Matt Cooper and Dave Tindall combine to bring you behind the scenes at the Open Championship, where things were hotting up on day three.<\/p>\n
Bryson\u2019s biggest fan<\/p>\n
Matt Cooper<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a Bryson DeChambeau story you weren\u2019t expecting. When he completed his second round late on Friday I was sat beside a lady whose levels of posh roughly equated with Audrey fforbes-Hamilton from To The Manor Born.<\/p>\n
When DeChambeau knocked his 157-yard approach to 12 feet she cried: \u201cOh goody, goody gumdrops \u2013 marvellous shot, Bryson, marvellous shot!\u201d<\/p>\n
I was rather startled by her enthusiasm, and guilty of assuming she might be a bastion of the establishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a DeChambeau fan?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yes. A wonderful golfer! A marvellous man!\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n
I mentally took note to stop relying too heavily on stereotypes and 10 minutes later walked into the media zone to be greeted by colleagues agog at the news of DeChambeau being buggied out to the rough on the fifth.<\/p>\n
The bewildering scenes that then unfolded were absolutely bonkers. My digs this week are in a block of flats that Dave Tindall noted resemble the Texas School Book Depositary and the analysis of footage of DeChambeau original and second visit to the very grassy knoll at the far end of the course reminded me of the reverence bestowed on the Abraham Zapruder film footage from Dealey Plaza.<\/p>\n
Throughout it all, I found myself wondering how Audrey fforbes-Hamilton was dealing with it all.<\/p>\n
Dogs of Fore<\/p>\n
Dave Tindall<\/p>\n
Matt has mentioned plenty of Liverpool players in the diary this week with snippets on Reds legends Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson. Ironically, given that I\u2019m actually the Liverpool fan of this diary duo, I\u2019ll balance the books with some Everton content.<\/p>\n
I share a season ticket at Anfield so that\u2019s my football cathedral. But on one visit to the home of the six-time European Cup winners (thought I\u2019d get that in), I popped along to Everton\u2019s new shiny waterfront home, the Hill Dickinson.<\/p>\n
That was just to gawp from the outside. But today, I actually went behind enemy lines for a very different reason: to play golf! Yes, really. Tee boxes are placed high in the stands and players hit down to custom greens laid out on the pitch below. The holes vary in length from around 60 yards to 125 yards and you move from tee box to tee box, working your way around the ground for a full nine. Each player gets 22 balls so it\u2019s two per hole and four for mulligans.<\/p>\n
The idea took off in North America with regular events at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Yankee Stadium in New York and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. And now Upper Deck Golf has pitched up at Everton. Absolutely tremendous fun and fully recommended. Next time I might bring my own clubs even though a series of wedges and irons (both left and right-handed) are available to use on each hole. <\/p>\n
Fox on the run<\/p>\n
Dave Tindall<\/p>\n
In the Media Centre, I\u2019m sat next to some New Zealand folk who are here working for HSBC. Their two clients are Bryson DeChambeau and Laurie Canter (both made the cut) so yesterday was pretty interesting given the late-night drama with Bryson.<\/p>\n
While work comes first, they had more than one eye on the \u2018ipic\u2019 round being shot by fellow Kiwi Ryan Fox today. I asked if golf has a big following in New Zealand or is it rather dwarfed by rugby union? The heartening news is that the top golfers do have a big presence. Ryan Fox and Lydia Ko have high profiles and Michael Campbell is \u201calso in the national conscience\u201d even though it\u2019s over 20 years since he won the US Open.<\/p>\n
But everything does seem to go back to rugby union one way or another, especially for Fox, whose father is All Blacks legend Grant Fox. Asked what he planned to do after his record-equalling 62, Fox replied: \u201cI’ll watch a fair bit of golf on TV and try to get a replay of the All Blacks game. I watched a decent chunk of that this morning, and I was pretty happy with that result too. I just saw Shane on the screen, and I’m looking forward to taking 100 quid off of him, the little bet we had.\u201d Fox and Shane Lowry often have a wager on the rugby and the Kiwi collected today after New Zealand covered the handicap when beating Ireland 40-21 in the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n
A Twitter pal (Kevin Cleary) followed Fox around today and told me this. \u201cA great atmosphere (for Fox and Xander Schauffele) and the crowd certainly grew from the 12th. He\u2019s like the firing squad on Blackadder: ready, aim, fire! Quickest player I\u2019ve ever seen!\u201d And why was Kevin following Fox? \u201cI\u2019ve been backing him for months thinking he would suit a windy Open. Benign conditions and he shoots the lights out!\u201d Kevin is also on Lucas Herbert at 225s. My word!<\/p>\n
Dynamic duo could be Europe\u2019s future<\/p>\n
Dave Tindall<\/p>\n
The mixed zone where players speak to the press after coming off the course is just outside the Media Centre. I popped along there earlier to find a rather small contingent grabbing a word with Fox. Come on guys, he\u2019s just equalled history.<\/p>\n
But just outside the mixed zone there was another off-the-cuff interview taking place with Marco Penge and Kristoffer Reitan. Both had played together today, Reitan shooting 68 to reach two-under for the tournament and Penge moving to one-under overall after a 69. <\/p>\n
They were asked about each other\u2019s games and both, as you would imagine, gave glowing reports. Penge then suggested they\u2019d make a great foursomes partnership. I was thinking fourballs and if you want evidence how about the par-five 14th today. Reitan smashed his second to nine feet before Penge raised a smile between the pair by knocking his to just four. Both stroked in their eagle putts. <\/p>\n
The two 28-year-olds are outrageously talented and get on well. Could this be a potential Ryder Cup pairing in the not too distant future? It would be a mouthwatering prospect.<\/p>\n
Economic impact<\/p>\n
Matt Cooper<\/p>\n
No Open would be complete without some sort of focus group or another informing us of the financial impact of the championship on the local community.<\/p>\n
In this week\u2019s case it is the Mastercard Economics Institute who claim that local Merseyside business are the big winner with spending set to increase by 100% \u2013 and local bars set to spike at around 234%.<\/p>\n
No word yet on the fiscal benefits for the Southport Hookers, alas.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t panic \u2013 I\u2019m not suggesting the Sefton sex industry has experienced a boom this week.<\/p>\n
Rather, I\u2019m on about the local yarners whose crochet creations top the post boxes of Southport.<\/p>\n
The one located outside Royal Birkdale is a tribute to Tommy Fleetwood and his caddie Ian Finnis \u2013 and has proved popular with passing fans all week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Cooper and Dave Tindall combine to bring you behind the scenes at the Open Championship, where things…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-699540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}