Wednesday, July 14, 2010

OPEN CHAMPIONS CHALLENGE CANCELLED:

PRIZE FUND DONATED TO SEVE'S FOUNDATION

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE RandA
The RandA have donated the Open Champions' Challenge prize fund of £50,000 to the Seve Ballesteros Foundation. The prize was due to be awarded to the winning team in the Champions' Challenge but the event was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.
Last night, at the Champions' Dinner, the Past Champions who were due to compete in today’s event agreed that the winning team would award the prize money to Seve’s charity. The RandA had made the sum available for the team of Champions that won the Challenge to give to a charity of their choice.
The Foundation aims to channel funds into ongoing research, particularly into brain cancer, the condition with which Ballesteros was diagnosed in October 2008. It also aims to support young golfers with limited economic resources to develop their career in the game.
Ballesteros had planned to attend the 150th Anniversary Open Championship and intended to play in the Champions’ Challenge. Last month, however, he was advised by his doctors against making the trip to St Andrews.

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O'Hara scores first win as a pro ... in Germany
Motherwell's Paul O'Hara scored his first win as a professional in the EPD Tour's Furst Fugger Privatbank Classic at GC Am Habsberg, Nuremberg in southern Germany today.
The rookie won 4,815 Euros with a brilliant three-ro9und total of 20-under-par 196, made up of scores of 66, 63 and 67 over the par-72 circuit.
Paul won by three shots from Ben Parker, son of an English club pro who has been based in Germany for a number of years.
O'Hara has disappeared from the limelight in Scotland in his rookie year as a pro but he has been playing well on the EPD Tour. He is now lying seventh in its Order of Merit with 13,058 Euros to his credit. He has had six top 10 finishes - of of them in the leading five - in the 10 tournaments in which he has played.
LEADING TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72)
196 Paul O'Hara (Sco) 66 63 67 (4,814 Euros).
199 Ben Parker (Eng) 67 63 69 (2,784 Euros).
201 Grant Jackson (Eng) 63 69 69 (1,625 Euros).
202 Dennis Kupper (Ger) 70 68 64, Jurrian Van Der Vaart (Net) 67 65 70 (1,376 Euros each).
Selected scores:
211 Lee Corfield (Eng) 71 70 70 (jt 24th) (352 Euros).
212 Stephen Grant (Ire) 71 74 74 (32nd) (281 Euros).
Scots who missed the cut (level par 144 or better).
146 Craig Miller 75 71.
147 Stephen Murphy 74 73.
152 Gordon Johnston 74 78.
156 Ross MacDonald 77 79.

ends

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Meldrum House to host Northern Open for next three years

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE SCOTTISH PGA
Aberdeen businessman Brian Hendry is set to bring the Northern Open Championship to Aberdeenshire for the next five years.
Meldrum House Country Hotel and golf course will host the event for the first three years, starting September 20-23. After an inspection last week, the PGA was delighted with the course and the top-class facilities available.
Michael MacDougall, Secretary of the PGA in Scotland, described Meldrum House as a fantastic venue. “The new 7000-yard course from the black tees should make for an exciting 72-hole championship.”
Mr Hendry added “With the refurbishment of the 13th- century mansion house, and the recent stable-block conversion adding even more luxury bedrooms, and with its existing practice facilities and golf course, as a complete package, I think it’s the best venue in Aberdeenshire”.
Andy Burgess, Head of Operations and Development for Meldrum House, said “We’re delighted to be working with Brian Hendry and the PGA to bring this prestigious event to the North-east. This will certainly help to underpin our progress in creating what we believe to be the premier hotel and golf resort in Aberdeenshire.”
The Northern Open, first played at Royal Aberdeen in 1931, and is one of the oldest professional golf championships in Scotland. This year’s event will start with an invitational Pro-am on Monday, September 20, with the championship starting the following day. The final 36 holes will be played on the Thursday.
Mr. Hendry, pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, said: “I’ m committed to golf in this area, and I’d like the Northern Open to become the leading golf championship in the North East. I’ m delighted Meldrum House is the host club for the next three years, and I look forward to working with them and the PGA in the coming months to put on a successful event”

MARK O'MEARA TO PLAY IN BALGOWNIE PRO-AM
Former Open Champion, Mark O’Meara, will temporarily join the Tartan Tour by playing Royal Aberdeen the day after the Open finishes at St Andrews.
The 1998 Open Champion will tee up in the Grampian Houston Junior Pro-Am at Royal Aberdeen on Monday. O'Meara, who’ll play in the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie next week, will warm up by participating in the Tartan Tour event, which raises money to place talented youngsters on golf scholarships in the Houston area of Texas.

HAGGS CASTLE TO STAGE NEW 36-HOLE EVENT
Meanwhile, a new 36-hole event has been added to the Tartan Tour schedule. To celebrate its centenary year, Haggs Castle will host the Callaway 36-hole Order of Merit event, on September 29 and 30.

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Open champions receive Freedom of the Links

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY ST ANDREWS LINKS TRUST
A special presentation will take place at the Champions’ Challenge at the Open Championship this afternoon  (Wednesday, July 14) when each of the champions taking part will receive the Freedom of St Andrews Links.
The Champions’ Challenge is being held to celebrate the 150th anniversary Open Championship and will see some of golf’s greatest names playing a four-hole challenge on the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course.
Each of the 25 Open champions playing in the event, as well as Peter Thomson who will be non-playing captain of one of the teams, will be presented with certificates and bag tags entitling them to the freedom of all seven courses at the Links.
The certificates will be presented by Peter Forster, the chairman of St Andrews Links Trust, and Alan McGregor, the chief executive, to the players as they leave the 18th green.
“This is a historic occasion celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Open Championship and its return to the Home of Golf,” said Peter Forster. “We are celebrating this wonderful heritage and the close bonds between the championship and the Old Course at St Andrews Links by conferring this honour on the champions. As winners of golf’s oldest major championship they have each made a huge contribution to the game and it is only fitting that we recognise their achievements in this way.”

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Notes to editors

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Duke of York visits Royal Montrose Golf Club this afternoon

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY ROYAL MONTROSE GC
The Duke of York is the Royal Patron of Royal Montrose Golf Club, which is currently celebrating its 200th anniversary year. On Wednesday, July 14, His Royal Highness will be welcomed to the Club by Club Captain Brian Ritchie, who will escort His Royal Highness to the nearby Junior Coaching session at the Putting Green, where local youngsters are provided with golf tuition by the Club throughout the summer.
“As Patron of The Golf Foundation, whose initiatives make golf more accessible to children from all backgrounds and abilities, The Duke of York is very supportive of schemes which introduce young people to the game of golf,” said Brian Ritchie, Club Captain of Royal Montrose Golf Club.
The Duke of York will then return to the Club House, where he will unveil a plaque marking his historic visit to Royal Montrose Golf Club during its bicentenary year, before entering the clubhouse to join club members as guest of honour at a private lunch.
“It is a great honour for Royal Montrose Golf Club to be visited by the Duke of York,” continued Brian Ritchie. “His Royal Highness is a keen golfer and we hope he enjoys watching our young golfers, hearing about the fascinating 200-year history of our golf club and meeting our members.”
The Duke of York continues Royal Montrose Golf Club’s line of Royal Patrons sretching back to 1845, when Montrose Golf Club, as it was then known, became the third golf club in the world to receive Royal Patronage. It was in 1845 that the Club’s council, with the assistance of future Prime Minister William Gladstone (whose family stayed locally at Fasque Estate), approached Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, who readily agreed to become its Royal Patron. In recognition of this honour, the name of the Club was changed to Royal Albert, a name which it retained until 1986 when it merged with Montrose Victoria and the North Links Ladies golf clubs and was renamed Royal Montrose Golf Club.

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Tiger says Scottish golf fans have been 'great to me'

FROM THE SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
By Martin Dempster
Tiger Woods sidestepped questions about his divorce and controversial Canadian doctor Anthony Galea but didn't even hesitate yesterday when asked what reaction he expected to receive from Scottish golf fans in this week's 150th Anniversary Open Championship at St Andrews.
"The Scottish golf fans have been fantastic with respect to golf and all the players," said the world No 1 ahead of his first appearance on British soil since the sex scandal which shocked the golfing world. "They've been great to me over the years and I wouldn't see them being any different this week."
Woods, who won at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005 and will become the first player in Open Championship history to do the hat-trick on the Old Course if he lifts the Claret Jug again on Sunday night, is adamant the dramatic change in his public image since this event last year will not affect his title bid this week.
"It doesn't impact at all," added the 14-time major winner. "I'm here to play the Open Championship at St Andrews - this is as good as it gets. I would like to win, no matter what. To win here is certainly one of the bigger highlights of my career."
According to Woods, the majority of fans he's come across since returning from a six-month break from the game in the Masters at Augusta National in April have been exactly the way he expects to see spectators at St Andrews, where crowds of more than 200,000 are expected over the week.
"Most of the people have been fantastic," said the 34-year-old. "The places that I've played and the people who've come up to me have been great. Most of the people have been respectful over the years here and I wouldn't see anything different. But everyone is entitled to their opinion."
Asked how much work he felt he needed to do to rebuild his public image in the wake of a string of affairs that led to a spell in a sex addiction clinic and appear to have left his marriage in tatters, Woods added: "Well, just the same thing I'm doing each and every day, just trying to become a better person."
That was roughly the same answer he gave when asked if he'd be taking five-time Open champion Tom Watson's advice this week to clean up his game by not swearing or throwing golf clubs in disgust, as has often been the case in the past. Woods, who was out early yesterday morning with Mark O'Meara, his friend and mentor, for a third practice round since arriving in Fife on Sunday, took exception when it was claimed he'd looked unhappy on the course and wasn't fulfilling a promise he made earlier in the year to interact more with spectators. "Not at all," he said. "I was fine this morning - I don't know what you are talking about."
The three-time Open champion surprised many people when, instead of staying in Ireland to play some links golf, as he'd done in the past before the world's oldest major, he headed home to Florida after playing in the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am at Adare Manor at the beginning of last week.
He insisted, however, it was the sort of thing that came with being a parent. "All that really matters is that I have two beautiful kids and I'm trying to be the best dad I can possibly be. That's the most important thing of all. I went home (last week] and had a great time with my kids. The reason I did it was obviously for them and to hang out with them was an incredible experience."
On the question of a possible divorce from wife Elin, he said: "I'm not going to go into that." Nor would he give details of being interviewed by the FBI recently over Galea, who helped him recover from his knee surgery in 2008, but has since been charged with administering unlawful drugs.
Woods, who has vehemently denied ever taking performance-enhancing substances, said: "I can't go into any of that because of the fact that's an on-going case. I can't comment."
He did reveal, however, that he had separated from the putter with which he has won 13 of his 14 majors. "I've always struggled on slower greens and the one I've gone to this week comes off faster and I've had to make very little adjustment," he said.

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