You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that the 150th Open Championship in 2021 will be held at St Andrews. The news yesterday confirming that Royal St George’s in Kent will stage the 2020 Championship may as well have been accompanied with a press release stating that a special anniversary in the history of the game’s oldest major the following year will be played out in the game’s cradle. The Royal & Ancient do like to drag things out.
“It might not be until next year that we announce it (the venue for 2021) north of the border might be a good guess,” said a smiling Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A. So can we say the Old Course? “An even better guess,” added Slumbers.
St George’s, which up until 2015 had an all-male membership policy, will stage the Open for the 15th time and a first since Darren Clarke lifted the Claret Jug there in 2011, By 2020, it will also be 35 years since Scotland’s Sandy Lyle won the Open at St George’s in 1985.
In other announcements from the St Andrews HQ of the game’s governing body, Jose Maria Olazabal and Bridget Jackson have both accepted invitations to become honorary members of the R&A.
Olazabal racked up 30 professional titles during a glittering career that was burnished by two Masters wins while Jackson was a three-time Curtis Cup player and a past president of both the English Ladies’ Golf Association and the Ladies’ Golf Union.
Meanwhile, Paul Lawrie, fresh from his first tour victory since 2012 in the South African circuit’s Dimension Data Pro-Am, has confirmed that he has joined International Sports Management (ISM).
The 48-year-old, who won the Open in 1999, will join a stable of players which includes fellow major winners Darren Clarke, Danny Willett and Louis Oosthuizen as well as Ryder Cup stalwart Lee Westwood. The head of ISM, Chubby Chandler, has considerable clout in the golfing world and, as he nears his half century, Lawrie is looking forward to a fresh start in a new team. “I’ve known Chubby ever since I’ve been out on tour,” he said. “I’m coming into an interesting phase in my career. I’m convinced I’ve got a lot of good golf ahead of me and I’m looking forward to some exciting times.” Lawrie’s son, Craig, has also joined the ISM stable.
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