Dunhill Links Championship
Encyclopedia
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, is one of the richest golf
tournaments on the European Tour. It is played in October, on three different links courses
, centred around the "home of golf", St Andrews
in Fife
, Scotland
.
The tournament is a pro-am, with teams of one professional and one amateur playing one round each at St Andrews
, Carnoustie
and Kingsbarns. Following these first three rounds there is a cut, with the leading 60 professionals continuing on to play in the final round at St Andrews. They are joined by the leading 20 teams, regardless of whether the professional member of the team made the cut individually.
Originally called the Dunhill Links Championship, the event was introduced in 2001 as a replacement for the Alfred Dunhill Cup
, a three man team tournament which became marginalised when the long established World Cup of Golf was given enhanced status as part of the World Golf Championships
in 2000, becoming the WGC-World Cup.
To increase interest in the event, many of the amateurs are well known personalities from the worlds of sport and entertainment. These have included Nigel Mansell
, Ian Botham
, Gary Lineker
, Boris Becker
, Michael Douglas
, Samuel L. Jackson
, Michael Vaughan
, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Hugh Grant
and Shane Warne
. The closest equivalent to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the PGA Tour
is the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
tournaments on the European Tour. It is played in October, on three different links courses
Links (golf)
A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. The word "links" comes from the Scots language and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes and sometimes to open parkland. It also retains this more general meaning in the Scottish English dialect...
, centred around the "home of golf", St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
in Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The tournament is a pro-am, with teams of one professional and one amateur playing one round each at St Andrews
Old Course at St Andrews
The Old Course at St Andrews is the oldest golf course in the world. The Old Course is a public course over common land in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland and is held in trust by The St Andrews Links Trust under an act of Parliament...
, Carnoustie
Carnoustie Golf Links
The Carnoustie Golf Links are in Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland. Its historic championship golf course is one of the venues in the Open Championship rotation.-History:...
and Kingsbarns. Following these first three rounds there is a cut, with the leading 60 professionals continuing on to play in the final round at St Andrews. They are joined by the leading 20 teams, regardless of whether the professional member of the team made the cut individually.
Originally called the Dunhill Links Championship, the event was introduced in 2001 as a replacement for the Alfred Dunhill Cup
Alfred Dunhill Cup
The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000. It was for three man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championship". It was a "special approved event" on the European Tour, which means that it was...
, a three man team tournament which became marginalised when the long established World Cup of Golf was given enhanced status as part of the World Golf Championships
World Golf Championships
The World Golf Championships are a group of four annual events for male professional golfers created by the International Federation of PGA Tours, with a fifth to be added in 2012...
in 2000, becoming the WGC-World Cup.
To increase interest in the event, many of the amateurs are well known personalities from the worlds of sport and entertainment. These have included Nigel Mansell
Nigel Mansell
Nigel Ernest James Mansell OBE is a British racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the CART Indy Car World Series...
, Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
, Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker
Gary Winston Lineker, OBE , is a former English footballer, who played as a striker. He is a sports broadcaster for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live...
, Boris Becker
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17...
, Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
, Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
, Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan
Michael Paul Vaughan OBE is a retired cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. A classically elegant right-handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, Vaughan was ranked one of the best batsmen in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes, in which he scored 633 runs, including three centuries...
, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
and Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
. The closest equivalent to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
is the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Winners
| Year | Winner | Score | Pro-Am Winners |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 |  Michael Hoey |
266 (-22) | Nick Dougherty Nick Dougherty Nicholas Dougherty is an English professional golfer.Dougherty was born in Bootle, Merseyside, and attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School near Blackburn, Lancashire. He is a protégé of former professional golfer, Nick Faldo, and had an exceptional amateur career... & Chris Evans |
| 2010 |  Martin KaymerMartin Kaymer Martin Kaymer is a German professional golfer. He became the No. 1 ranked golfer in the Official World Golf Rankings on 27 February 2011 after his runner-up finish in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.... |
271 (−17) | Robert Karlsson Robert Karlsson Robert Karlsson is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and as of 2011 on the PGA Tour.-Career:... & Dermot Desmond Dermot Desmond Dermot Desmond is an Irish businessman and financier. He is estimated to be worth €1.45billion and is ranked by the Sunday Independent as the sixth-richest person in Ireland.-Background and education:... |
| 2009 |  Simon DysonSimon Dyson Simon Dyson is an English professional golfer who is currently a member of the European Tour, having formerly played on the Asian Tour.-Amateur career:... |
268 (−20) | Søren Hansen Søren Hansen Søren Hansen is a Danish professional golfer.Hansen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He won the 1997 Danish Amateur Stroke Play Championship and turned professional later that year.... & Kieran McManus |
| 2008 |  Robert KarlssonRobert Karlsson Robert Karlsson is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and as of 2011 on the PGA Tour.-Career:... |
278 (−10)PO | John Bickerton John Bickerton John Edward Bickerton is an English golfer.Bickerton was born in Redditch, England. He turned professional in 1991.... & Bruce Watson |
| 2007 | Nick Dougherty Nick Dougherty Nicholas Dougherty is an English professional golfer.Dougherty was born in Bootle, Merseyside, and attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School near Blackburn, Lancashire. He is a protégé of former professional golfer, Nick Faldo, and had an exceptional amateur career... |
270 (−18) | Scott Strange & Robert Coe |
| 2006 | Pádraig Harrington Padraig Harrington Pádraig P. Harrington is an Irish professional golfer who plays on The European Tour and The PGA Tour. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship, also in 2008.-Background:... |
271 (−16) | Pádraig Harrington Padraig Harrington Pádraig P. Harrington is an Irish professional golfer who plays on The European Tour and The PGA Tour. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship, also in 2008.-Background:... & J. P. McManus J. P. McManus John Patrick "J. P." McManus is an Irish businessman and racehorse owner.- Early life :Born in Limerick, McManus began his business career at his family's construction plant hire firm, and then became an on-course bookmaker at Limerick's greyhound track, the Market's Field, before moving into... |
| 2005 |  Colin MontgomerieColin Montgomerie Colin Stuart Montgomerie, OBE is a Scottish professional golfer, often referred to by one of his nicknames 'Monty'. He has had one of the finest careers in European Tour history, having won a record eight Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutively from 1993 to 1999, and 31... |
279 (−9) | Henrik Stenson Henrik Stenson Henrik Stenson is a Swedish professional golfer who plays both on the US and European tours. He has spent over 100 weeks ranked in the World top ten and his career high ranking of fourth is the best by any Swedish golfer.-Career:... & Rurik Gobel |
| 2004 | Stephen Gallacher Stephen Gallacher Stephen James Gallacher is a Scottish professional golfer.Gallacher was born in Dechmont, West Lothian and is the nephew of former European Ryder Cup Captain Bernard Gallacher. He played in a victorious Walker Cup side in 1995 and turned professional later that year.Gallacher first played on the... |
269 (−19)PO | Fred Couples Fred Couples Frederick Steven Couples is an American professional golfer who competes on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. A former World No. 1, he has won numerous events, most notably the 1992 Masters Tournament. In August 2011 he won his maiden senior major at the Senior Players Championship... & Craig Heatley Craig Heatley Craig Heatley is a New Zealand businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist; and one of New Zealand's wealthiest men according to National Business Review magazine.-Career:... |
| 2003 | Lee Westwood Lee Westwood Lee John Westwood OBE is an English professional golfer. Noted for his consistency, Westwood is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on every major continent, including victories on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He was named player of the year for the 1998, 2000, and 2009 seasons... |
267 (−21) | Sam Torrance Sam Torrance Sam Torrance OBE is a Scottish professional golfer and sports commentator. He was one of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s, with 21 Tour wins. Torrance was a member of European Ryder Cup teams on eight occasions, from 1981 to 1995 consecutively; he was... & Daniel Torrance |
| 2002 | Pádraig Harrington Padraig Harrington Pádraig P. Harrington is an Irish professional golfer who plays on The European Tour and The PGA Tour. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship, also in 2008.-Background:... |
269 (−19)PO | Pádraig Harrington Padraig Harrington Pádraig P. Harrington is an Irish professional golfer who plays on The European Tour and The PGA Tour. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship, also in 2008.-Background:... & J. P. McManus J. P. McManus John Patrick "J. P." McManus is an Irish businessman and racehorse owner.- Early life :Born in Limerick, McManus began his business career at his family's construction plant hire firm, and then became an on-course bookmaker at Limerick's greyhound track, the Market's Field, before moving into... |
| 2001 | Paul Lawrie Paul Lawrie Paul Stewart Lawrie MBE is a Scottish professional golfer who is best known for winning The Open Championship in 1999.-Life and career:... |
270 (−18) | Brett Rumford Brett Rumford Brett Michael Rumford is an Australian professional golfer.Rumford was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia. He started playing golf at age ten, quickly showing a natural hand–eye coordination which translated to a well-respected short game... & Chris Peacock |