Team Spirit

Golf Monthly takes a closer look at the European Tour’s most unique event...

- Neil Tappin

In the world of professional golf, an even temper is as useful as a razor-sharp short game. Having the ability to attribute the same low level of importance to both success and failure is, sports psychologists will often tell you, the key to performing under pressure. While we can appreciate and occasionally replicate the pros’ superhuman ball-striking, those earning a living from the game can seem detached from the rest of us. Their unerringly ice-cool demeanour contrasts with our own 18-hole emotional rollercoaster.

There are occasions, however, when the facade is broken. One of them is at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where the European Tour’s leading lights are paired with amateurs in a unique individual and team format. For three days (four if you’re good enough to make the cut), normal golfers get to compete alongside the superstars of the game.

What separates this event from just about any other high-level sporting contest is the prize on the line for the professionals. It is one of the most prestigious and financially rewarding of the year. As for the amateurs in the field, they are not just observing, they are taking part. Take a moment to think about that – imagine batting alongside Ben Stokes in a crucial one-day match or forming a strike partnership with Harry Kane in an important Premier League game… You can dream, but it isn’t going to happen!

This is why the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship stands alone in a jam-packed annual calendar of great sporting events. What’s more, by pairing the elite stars with everyday golfers, the atmosphere of camaraderie that golf so readily creates at the amateur level emerges and the seemingly impenetrable barrier surrounding the professional game comes down.