The Fox Golf panel explain why one of the ten Australians could end up winning this year’s British Open Championship and they discuss each player’s individual chances.
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five winners of the Open over the years. It’s our most successful major with Peter Thompson setting the standard back in 1954 like uh Tom Watson winning it five times raider. What a list of Australian greats that is. Absolutely. You know, it’s it’s why why we’re so successful there is because a lot of the time we play the Open Championship in Australian conditions. A lot of the time, this time of the year in the UK, you know, the golf courses get fast and uh they get fiery and there’s a lot of wind around. We are a nation that we are a population is on the outskirts of the nation in Australia and we get a lot of wind. So, we’re familiar with this type of game. We can play, you know, Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath down in the sand belt, you got to play bump shots and all that sort of stuff. So, this is what we uh we grew up playing. So, that’s why we um we love the Open Championship so much. where we’ve all all the players that we’ve had kiss that clar jug. You know, don’t be surprised this year an Aussie. Yeah, he could win it because uh we just love that sort of style of golf. Well, we have 10 Aussies in the field this week. So, who knows? We’ll begin our preview of the Aussies with Adam Scott who’s teeing it up in the Open Championship for a 25th consecutive year. That’s a quite a record in itself. It certainly is. And the 44 year old, let let’s face it, he’s getting a little bit older now. He’s had a solid year without being great. He got to the US Open. He started playing extremely well. There was a lot of good stuff from Adam Scott here at the US Open. Uh he was right in the thick of things until the 11th hole. His ball was sitting in the middle of the fairway. It was very very wet. He tried to pick it off the top there and went scolded all the way through the back of the green and made a bogey and then just couldn’t finish it off. It was just very difficult. But there was lots of good signs. He put the little mini driver in play and and drove the ball extremely well. And I tell you what, his return putting as much as everybody thinks he doesn’t putt well, he actually puted nice and solid. He has plenty of history radar in the open championship. We go back to Royal Lith and St. Ans in 2012 and he led by four with four to play and finished with four straight bogeies. It was a gut punch like there’s rarely been for Aussie golfers. Yeah, that was a horrible horrible thing. Ernie’s won the open championship for the second time uh right there at Royal Rhythm. But that was very very sad day. But one thing for for Adam, the next year he went on to win the Masters. So the first player, first Australian to win the Masters. So but he he he’ll always regret that. And I know how dedicated he is to the Open Championship. Spends a lot of time. He goes there a couple of weeks before then he goes there again and then he goes back to Switzerland when he’s over these ways where he bases himself though I know he’s been there a lot so he is one player I feel as though sneakily last time we sort of did a preview show for the US Open I said he’s coming in with no form and he built some form as Gary has just gied in in the US Open so the last major he played well so you know maybe he could take that confidence from Oakmont to Port Rush. Let’s hope so. From one Queenslander to another radar, we’ll stay with you because let’s take a look at Jason Day now who had some very good form at the masses. Reeled off all those pars in a row to stay in contention going into the weekend there at Augusta National. And just a couple of years ago at Royal Liverpool finished joint runner up behind Brian Harmon. Yeah, I feel as though Jason Day is is coming. you know, he has he hasn’t had a great season, but it hasn’t been a bad season. He’s dedicated very much. Uh he’s gone back to his old coach, Colin Swatton, and they are doing a fantastic job. I’ve managed to walk the course a few times this year in the States with Colin, and he’s told me a lot about what they’re working on. They’re just going back to old basics. They were so very success successful together, Jason Day, and Swatton because they actually won the PJ championship together, his only major, and at le Straits. So yeah, I mean he’s playing well. He’s had he’s had previous at the open championship. He knows he can play uh links golf having a second before. So you know and you just got to know before you go to the open what am I going to get weatherwise. You have to be ready for everything. You can’t get down in the dumps with the weather and the wind and the breaks you get. Sometimes you get a good draw. Sometimes you don’t get a good draw. But yes, Adam Scott and Jason Day, they are decent chance chances to win the championship this year. Much better chances than I thought they were at the US Open. I’ll be fascinated to hear what you think of the chances of the man we saw a moment ago. Three years ago, the champion at St. Andrews, Cam Smith, has missed the cut in all three majors this year. I’d have lost a lot of money at in April if you said to me Cam would miss the cut in the first three majors of the year. Yeah, it’s it’s certainly been a tough year for Major for Cam Smith. He’s been working on his game with Grant Field a lot back there in Florida trying to sort out the driver. It hasn’t been going that straight. You know, only 46% of fairways for Cam and Greens have been low, too. Only 65%. He needs to get them up into the 75s. He’s had some good live events. Played good a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, tied 13th. He’s been there and thereabouts, but you know, when you get to a major championships, it elevates. It’s hard to explain, but you when you’re just playing a normal tour event, you know, you’re quite cool, calm, and collect, but you go to a major, the heartbeats a bit quicker. You’re it’s just tougher. But he knows what he’s doing around here. He is a very creative person. His short game radar is one of the best I’ve ever seen in the world. Always was. I don’t really know what’s going on with Cam at the moment there. I I really don’t. It It was a very financially uh a very sound thing he did. No one can begrudge him for going to live, but I it doesn’t look as though it’s been very very good for his golf. Let’s face it. I mean, he’s not the same golfer as he was on the PGA tour. I think he left the PGA Tour and he was top five or six in the world after winning the Open. Maybe four. I don’t know exactly, but I think he was four in the world. And you know, it’s it it hasn’t been great for his golf. It been good for the bank balance, you know, but uh he’s still a very very young man. He left the uh the PGA tour at the dizzy heights of the game and now he’s he’s at live. Hasn’t so far it hasn’t worked out. As I say, yes, financially it has. But um for his golf, he hasn’t been contending in the big championships and that’s what they want to do. You don’t want to rest on your laurels when you possess the talent that he does on one major. Well, hopefully getting back to a link course is just the inspiration Cam needs ahead of Royal Port Rush. Uh his ripper teammate Mark Leashman will be there also backto-back majors for Leash after he missed a couple of years in a row after going uh to the Live Tour. A winner on the Leaf circuit this year coming off a a performance at the US Open at Oakmont as well. He’s on an upward trend is Mark Leeman. He certainly is. He is on an upward trend. You know, he’s lost in a playoff in the open championship before and Louis used to haz back in the day there at St. Andrews. So, he knows how to play golf on links golf courses. He grew up in Warner ball. It blows a blow a dog off a chain down there. I tell you something right now. Even the birds walk in Warnable. The trees are sort of on a on an angle. That’s how hard it blows down there. So, so when it starts to get windy, he comes into the four. He knows how to flight it. Well, we’ll wait and see if Minu Lee knows how to flight it. It’s been an interesting year, I guess you could say, for Minwei after winning at the Houston Open, which was a bit of a surprise because his form before that wasn’t all that great. Um, and it’s been a real mixed bag ever since. What’s going on with Minw. Yeah, I guess he’s working on some stuff also with Richie Smith, but he’s got to up the, you know, hit the percentage of hitting fairways. We know he bombs it out there. He hits at a a mile. He’s only hit 54% of fairways. 64% of greens in regulation and putting just been okay. I’m hoping that a bit of uh siblary rivalry comes into hand this week that he he can take it on and his sister’s won a major this year that he feels like he’s the underdog in the family at the moment and the fact is he can play in the wind. Royal Freemand or where he grew up and playing the game. You definitely have to flight the ball a bit like leash you get so so windy there that he can flight the ball. He’s just got to be on song with that driver and the and the irons into the greens. Let’s keep rolling with the young Aussies and Cam Davis whose best performance this year has been at Quail Hollow in the PGA Championship radar. Tied 19th there. Made the cut at the US Open as well. But again, it’s a very mixed bag for Cam Davis. Yeah, hasn’t been a great year, has it? He’s a very talented player as a former Australian Open champion. won the Australian Open at a very very young age. But yeah, he grew up in Sydney, so um we know all of us know that how windy Sydney gets. So he knows how to contend in a breeze. There’s just just there’s just no form. I can’t go with it. I I just I just can’t do it. He needs a spark. Where is he going to find that spark? I don’t know. But let’s hope he finds it. Let’s hope indeed. Elvis Smiley played the Open Championship last year. He got through final qualifying this year. He won the Australasian Order of Merit, so he gets a place in the Open Championship and he’s been playing the European Tour. Yeah, I think so. You know, this year has been a learning curve for Elvis. You know, he played in the Open Championships last year. Um, he’s had some good performances that are just solid. Missed a few cuts on the DP World Tour, but he’s got a 15th club in the bag. on on the bag is Brad Beecher who is a very very experienced caddy who will help him map his way around Raw Port Wash. Um and he’s coming off the BMW event where he had a 68 and a 66 in that and finished tied 38. So there’s real good signs for Elvis Smiley and from another Australian who’s making his way in the world to Curtis Luck who 10 years ago looked to be a shorefire can’t miss success. uh headed for the PGA tour and potentially stardom radar. But it’s funny how it works out, isn’t it? What funny ha or funny with a sigh? Warren peculiar. Yes, but I I don’t really know where um Kurt like went. I mean, he went he’s had a great amter career and um won all sorts of great amiter events. started really well on the second tour over there in the States and the nationwide tour and and and then all of a sudden just disappeared and then he gets himself a start in the open championship through a wonderful Australian Open last year which is great. So he’s been looking forward to this for a long long time and he’s an Aussie. He’s another guy who knows how to play in the wind. So as a winner I can’t see it but you just never know. Got through from his performance in the Australian Open. Ryan Peak, uh, the most unlikely story perhaps of anybody in the field this week at Royal Port Rush. Won the New Zealand Open from being incarcerated from his time as a bikey and committing a very serious crime to now being back in top level golf, winning on the DP World Tour. And we’ll tee it up at Royal Port Rush. Well, I think this is the best story in Australian golf for some time. And it wasn’t given to him. He had to work really hard. grew up alongside, you know, the Cameron Smiths of the world and, you know, went off the rails, but Richie Smith got him back on. He dedicated himself back to golf and the way that he played down the stretch at the New Zealand Open, he deserved every bit of it. He stood up at the time that you had to hit a shot. He held that putt in the last. Uh, this will be his first open championships, but he’ll have a practice round with Cam Smith and Minu Lee and and Elvis Smiley, and they’ll teach him a lot. I’m actually expecting him. He’s a very solid player and he can flight the ball. I’m actually expecting him to make the cut in his first open championships. Now, Radar, one of the inform Aussies in 2025 certainly has been Lucas Herbert, perhaps in our top two performers so far this season. He’s qualified after winning the West Lanks qualifying section to get into the Open at Royal Port Rush. Back on Link’s course, he’s got to be a massive chance this week, I think. No, I think that’s a wonderful shout. Even though he won the Irish Open, uh, which, you know, we’re looking at there. I mean, he he didn’t win that. He won that at Mount Juliet, which is a a Parkland course, a Jack Nicholas Parkland golf course. This guy has seriously just played. He’s just a fantastic He plays in spurts. He’s streaky. Now, you get streaky at the open, it’s just what you want. Not a lot of wind coming this week, so you just never know. But it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s up there contending going into the last round on Sunday. Whether he can get over the line and grab wrap his mitts around that clar jug jug as we’ve all wanted to do, I don’t know. But yeah, he has the game for it. He’s a uh he’s a a serious serious talent.
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Get it right Adam Scott South Australian born in Adelaide & avid Crows supporter