Because no fewer than seven men from the White Rose will strike the first blow at Royal St George’s today, as the first 24-month Open begins after last year’s postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Gone are the days when Yorkshire was lucky enough to have two men on the field, as the county used to regress towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium, when Simon Dyson of Malton and Richard Finch of Hull were the only players who they flew the White. Pink banner.
Armitage is the first out the door for his second Open appearance, earned by virtue of his first European Tour victory at the Porsche European Open in June.
That also led him to the US Open at Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut with a single agonizing blow.
Five games later comes Danny Willett, the most recognizable of the Yorkshire contingent thanks to his impressive Masters triumph five years ago.
A match for anyone back in the day, as he demonstrated at Augusta that weekend, Willett has struggled for his form and fitness ever since and is only playing his third tournament since a Covid fight earlier in the year and then appendix surgery. which forced him to miss the US Open last month.
Jonathan Thomson, Willett’s teammate, a Rotherham Golf Club graduate, will be next out at 8:47 am. M., the former European Tour member who battled leukemia in his youth, lands with an old famous player in his corner.
“Jonathan Thomson is a guy I will be supporting when @theopen comes out this week,” former Masters champion and world number one Fred Couples tweeted.
“What an inspiring and amazing story! If you can beat leukemia, you can win the Open! “
If any Yorkshire man is thinking of winning the Claret Jug it is Matt Fitzpatrick. His strong form led the Sheffield-born player to a shot at winning the Scottish Open last week.
Fitzpatrick, who was a little fan at Muirfield in 2013, finished 20th at Portrush two years ago.
While Willett and Fitzpatrick are household names for a major championship field, the last three players to have a healthy following from home are venturing onto this sacred turf for the first time.
They are also familiar with each other from having grown up on the national and county amateur scene.
Sam Bairstow of Hallowes Golf Club is still a fan and the first of this trio leaving today at 1:37 pm.
“It’s going to be amazing to be at the Open at Royal St George’s,” said Bairstow, the former amateur champion from the north of England.
“I just want to enjoy the experience and whatever happens.”
Howley Hall’s Ben Hutchinson, who worked at Morrisons and Next to help pay for his hobby and professional satellite tours, is next to leave at 3.43pm followed by his good friend Nick Poppleton of Wath, the last man of field 156 to make the first blow at 4.16pm. As professionals, Hutchinson, Poppleton and Thomson will be guaranteed at least £ 3,857, whether they make the cut or not. But the experience is worth much more, ask Willett, who 10 years ago this week, started his first campaign at the Open in the first group of the 2011 championship at the same St. George course.
And he hasn’t done so bad for himself.
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-14 21:38:21
