Well it’s been a pretty exciting week for golf on the island of Ireland. First, Shane Lowry’s spectacular win at the 148th Open in Northern Ireland and then the magnificent Adare Manor in County Limerick has been announced as host of The Ryder Cup 2026. Not too shabby!
Brooks Koepka had just teed off in the final round of the Open. We then heard ‘on the tee, JB Holmes from the USA’, the camera zoomed in on the man sitting in third place at Royal Portrush, then nothing. The guy looked confused as he suddenly wasn’t sure about something. Was it the wind had shifted? Had he changed his mind at to which club to take? Or perhaps he’d left the cooker on back at the house? Whatever it was he’d been standing on that tee for a good few minutes waiting for his tee time and he clearly was not ready.
They needed it to be tough out there if they were going to challenge Shane Lowry but in the end, it was too tough and the conditions actually played in to the hands of the big man. For a man who grew up playing links golf up and down Ireland he was always going to be one of best equipped if the really high winds came.
Who will win the Open? Vote now for your pick of the Top 20, as per the bookies, or do you think it will be more of an outsider who takes the Claret Jug on the shores of Northern Ireland?
The course the best in the world will take on this week will arguably be a stiffer test to that which faced Max Faulkner when he won the Open when it was last hosted by Royal Portrush way back in 1951. It will be a slightly tougher test than when a sixteen year old Rory McIlroy took it apart when shooting 61.
It’s that time of year where some of our favourite kit suppliers go into overdrive launching some of the stuff we have seen the professionals use over the past couple of months or launch new gear ready for the last major of the year. GolfPunk has a look and there are few bits we wouldn’t mind getting our sticky mitts on!
Darren Clarke will hit the opening tee shot at The 148th Open, while fellow local favourite Rory McIlroy is paired with US Open champion Gary Woodland for the opening two rounds at Royal Portrush, which we cannot wait to see!
GolfPunk takes a look back at some of the trend setters on the course over the years and gets the expert opion of Stephen Doig Men's Style Editor and Assistant Luxury Editor, The Telegraph as to 'Who wore it better'. First up is the battle of the Plus Fours between Payne Stewart and the slightly lesser known Joel Sjoholm.
GolfPunk fave Georgia Hall (no less!!) and nine of the past ten Champions will compete at the Women’s British Open for a 40% larger prize fund of $4.5m (circa £3.6m at time of writing) in recognition of the importance of the Championship and women’s golf according to the R&A.
It’s Manic Monday, so here is a very quick round up of all the results and stories from the weekend on the PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA and Women’s European Tour.
Congratulations to Gary Woodland who stood firm under the pressure of a charging Brooks Koepka, the world number one and winner of four of the last eight majors he had played in. Others launched a challenge, most notably England’s Justin Rose, but all faded away as Woodland stuck to his task.
GolfPunk isn’t really that into the mushy stuff which makes us generally quite uncomfortable and exposes our lack of emotional intelligence and stunted personal development. It used to be that it was only the BBC’s series DIY SOS The Big Build that could get to us, but not anymore, now the obvious friendship between US Open champion Gary Woodland and Amy Bockerstette, is quite simply something else.
