Tiger and Phil disappeared this season. But in Lytham, history lives on
The Women’s Open Championship will be held this week at Royal Lytham, where Annika Sorenstam completed her career grand slam in 2003. A few months earlier, he had played a PGA Tour event, at Colonial. Interest in Annika, 23 years ago, was high, very high, and her golf, like her personality and her language, was memorably precise.
I once followed her in a tournament round during this time and heard Annika ask her partner to mark her ball on the green before Annika played the shot—from 130 yards or so. After the round, I told Annika that I had never heard a player make such a request, not from that distance. “You should watch me play a lot of golf,” said Annika in her no-nonsense way. Ah-nee-KAH. I often wondered how he would adjust to life in Florida—he was so Swedish. Nelly Korda, the child of European parents and reigning US Open winner, has a great opportunity this week to carve out a place for herself in the game, by winning her first Open Championship at the same time Annika won hers.
I was at Lytham for that Open, 23 summers ago. (In a sportswriter’s tour de force, I covered the Open at Royal St. George’s, the Senior Open at Turnberry and the Women’s Open at Lytham in three consecutive weeks. My wife moved us into our current house hitting between those three. Barbara Nicklaus told me this: “Tell Christine she’s lucky—I once packed one box—I once went with Jack; I’m tired.’”) Annika won her only Open by beating Se-Ri Pak, another future World Golf Hall of Famer.
On the Sunday of the tournament, he did laundry and watched “Saving Private Ryan” before making the short walk from his rented house in Lytham to the club and its famous red-brick clubhouse, old and creaking. The competition was sponsored by Weetabix, a British cereal company. Annika was wearing a necklace sent to her by a stranger who said the necklace could improve her performance. He talked to Tiger regularly in those days, comparing scores.
“This is what it’s all about, playing in a big tournament where you have to play,” Annika said triumphantly. He was emotionally devastated by the victory, and, in his own way, he was letting go. The day, the week, the competition, the winner—everything was intense. Perhaps this week will be equally intense. In the meantime, we can enjoy watching the church play out. Nelly, Lydia Ko, Charley Hull, Jeeno Thitikul: the stage is yours, ladies. He borrows it for a week from Bobby Jones, from Ernie Els, from Annika Sorenstam. Lytham is not the most popular tournament venue but it has produced a list of winners that will stand up forever. The Men’s Open returns there in 2028. Next year, in Jerusalem. That is, the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland.
Ernie did not play at Royal Birkdale last week, but he did play in the Senior British Open at Gleneagles, on the King’s Course, where Jerry Kelly won, aged 59. I think that’s a big thing, to win the Senior British Open, the US Senior Open, the Senior PGA Championship. I think you should be able to play your way into the World Golf Hall of Fame based on what you do in the three major tournaments for men in the 50 and over crowd. The King’s Course is rolling and beautiful but also American and resort. Warning: This take may be now! I don’t think I’ve been there since I caddied in the 1991 Scottish Open, and my boy (Peter Teravainen-legend) missed the cut.
This week, the Champions Tour held an event in Portugal, on a course designed by Els. Els plays, as do Darren Clarke, Stewart Cink and Padraig Harrington, to name four other Open winners. Padraig played at Birkdale and shot a first round 80, grinding down from the first tee to the bottom of the 18th hole. “I’ve never been shy about anything I do on the golf course,” Padraig said after his second-round 69. That’s not the case. See: Harrington, Padraig; tendency to digest. He plays in the Open every year, and I expect he will continue to do so as long as he is fit.
This year, neither Phil Mickelson nor Tiger Woods were on the field at Royal Birkdale. This was the first year since 1994 that no one played in the majors. It’s weird. Tom Watson was at Birkdale—the five-time Open champion was named a “Global Ambassador” by the R&A in 2018—and one morning he was in Birkdale’s Art Deco clubhouse, talking about Byron Nelson’s experience in the ’37 Open at Carnoustie (arriving there by boat) and how he would play today’s top 9 Birk players. down, generation to generation, better than any game I know. He hopes, for their sake and for the sake of golf, that Phil and Tiger can find their way back. Not as players, but as global ambassadors.
Traditionally, these famous golfers—Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Annika Sorenstam, to name four other Open winners—had a long, long sunset. Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy, all under-40 Open winners, may dream about escaping the pressures of social life, straight iPhones and autograph requests and reporters asking you to remember this or that. They may also discover that when the golfer gets his claws into you, you don’t have as much freedom of choice as you think you do.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
