The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is now one of the longest running events on any tour worldwide and is a mainstay of the European Tour schedule. The events pro-am format isn’t the only unique feature of this remarkably popular tournament. Just ask the beneficiaries of the large charitable donations raised each year. But more on that anon.
The 2018 edition saw the usual happy smiling faces on pros and amateurs alike throughout this, probably the most popular event of the year. Two people were exceptions to this: the tears of joy from surprise winner Lucas Bjerregaard and the brief scowl of frustration from Tyrrell Hatton, who missed a seemingly certain hat-trick of wins with a back nine collapse. Leading by 5 late on the front nine, Hatton leaked shot after agonizing shot to lose by one and finish tied second with Tommy Fleetwood.
Biggest smiles of the week were from team winner Li Haotong and his partner Zhang Xiaolong - perhaps better known as Allen Zhang, founder of WeChat. Shooting a brace of 61s over the weekend, their amazing 35-under total pipped the pairing of Thongchai Jaidee and Scott Desano by a shot.
A foul weather forecast for the final day led to a very rare shotgun start, which actually made for a remarkably exciting finale, with Lucas and Tyrrell putting near simultaneously for the title. In addition, when the inevitable downpour and winds came, the entire field were impacted simultaneously, a remarkably fair result. Personally, I’d like to see it happen more, although it does make following the action trickier. It effectively nullified the St Andrews bad weather lottery, won so memorably by Louis Oosthuizen at the 2010 Open here.
