Marcus

Armitage

Joining them in the field at St. Andrews next month are fellow countrymen Matthew Jordan and John Parry, who defeated Scotland’s Daniel Kay on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. The 34-year-old Armitage carded rounds of 68-68 to finish at 8-under 136, while 23-year-old Bairstow posted rounds of 69-67. Bairstow, a left-hander who currently ranked 12th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, recently finished runner-up in The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter two weeks ago. Armitage, who won the 2021 Porsche European Open for his lone DP World Tour title, has made 10 cuts in 12 DPWT starts this season, with two tops 10s including a T-5 in the Qatar Masters in March. He’s in the field this week at the Horizon Irish Open at Mount Juliet Estate in Kilkenny, Ireland. In three previous Irish Open appearances, he’s never missed the cut with a best finish of T-23 in 2020.

The 34-year-old Englishman broke through for his first DP World Tour victory last year, carding a final-round, 7-under 65 in the 54-hole event, which was shortened due to pandemic travel restrictions. Armitage started the final day four shots off the lead, and he won by two strokes with an 8-under total, beating four players: Darius Van Driel, Matthew Southgate, Edoardo Molinari and Thomas Detry. “I’ve never lost so many balls in a practice round in my life,” he admitted following the win. “To (stand) here being Porsche European Open champion is pretty cool. I’m an emotional guy, I’m struggling to keep a lid on it here. … Twenty years ago, I lost my mum and I’ve dreamt about this since that day, being a winner, and you have days where you think it might not happen, but I just stuck at it.” On the season, Armitage has made nine cuts in 11 starts with two top 10s, finishing T-9 at the Ras al Khaimah Classic in February and T-5 at the Qatar Masters in March. Most recently, he was T-31 at the Dutch Open.

The 33-year-old Armitage, who jumped for No. 190 to 121 in the OWGR, carded a final-round, 7-under 65 in the 54-hole event, which was shortened and changed to June 5-7 due to pandemic travel restrictions. The win also earned Armitage a spot in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, as the Hamburg event was the third in a three-tournament qualifying series based on aggregate Race to Dubai points. He started the final round four shots behind leaders Matthew Southgate and Maverick Antcliff, and Armitage quickly made up ground with two birdies in his first three holes. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Armitage, who secured his first win in his 71st European Tour start. “It’s a new feeling I suppose. … When I had a practice round the other day, I’ve never lost so many balls in a practice round in my life. To be (standing) here being Porsche European Open champion is pretty cool.” Armitage, who won a Challenge Tour event in 2016, has made seven cuts in 10 starts to kick off 2021 and has three other top-10 finishes on the season including a T-8 at the Made in HimmerLand in his second-to-last start.

Armitage carded five birdies and went bogey free through 16 holes before his only blemish of the day – a bogey at the par-4 17th at Diamond Country Club. After opening with a 1-over 73, the 33-year-old Englishman played steady with 69-70 on Friday and Saturday but carded three bogeys in each round. Armitage has made four cuts in five starts to kick off 2021 and looks to improve on his solid 18-for-23 ratio last season. Of note, Armitage regained his European Tour card for 2020 at Qualifying School Final Stage and made the most of his second chance after losing full-time playing privileges following an 11-for-26 showing in 2017. He notched five top-10 finishes including third place at the South African Open where he birdied his final hole of the tournament to earn a spot in The Open Championship at Royal St. George’s. Armitage is hovering inside the top 200 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the second straight season, currently ranked No. 196 after finishing at No. 189 in 2020.

The 33-year-old went just 11-for-26 during his 2017 rookie season on the European Tour. That lost him his full-time playing privileges and he found just 10 starts the following year. Armitage regained his card through Q-School and made the most of his second chance. He missed just 5-of-23 cuts this season and turned five of those paydays into top-10 finishes. The Englishman landed top 15s in five of his last eight starts to end the year. As a result, he currently sits at 189th in the OWGR, more than 1,100 spots better than where he sat at this time last year. Armitage gained strokes in all four sub-categories of strokes gained last season and gamers should continue to invest in DFS lineups until he cools off.

Inexperienced Armitage might have been but his start to this final lap was superb as he circled the second and fourth holes to briefly take the lead. He made a bogey at the sixth and watched Oosthuizen make a hole-in-one at the eighth. He was also aware that eventual winner Grace was flying. Initially, he struggled to respond but nor did he wilt. When he broke a run of five pars it was with a wonderful pitch to the 12th green which almost went in for eagle, but confirmed the birdie. He dropped a shot at 15 but greeted his birdie at 18 with a gleeful fist pump as it guaranteed his return to the Open. Just a third European Tour top ten for the Englishman and an improvement on his previous best of T5 on this layout at the 2017 Joburg Open.

What a day for the 32-year-old Englishman (who regained his tour card at Q School in November), but it was not a bolt from the blue, albeit somewhat hidden. When he played this layout in the Joburg Open of late 2017 he was fifth, but it was his current form which was more enigmatic – two starts ago he was T42 in the Dunhill Championship, the only cut made at this level in his last seven efforts, but had been T4 after 54 holes. He used that encouragement to transform his Sunday chances here in Johannesburg and move 42 places up the leaderboard. On the front nine he ticked birdies at the second, sixth, seventh and ninth, alongside an eagle-2 at the third. On the way home he added birdies at the 12th and 17th with an eagle-3 at the 14th. He will rue a bogey at the 18th hole which cost him a share of the third round lead, but he will also take the positives. He will hope to grab just a second ET top five in round four and also hunt for one of three Open spots available.

What a rollercoaster day for the popular Englishman, nicknamed The Bullet, at Leopard Creek CC in Malelane. He’d pegged a pair of 70s to start the week and for much of this Moving Day he was moving backwards and forwards. On the front nine he made errors at the first and eighth against birdies at the fourth and seventh. The back nine started in style with par breakers at the tenth and 11th, but he lost a shot at the 12th. What followed was extraordinary. He went out of bounds on the par-5 15th, but holed from 25’0" for bogey. At the next hole he drained a huge bogey putt. He topped it all at the last, thrashing a brilliant drive, fretting about his approach over water, but it just made it and he holed the 12’0" eagle putt for a three. He is chasing a second ET tope five and maybe bettering his T5 in the 2017 Joburg Open.

Steady progress for the Englishman at Leopard Creek CC in Malelane after he grabbed the 16th card on offer in Spain last week. His Friday effort was a neat affair that witnessed early birdies at the second and fifth, with a bogey at the fourth in-between. From there on in it was nothing but pars with the exception of a second birdie-3 of the week at the tenth. His success at Q School was something of a surprise because he has no top ten throughout all of 2019 on the second tier, his best was T13 in May. His last top ten anywhere was in late China, towards the close of 2018.