The Agony and the Ecstasy

Lewine Mair's Open Championship notebook captures the highlights from a memorable week at Royal Lytham & St Annes, which saw Ernie Els claim his fourth major following Adam Scott's dramatic collapse.

India’s Anirban Lahiri had an Open debut to rememberKerr knows that his players, like those in Europe, will continue to head for the PGA Tour when they are winning on a regular basis at home. However, somewhere in the not-too-distant-future, he has this sneaking suspicion that talent drain might happen the other way.

Wisely, Ker treasures the glorious multi-national mix in his organisation. Not just because of how useful it is in the commercial sense, but because of the degree to which it adds to the tour’s rich tapestry,

He gives the perfect illustration of the latter. There is an Indian professional by name of Sujjan Singh who wears in a turban. Kerr has begged him never to be tempted to switch to the ubiquitous cap. He wants him to be known all over the world as the golfer who plays in a turban.

On Friday night, Kerr was celebrating a first as two Indians – Jeev Milkha Singh and Anirban Lahiri – made the cut in an Open for the first time. Lahiri, 25, drew further attention to himself on Saturday with a brilliant hole-in-one at the ninth.

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