GOLF/News Round-Up: One of golf's hallowed sites, the Road Hole bunker on the Old Course at St Andrews, has been saved. The threatened emasculation of what is the most famous and most feared bunker in all golf has been averted, to the relief of traditionalists everywhere.
Not only have concerns first raised in the Guardian newspaper by David Malcolm, a past captain of the New Golf Club, been allayed, the 17th may become an even more difficult hole. The bunker has always given the 17th the reputation of the hardest par four in world golf but now the "gathering area" in front has been extended. This means it will be easier than ever to find the dreaded pit.
The rescue has emerged from a rethink by the four wise men who comprise the greens subcommittee of the links management committee, the body responsible for upkeep of the St Andrews courses.
They inspected work on the area - which took two men a month and cost about £3,000 - and decided that, although the gathering area was fine, the bunker needed to be restored to within a few inches of its previous depth. This will reinstate the degree of difficulty needed to frighten the pants off the world's best golfers and maintain the hole's unique challenge.
Guardian Service
Australia's Steve Collins rode his luck to hold a two-stroke lead in the Australian Masters yesterday in wild, wet and windy conditions as Tom Watson and Nick Faldo failed to beat par.
Collins shot six birdies and two bogeys in his round of four-under-par 68 at Melbourne's Huntingdale Golf Club. The 30-year-old turned with an outward nine of 32 but bogeyed the par-three 15th and par-four 18th holes.
Australia's Adam Scott and Peter Lonard shared second place on two-under-par 70 ahead of a group of seven more Australian players on one-under 71.
Meanwhile, Ernie Els was named the European Tour's player of the year yesterday after winning six titles worldwide in 2002, including the Open at Muirfield.
In addition to that triumph, Els won the Heineken Classic, the Genuity Classic, the Dubai Desert Classic, the World Match Play at Wentworth and last week's Sun City Challenge in South Africa.
