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Don Does Dunhill

The 18th at St Andrews in 2008

The 18th at St Andrews in 2008

Pro golfer Simon Khan has been paired with Don for this year’s Dunhill Links championship golf tournament, with the guys teeing off tomorrow morning on the tenth at Carnoustie.

The Carnoustie group offers a slew of big professional golf names, including last year’s championship winner Robert Karlsson, as well as many well-known celebrity amateurs from showbiz and sport. This means chances are good the Golf Channel will have it’s cameras there.

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It’s the Dunhill Links Week

© felderfans.com

© felderfans.com

Don’s on his way over to Scotland again for the annual Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Pro-Am kicking off on October 1. The tournament takes place over three world-renowned courses in and around St. Andrews, the Mecca of golf.

Gaining a coveted amateur spot in the prestigious tournament is virtually impossible for the average duffer. According to Don, playing in it is “like my birthday and Christmas all rolled in to one.”

Who will play with Don this year? Can his team make the final? Check back for our updates or follow the tournament live via The European Tour.

Swinging in the Rain

Don with #1 piece of equipment

Don with #1 piece of equipment

Don defied the forces of nature during the third and last day for the amateurs played yesterday at Kingsbarns. Playing in conditions more suitable to testing battleships in a wind tunnel without the tunnel, he actually made up some strokes. His toughest job was trying not to blow away like a male Mary Poppins while holding an open golf umbrella.

Don admitted he didn’t think he would play that well this year since he’s been busy doing other things besides working on his golf game, like promoting his book and, get this, playing guitar.

Rex Usa has several pictures taken at this year’s event, including some of Don during the practice rounds, chit-chatting at the pairings dinner and performing at the Saturday night shindig along with Huey Lewis and Tico Torres.

Chillin’ at Carnoustie

David and Don

David and Don

Don’t let the smiles on these two gents pictured on the right fool you. Playing in icy winds at Carnoustie is no laughing matter. Their faces are simply frozen.

David has a reason to be smiling: despite the gusty conditions he managed to pick up several strokes and finds himself among the top amateur players at -12. Don forfeited his -1 from yesterday, ending at 3 above par, even though he did manage a Ben Hogan moment by sinking a 40-foot putt on the 18th. Pros Jean-Francois and Gregory struggled a bit and have their work cut out for them in order to break even by the end of tomorrow’s last pro-am round at Kingsbarns.

Don at the Dunhill

Ok there Don, now just act natural....

Ok there Don, now just act natural....

Don and his cohorts got off to a sunny start today out at the Old Course, the first of three days competing in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Pro-Am.

After his hands thawed out around the fifth hole, Don managed to stay consistently at or under par. We think St. Andrews has the nastiest bunkers this side of a war zone, and Don managed to stay out of ‘em, shooting a -1 under for the day.

There’s much more to come. Mary will post her usual incompetent, erratic, off-the-page and biased analysis direct from the venues and we’ll be adding each day’s images to the slideshow.

Complete (professional) coverage at the European Tour Site

Scotch on the Rockers

We thought about just going ahead with a cut and paste of our blog entry from last year’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, ’cause it looks like basically the same club-toting celebrities and sports stars are back in Scotland again this year. The event is too much of a good thing to miss out on and once you’re in, you ain’t budging. Don returns with fellow rock ‘n rollers Huey Lewis and Tico Torres along with vocalist Ronan Keating, with whom he played alongside of two years ago.

Don played with Marc Warren in 2006

Don played with Marc Warren in 2006

The tournament starts next week on Thursday, October 2 and runs through Sunday, October 5. Incidentally, there’ll be a few professional golfers hanging around St. Andrews then, too. They’ll be competing for a measly $5,000,000 total purse in the pro-am, rotating around three different courses over the first three days, with those making the cut playing to win on Sunday. With that kind of loose change available the organizers don’t even bother charging admission for the first three days.

A fans-eye-view of the goings-on can be seen in our own slideshow from last year’s competition. We’ll share information from this year’s event as it unfolds.

The tournament is televised in Europe and in the U.S. More information at the Dunhill Championship official site, including a summary of the celebrity amateurs. The pro entry list can be found at the European Tour site.



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