his way to five birdies. The crowd were breathless with excitement and although it didnt last, it did everyone the world of good.

The former President of the United States, Donald Trump, used his taxpayer funded office to issue a statement about why the R&A wasn’t using Turnberry as part of The Open rota any longer.

Turnberry last hosted in 2009, when Stewart Cink won, but after the Capitol Hill riots in January, the R&A issued a statement about Turnberry from Chief Executive Martin Slumbers.

“We have nomplans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do somin the foreseeable future.We will not return until we aremconvinced that the focus will be on the Championship, the players and the course and we do not believe that is achievabke under the current circumstances.

This fokkows the USGA’s decision to remove the 2022 PGA Championship from Trump National Bedminster.

Personally, I would love the 2027 championship to be held at Turnberry, 50 years on from the Duel In The Sun. But we’ll have to see what happens next.

Rory McIlroy called a few of the pin locations diabolical, but it was Jon Rahm and third round leader Louis Oosthuizen who were the most critical.

Louis said he was glad he wad able to hold hos round together. Having scored the lowest two round score in Open history, 129, he said he knew the R&A weren’t happy with the low scoring. “some of the pins put there were very questionable”.

Jon Rahm said some of the pin positions were no joke. They were some of the hardest pin positions collectively, I’ve ever seen”.

We could not be happier to partner with EA to bring golfers and players from all over the world to our celebration of The 150th Open via EA SPORTS PGA TOUR,” said Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A. “EA SPORTS plays an important role in taking golf to a wider audience through its highly realistic and immersive game.” 

Greg Norman, who won The Open in 1993 at Royal St Georges, is auctioning many items of his equiment to benefit First Tee through thegolfauction.com until July 18.

A beautiful tee shot at the par 3 16th led to a hole in one for Jonathan Thomson. . The 25 year old 6 feet 9 inch player from Notts GC qualified for the championship at Hollinwell.

Between the ages of 7 and 12 Jonathan was not able to go to school, because of hospital treatment for lukaemia, and spent his time at Rotherham Golf Club where his father works. He learnt to play alongside Danny Willett, and quickly rose through the amateur ranks. He currently competes on the Challenge Tour and is ranked 889th in the world.

It’s just 56 days since Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship, to become the oldest major champion ever. And yet yesterday, at Royal St Georges, he carded a +10 round of 80, and today shot +2 to leave the championship.

He says he is at a loss to explain what he calls “his terrible performance”.

“I played some of my worst gold. I don’t have any great answers as to why so I have to figure out what I can to get back to the level of lay like I did at the PGA. I thought I was ready. I obviously played terrible. I’m having some challenges staying sharp”.

Indeed. It must have been mental distraction. Although I didn’t see him out on the course I did watch him on the practice ground and he was hitting the ball well. There was no indication of what was to come. It must be, as he says, about focus.

He is going to take time off and will be back at The Open next year at St Andrews.