Suppose you could take Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo — all in their prime — and have them locked in a battle for the Open Championship at St. Andrews?
There was no Open Championship this month but the R&A went outside the box and came up with something brilliant.
The goodfellas at the Royal and Ancient tackled the ultimate hypothetical: Who would win the Open Championship at St. Andrews with all the greatest players ever, in their primes, slugging it out on The Old Course?
Using historic footage and the magic of technology — they’ve created a a realistic broadcast with the best players from different eras competing against one another.
“Golf is one of the very few sports where this concept can be created and brought to life. The way in which the sport is filmed allows us a truly unique opportunity to re-imagine history and bring together the greatest players from many different eras on a scale which has not been done before, either in golf or in other sports,” said R&A head honco Martin Slumbers.
The event started Thursday.
First round leader is the great Seve Ballesteros with a 66 on the Old Course, a shot in front of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Tony Jacklin and Ian Baker Finch were in with 69s.
Here’s the first round highlights:
The final round will be a three-hour extravaganza. It will be shown on The Golf Channel beginning Sunday morning at 6 a.m.
The winner of ‘The Open For The Ages’ will be determined by a data model developed by NTT DATA, which combines the votes of over 10,000 fans with player career statistics to calculate who will triumph on Sunday at St. Andrews.
Joost Luiten Leads In Austria:
The European Tour is in Austria for the Euram Bank Open, the second of two events in the country.
Joost Luiten from The Netherlands has the 36-hole lead after rounds of 65-63 at the Adamstal Golf Club at Ramsau in the lower Alps.
He’s 12-under at the halfway point and two shots in front of Phillip Eriksson and Joel Stalter.
LPGA Re-Start Will Be Without Fans:
This one comes as no surprise.
The LPGA resumes play July 31 with the Drive On Championship at Inverness Golf Club in Toledo, the first of two consecutive events in northwest Ohio. At first, the Marathon LPGA Classic on Aug. 6-9 at Highland Meadows in Sylvania was scheduled to welcome a limited number of spectators. But as the number of new COVID-19 infections rose recently in Ohio, the LPGA responded by excluding spectators for at least the first two tournaments on its revised schedule.
