The oldest golf championship in the world, the British Open, returns for the 11th time this week to the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire.

NOT everyone has been as enamoured with this stretch of Kent coastline as William Laidlaw Purves was when he first envisaged a golf links on the humps and hillocks just outside Sandwich in the 1880s.

Open champion Louis Oosthuizen today admitted it could take a week for his amazing victory at St Andrews to sink in.

Louis Oosthuizen marked Nelson Mandela Day in exactly the way he dreamed of today – by becoming only the fourth South African ever to win The Open.

With Lee Westwood pulling out because of tonsilitis and Darren Clarke among a number of players taking a rest after the effort they put into their Ryder Cup bids, the field at this week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland has been seriously weakened.

Trevor Immelman survived a late scare to win The Masters at Augusta National tonight, but less than four months ago he would have been happy just to play in it.

Trevor Immelman was not just the leader but also the favourite going into the final round of the Masters at Augusta National today.

Walking off the fifth green at St Andrews today Retief Goosen told Irish caddie Colin Byrne he thought he had just blown his Open championship hopes.

Prize money at The British Open Championship this July will be a record £4m (€6m), it was revealed today.

WE might not have been treated to his trademark swing, but that didn’t matter to those gathered in Kildare yesterday to pay homage to the golfing legend.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL, a South African youngster who will celebrate his 19th birthday on August 31 (the same day Padraig Harrington turns 32), lit up The K Club yesterday when he shot a remarkable eight under par 64 to get within one stroke of joint leaders Phillip Price and Darren Clarke at the halfway stage of the Smurfit European Open.