Some 32 years after it began, the last Benson and Hedges International Open champion was, in some ways, reassuringly similar to the first.
Back in 1971 it had been the most famous golfer in Europe who stepped forward as the winner, a young Englishman by the name of Tony Jacklin. By then Jacklin had won the 1969 Open Golf Championship and the 1970 US Open Championship.
He was, without question, the classiest act in town and his victory at Fulford offered instant credibility to a company that went on to be the longest and most continuous sponsor on The European Tour International Schedule.
How fitting then that on a bright and breezy Sunday in May another even younger Englishman, Paul Casey, stepped forward to receive the golden trophy that is host to so many of the most illustrious names in golf.
Despite having won the ANZ Championship on The European Tour earlier in the season, Casey, 25, did not carry the same fame into the tournament as Jacklin. For him, Major Championships remain a dream to unfold. But the swaggering manner of his final round echoed much of what encouraged Jacklin himself to step forward all those years ago.
As he cradled the cup and glanced at the impressive list of past champions it was entirely unsurprising that Casey’s hitherto focused stare was clouded by tears of joy. “Two years ago this was my first tournament as a professional and to stand here now as the last ever champion is a bit overwhelming. This means so much to me,” he said.
Casey, it should be stressed, had not started the day as favourite. Instead Padraig Harrington was everyone’s idea of a final Benson and Hedges International Open champion, the Irishman tied at ten under par alongside New Zealand’s Stephen Scahill and Casey with defending champion Angel Cabrera a stroke behind.
Harrington, who had unfathomably failed to sign his card correctly three years earlier while embracing a five shot lead going into the final round, was both an obvious and sentimental favourite.
“The only person I’ve got to fear is myself,” he said on the eve of the final round. He was both correct and misguided as events turned out. A place in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking on top of a barrowload of sentiment does not count for much when luck and your putter conspire against you.
As Harrington missed a few short putts, Casey holed a few longer challenges and the balance of power tilted so much so that the young Englishman arrived on the 18th tee with a five shot lead. He could have taken eight shots on this troublesome beauty of a hole and still won.
In the end he took five, pitching from the greenside rough before two putting for a title that surely will ignite his career, his winning score of eleven under par 277, four ahead of Harrington with Scotland’s Paul Lawrie, who holed in one at the seventh in the final round, Dutchman Rolf Muntz and Scahill tied for third.
Watching all this serious fun were a trio of men without whom, the Benson and Hedges International Open would not have been quite the same, Tournament Director Jim Elkins, Director of Tournament Operations Richard Brown, and George Griffith, whose attention to detail in the hospitality arena has been unparalleled and who is unfamiliar with the concept of a cork remaining in a champagne bottle.
Before Mr Elkins, the man who ran the week was the hugely respected Len Owen, whose concentration was constantly diluted by an impish sense of fun and who, more than anyone, set the abiding, and light, tone for the event, along with his admirable deputy Nick Hill and his good friend Derrick Pillage. Owen set a precedent with his celebrity Pro-Am, for which, as Pillage recalls, “all the celebrities were beating down Len’s door to play,” and together they made such a formidable team that much credit must go to Elkins for the wonderful way in which he picked up the baton. No wonder a tear crossed his cheek as Casey caressed the golden trophy.
To all involved, and to the players, to men like Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Sam Snead and Lee Trevino, all of whom crossed the Atlantic in the early days to help establish the week, to Bernhard Langer who chose to climb a tree by the 17th green at Fulford in 1981 and who thus constructed one of the most famous photographs ever, to all these and more, we in the Media Centre offer our appreciation and thanks.
Whether at Fulford, St Mellion, The Oxfordshire or now, finally, at The De Vere Belfry, the Benson and Hedges International Open was a lot of fun.
Bill Elliott
