Max Faulkner and ‘the greatest shot’: the story of Portrush’s first Open champion
“Max Faulkner,Open champion 1951”,Faulkner signed those words for a young fan who had offered up a golf ball en route to the first tee of the final round at Royal Portrush,He regretted it almost immediately,While he held a commanding six-shot lead before the 1951 Open’s last 18 holes, there now existed an embarrassing piece of evidence should he fail to deliver.
Fortunately for Faulkner, despite an errant drive on the 1st hole, he went on to fulfil his prophecy by two strokes.It would take 18 years before another English golfer, Tony Jacklin, hoisted the Claret Jug.As the Open returns to Northern Ireland for the third time at Portrush, many will have fond memories of Shane Lowry’s emotional victory in 2019.Yet fewer will recall Faulkner’s improbable triumph during a vastly different era, one without rangefinders and swing analysis, when golfers had to rely on intuition and experience to conquer Portrush.“The Open is one tournament you can’t win suddenly from out of the blue: you have to get a taste for it,” wrote Faulkner, who died in 2005 aged 88.
He was no stranger to Portrush, having come third in the Irish Open on his 21st birthday at the same venue.To tackle the super-quick greens, described by Faulkner as “the fastest he had ever seen for an Open Championship”, he pivoted to a pencil-slim putter weighing just 11 ounces (312g).Before the tournament, three-time Open champion Henry Cotton had snapped a picture of Faulkner, then 34, arms aloft, explaining to American amateur Frank Stranahan and England’s Ken Bousfield how he would win the tournament.They are laughing, for good reason.Two-time defending champion Bobby Locke, who would finish tied-sixth, was undoubtedly the favourite.
Cotton and 1947 winner Fred Daly were also among the 98-strong field,Not to mention that Faulkner had admitted to playing “rubbish” golf prior to the event,There was a sense of conviction in his words though,“I’ll show them this time,” he told his wife, Joan,A fairly average opening round of 71 on Wednesday meant he started three shots adrift.
But when his competitors faltered facing Thursday’s windy conditions, Faulkner stood firm and carded a respectable 70, earning him a two-shot lead,The razor-thin putter had brought results, needing just 27 and 24 putts, respectively,The final 36 holes of the Open were played on the same day that year,He scored another 70 on Friday morning to increase his lead to six, over Argentinian Antonio Cerdá, thanks to a shot described by playing partner Stranahan as “the greatest shot I’ve ever seen”,After a wayward drive on Babington’s, then the par-four 16th (No 18 today), Faulkner found his ball next to a barbed-wire fence.
“I thought there was just a chance if I lifted the club up steeply enough to miss the stile, deliberately sliced the shot and lifted the club up immediately after impact to avoid tearing my hands on the barbed wire,” he wrote.Faulkner executed it just like he had imagined, hitting a ridiculous slice with his four-wood which found the green, to save par.The afternoon began with a sense of foreboding after he signed the young boy’s ball and felt jitters from the 1st tee.Faulkner, whose lead had been significantly reduced by the time he reached the 18th, recalled: “My knees were a bit shaky as I bent down and I had some trouble getting the ball on the tee.”Still, he smoked his final drive down the fairway and a crowd had gathered around his ball.
This was a time before tournaments began roping off holes, when besides dealing with the pressure of the moment, golfers had to be mindful not to lose a shoe amid the encroaching spectators,Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionA marker stood over Faulkner’s ball and cleared a space for his crucial approach shot,After pulling out his trusty four-wood, an old friend, Jimmy Adams, hissed loudly at him, trying to tell him he was overclubbing by some distance,There was no hiding behind overzealous marshals, desperately waving ‘quiet please’ paddles back and forth over their heads as if their lives depended on it,He shanked his approach, which fortuitously stayed in play after ricocheting off a spectator’s chest, nestling in long grass on a slope.
Miraculously, Faulkner found the green with a superb recovery shot and two-putted for bogey.He signed for a 74, but without giant scoreboards to indicate how his competitors were faring, he didn’t know if it was enough.It took another hour before a messenger rushed forward with good news.“Tony Cerdá’s taken six.It’s your Open.
”Faulkner’s 285 total at Portrush, the sixth-worst winning score since 1946, will most certainly not be enough to win there in 2025.But his confidence and fearless approach, on one of the toughest links courses, remain relevant 74 years later.
Weight loss surgery tourism needs urgent regulation, say UK experts
A booming trade in medical tourism for weight loss surgery is placing patients at risk and needs urgent regulation, experts have warned.Despite the growing popularity of injections such as Mounjaro to treat obesity, the number of patients travelling to other countries for surgery is increasing, the latest analysis suggests.And, with the wider medical tourism industry set to be worth about £300bn annually, with anticipated year-on-year growth of 25%, international regulation is urgently needed, according to a commentary in the journal BMJ Global Health.“We are seeing this ongoing increase, linked to the globalisation of healthcare and long wait lists,” said Dr Jessica McGirr of the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin and Imperial College London, adding that many are being marketed bariatric surgery through “before and after” images on TikTok and Instagram.“Incorrectly, surgery is often marketed from an aesthetic point of view,” McGirr said
Send parents are not ‘gaming the system’ Letters
I usually enjoy John Crace’s frank views and commentary, but was stopped in my tracks when he said the bill for special educational needs and disabilities (Send) provision was rising “thanks both to better diagnosis and to some parents gaming the system” (Labour picks on kids as Farage reaches for his human punchbag, 7 July).Sadly, when the government is challenged as to why it is not providing thousands of children with an adequate education, it often resorts to victim-blaming, implying that parents are exaggerating their children’s difficulties, and I’m astonished that John has regurgitated such nonsense.As the mother of an autistic child who needs a high level of care in his school environment, I have to fight tooth and nail every single year to prove that he still has high needs and still requires specialist provision. This is true of many thousands of parents with children in the system.Does John really believe that there are parents in enough numbers who are successfully exaggerating their children’s special educational needs and disabilities to have caused a notable increase in the bill for Send provision? Please
Protect children, not just animals, from lead exposure | Brief letters
I am glad that the government has moved to protect birds and wildlife from toxic lead exposure by banning lead ammunition (Report, 10 July). It would be great if its next move could be to try to protect the estimated 200,000 children in the UK who have asymptomatic and undiagnosed lead exposure that will cause them lifelong health and cognitive impairments. At present we have a passive surveillance system that misses 99% of cases.Lee CrawfurdSenior research fellow, Center for Global Development When working for the same civil service department as Ian Arnott (Letters, 14 July), my husband was told by a senior manager that if he wanted to “get on” in his career he should “lose the beard”. He didn’t – and he didn’t
Fauja Singh, ‘world’s oldest marathon runner’, dies in road accident aged 114
The runner Fauja Singh, believed to be the oldest person to complete a marathon, has died in a road accident in India aged 114.The athlete, who lived in Ilford in east London, was hit by a car and suffered fatal injuries while trying to cross a road in his birth village of Beas Pind, near Jalandhar in Punjab, on Monday, according to reports in India.His London-based running club and charity, Sikhs in the City, confirmed his death and said its upcoming events in Ilford would be a celebration of his life and achievements.Singh’s coach, Harmander Singh, wrote on Facebook: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm our icon of humanity and powerhouse of positivity Fauja Singh has passed away in India. Aged 114 years old
‘They lump us all together’: van-dwellers and homeowners clash over life near Bristol Downs
Lee James is cowering in the rusting Mercedes Sprinter van he calls home. He is worried sick by the growing campaign to evict van-dwellers like him from historic parkland in the wealthy north-west of Bristol.“I’m not in the greatest headspace today … I wouldn’t have anywhere to go [if I was evicted] … this is my home,” he said in the gloomy interior. “I just wish there was more kindness.”Last week, residents from the neighbourhoods surrounding the Bristol Downs, where house prices and average incomes are among the highest in the city, lobbied the Green-led council to remove the 60 to 100 vans and caravans in the park
Reform-run councils once known for green policies expected to scrap climate pledges
Two councils that have been recognised for their work to cut emissions but are now under the control of Reform UK are expected to scrap climate pledges this week.Durham county council’s deputy leader, the former GB News presenter Darren Grimes, has proposed a motion to rescind a 2019 declaration of a climate emergency, in what it is believed would be a UK first.West Northamptonshire council, meanwhile, looks set to become the first Reform-led authority to scrap net zero targets.The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, warned MPs about the climate crisis on Monday, saying he would explicitly call out politicians who rejected net zero policies for betraying future generations in an unprecedented “state of the climate” address to parliament.In what is planned to be an annual event, the energy security and net zero secretary will set out the findings of a new Met Office-led report that says the UK is already facing extreme weather and its effects
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