His name was Philip George Stevenson, although he always liked to be called ‘Stevie’. He was a renowned swing instructor and artisan golf club maker in Northern Ireland. “In those days, if you wanted to buy a good set of woods, you had to go to Stevie,” recalled Ian Bamford, historian of the Royal Portrush Golf, the venue for this week’s Open Championship.
PG Stevenson worked as a professional at Royal Portrush from 1922 to 1977. You can imagine. More than half a century. He was an institution there. Not only did he give golf lessons and make clubs, but he also dabbled in design. In fact, he helped redesign two holes of the Dunluce course at Portrush. One of them was the 11th. The monster. The most difficult hole of the 2019 Open. A par 4 of 475 yards (this year it has been lengthened by one compared to the previous edition) that played to an average of 4.35 strokes.
As you know, in the British Isles and Ireland, there is an unwritten tradition of naming holes. For example, the 16th hole of the Dunluce, a very tricky par 3, is called: Calamity Corner. The 4th hole is named after Fred Daly, winner of the Open in 1947, born in Portrush. Interestingly, there is even a player this year in the field who gives his name to one of the holes. It’s Darren Clarke. It’s the 9th. It used to be known as Tavern. It suits him perfectly.
Well, the 11th hole is, of course, called PG Stevenson, and this week you’ll have to be careful not to encounter the ghost of the old professor. This hole can ruin more than one round. More than one Open. In 2019, 156 players played the Open, of which 73 made the cut. This means that from Thursday to Sunday, the 11th hole was played 458 times. In other words, there were 458 opportunities to make a birdie. Only 41 were made. On Thursday alone, on the 12th hole, a par 5 that is curiously the easiest on the course by far, 58 birdies were made. You see, stick and carrot in this sequence.
Of the 73 players who made the cut six years ago, only seven managed to play under par on the 11th over the four days. The best results were for Rickie Fowler and Dylan Frittelli. Both recorded a score of two under par. Fowler is playing this year. Frittelli is not. The other five who scored one under par in 2019 were Tyrrell Hatton, Alex Noren, Lucas Glover, Joost Luiten, and Yuki Inamori. Of them, only Glover and Hatton are playing this year. By the way, Frittelli was the only one who managed to make three birdies.
Among those who missed the cut, a total of 83 players, nine golfers played under par on the 11th over the first two days. Among them, interestingly, were Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adrián Otaegui, and Takumi Kanaya. Kanaya’s case has an explanation that goes beyond golf. That week he had very special help. His caddie was Gary Stevenson, the grandson of the legendary PG. We don’t need to tell you what a grandfather is capable of doing for his grandson…
As it stands, there are only four players in this Open who know what it means to defeat the fierce PG Stevenson: Fowler, Hatton, McIlroy, and Kanaya. As a curiosity, Jon Rahm played all four days and his score was +2, with two pars and two bogeys, while Sergio García also scored +2 but managed to make a birdie. Interestingly, in 2019, up to four Spaniards managed to make a birdie on the 11th. In addition to the aforementioned García, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Otaegui, and Campillo did it.
The legacy of PG Stevenson goes far beyond that 11th hole. His son David, known as Dai, also worked for more than two decades at Portrush, and now his grandson Gary continues the saga. We’ll see if it’s not PG Stevenson who ends up ruining the Open for any of the contenders on Sunday. In any case, you have to be very careful with him.
