Moment of Glory by John Feinstein

Author:John Feinstein [FEINSTEIN, JOHN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPO000000
ISBN: 9780316053112
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2011-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

11

From Nowhere to St. George’s

THERE IS A FOUR-WEEK gap each year between the U.S. Open and the British Open. After Westchester, the PGA Tour moved on to Memphis, Chicago, and Milwaukee before those who had qualified headed across the Atlantic to Royal St. George’s in southern England for the 132nd playing of the British Open—or, as everyone in the world who doesn’t live in the United States calls it, “the Open Championship.”

The number of American players who make the trip each year has been the subject of a good deal of controversy for a long time. It has only been fifteen years since the British Open became an “official” tournament on the PGA Tour, meaning that money won in the event counts toward a player’s standing on the money list.

Even with that, many players opt to stay home because they don’t like the long flights, don’t like the food in Great Britain, don’t like adjusting their golf games to the vagaries of links play, don’t like the size of the hotel rooms, don’t like driving on the right-hand side of the road, and don’t like the relative lack of showers or how small they are when they can be found.

Sometimes life is really tough for golfers. One prominent player who makes the trip every year often does so without his wife. “She only comes the years when there’s a hotel with a spa at the course,” he said—completely serious.

In 2003 Royal St. George’s had no spa. It is in the town of Sandwich, a rural area a few miles from Dover and the famous white cliffs. There’s no spa, no Ritz, not even so much as a Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Sandwich. It is bed-and-breakfast country.

In 2004, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which puts on the Open Championship, created a qualifying event in the United States to encourage American players to make the trip. Until then, very few Americans who were not exempt into the field flew over to play in the 36-hole qualifiers held at four different sites near the Open golf course. The American theory, generally speaking, was that no one wanted to make the flight to play 36 holes, perhaps not qualify, and then turn around and go home.

A handful of Americans did play qualifiers. Peter Jacobsen and Brad Faxon both played on several occasions. One year, Faxon failed in the qualifier, flew home on Tuesday, played in the B.C. Open, which then was held the same week as the British—and won. Faxon was adamant that Americans, especially those who were exempt, play in the British.

“To me, it’s probably the greatest golf tournament in the world,” Faxon said. “If you’re a golfer and you don’t love it, something is wrong. It’s the oldest championship there is, it’s played on great golf courses with great fans. Sure, it’s a different kind of challenge, but for one week a year there’s nothing wrong with that.”

In 1996 when Scott Hoch (who famously missed a three-foot putt that would have won the Masters in 1989) didn’t go to the British and called St.

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