Congratulations to Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa, The Westin Turnberry Resort, Gleneagles, Carnoustie Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa, St. Andrews Bay Resort and Spa, The K Club and The Belfry for being named as part of the Top 10 Worldwide Golf Resorts in American Airlines Celebrated Living's Platinum issues - Best of the Best.

For the first time the winner's check at The Open Championship ($1,025,000) was larger than the victor's purse ($1,000,000) at the U.S. Open.

ABC SPORTS and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews reach a multi-year agreement to extend the ABC Television Network's live coverage of The Open Championship through 2008. And look for the first and second rounds to possibly be on TNT starting next year, instead of ABC's sister station ESPN.

The Open Championship will return to St Andrews for the 27th time in 2005. Visitors to St Andrews can now have a 30-minute guided walk around the Old Course with a guide. Walks take place every hour starting from 18th green and tell the history and points of interest of the course. Cost is £1 and walks are available every day in July & August, weekends only in May & June.

The Old Course is more popular than ever, making booking early even more of a priority, as a record number of rounds were played on the six ST ANDREWS LINKS courses in 2001, despite the impacts of foot and mouth disease and the Sept. 11 tragedy. The new record of 215,000 is over 7,000 rounds more than the previous highest total, set in 1997.

Barclays has agreed to sponsor the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond Golf Club for the next five years.

Keeping up with Annika - Congratulations to England's Justin Rose the first male golfer to reach four wins in 2002.

Tony Jacklin and Lee Trevino have been named honorary members of the R & A.

The Medalist in this year's British Amateur qualifier held at Pyle & Kenfig,Wales, Richard Finch, broke both the professional and amateur course records with a 10-under 61 that required only 19 putts. He then suffered the qualifying jinx and lost in the opening match at host course Royal Porthcawl, losing 1-down to California's Mike Plate. The last qualifying medalist to win the British Amateur was Warren Bladon at Turnberry in 1996.

Ballesteros, Olazabal, Garcia, - Larrazabal? Alejandro Larrazabal may be the next Spaniard to watch as he won this year's British Amateur at Royal Porthcawl, defeating England's Martin Sell 1 up. While Seve never won the title, Olazabal won in 1984 and Garcia in 1996.

In fighting shape - European Ryder Cup Captain, Sam Torrance, has dropped 50 pounds in the last 21 months and is playing some of his best golf in a long while finishing in a tie for 10th at the British Masters, his first top ten since a sixth at the 2000 German Masters.

Congrats to Royal Dornoch, celebrating their 125th anniversary this year.

St. Andrews will host the Curtis Cup for the first time in 2008.

This year's US Curtis Cup squad defeated the Great Britain and Ireland Team at the 32nd Curtis Cup Matches held August 3-4 at the Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh, by a score of 11 - 7 . Carol Semple Thompson, in her record 12th appearance, had the honor of sinking the winning 27-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat Vikki Laing and give the US Team the winning margin.

Carphone Warehouse in association with the European Seniors Tour and the host venue Stoke Park Golf Club, Buckinghamshire, are pleased to announce the creation of The Mobile Cup. The inaugural tournament was held at one of the UK's most prestigious venues, Stoke Park Golf Club, on July 12-14, 2002. The top 48 players on the European Seniors Tour Order of Merit including four invitees will make up an international field which will includes Tony Jackli n, the 2002 tournament 'Honouree'. The format entails each European Seniors Tour Professional captaining teams of three amateurs representing the participating companies over three days of the Pro-Am tournament while competing for an individual Prize Fund of £125,000.

The best professional players in the world cannot seem to beat Tiger Woods head-to-head, but leave it to a crafty Irishman (no, not Darren Clarke). J. P. McManus, a 16-handicapper, a friend of Tiger's, and financially successful in his own right, didn't ask for extra stokes in his match at Limerick, instead he asked for an extra ball. Each man played two balls, with McManus taking the better of the two shots and Tiger the lesser. As under these rules birdie putts would do no good unless made twice, McManus closed out the match on the 16th green, winning 3 and 2.