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Open
March 2020 BOUND FOR THE OPEN Armitage displays bulldog spirit – but not the logo – to ride high in South African Open ‘Bullet’ proof how quickly things change
MARCUS ARMITAGE’S golfing odyssey has seen more than its fair share of ups and downs
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Towards the end of last year, the Howley Hall man was facing bankruptcy with Challenge Tour earnings of less than £15,000 and the daunting prospect, if an all too familiar journey, back to Tour School.
A spot in the final stage looked a distant prospect when he was outside of the top 60 going into the last round in stage two at Las Colinas with only 20 players to progress.
But a best-of-the-day last round three-under-par 68 in strong winds dragged him up to ninth place on a day when only eight players in the field shot 70 or better. He went on to get the 16th card in the Final Qualifying despite bogeying two of his last four holes and found himself back on the European Tour.
Known on Tour as ‘The Bullet’, he was in contention in the Alfred Dunhill at Leopard Creek before closing with a calamitous 83.
Undeterred, he bounced back two weeks later by holing a 12ft clutch putt on the final hole to win a cheque for over 82,000 euros for a thirdplace finish in the South African Open – and with it and an automatic berth to the 2020 Open Championship.
There is not much conventional about the 33-year-old who has never had a golf lesson in his life. Even the way he got his nickname has a story.
Fellow player Matt Nixon told him he needed a nickname so when he was offered a free travel cover by Club Glove, he asked for it to be embroidered with ‘The Bulldog’,
Marcus Armitage is all smiles after a great display at the South African Open
given his love of dogs. It came back with ‘The Bullet’ and it stuck. Armitage takes up the story.
“When it arrived, I was so excited that I decided to make a video, but when I pulled it out of the box and saw Bullet not Bulldog, I said what I thought, which included a few expletives. Well, Matt couldn’t stop laughing when I sent it to him, and he put it all over social media and everybody started calling me ‘Bullet’ after that.”
His apparel sponsor Druids Golf like it so much that they have designed a Bullet shirt in his honour.
“I was in denial at first telling everybody that I was still ‘The Bulldog’, but it stuck, and people seem to like it and now I have my own clothing line.
“Hopefully Druids Golf will produce it in a few colours so I can make it my last-day outfit.”
Now he’s off to Royal St George’s for his second Open appearance and with him will be girlfriend Lucy.
During an emotional interview after his final round in Randpark, Joburg, he said: “This one’s for Lucy. I can tell her that she doesn’t have to do any nails that week, she can book it off and we can go and enjoy the Open.
“Where I was a few months ago, I was off the cliff. I’ve turned it around. A few people have given me a few keys to change my life and that’s proof you can do it; you can do it in months. I’m a product of the hard work that I’ve put in.”
Those around him include swing coach Anthony Sheehy and his performance coach Duncan McCarthy, and Armitage will often, unprompted, point his thanks their way.
He has had two practice rounds and plans to make two further visits to Royal St George’s before July. “I went down in the middle of February. The wind was howling and to be fair it beat me up,” he said.
“Some of the greens are brutal. I will make more trips down there in April and June when I should be able to get a better feel for how it may play during the event. I last played there 13 years go in the English Amateur, which Danny Willett won.”
As for his chances at Sandwich, the 31-year-old isn’t going just to make up the numbers.
He said: “I’m looking to win it. It’s the best championship on the planet for me, it’s everything. That is the dream. People say to you, ‘You’re on the European Tour, you’re living the dream’. No – the dream is when I’ve got a Claret Jug in my pocket and I’m off to find the other three (majors).” Silsden is the latest Yorkshire golf club to close its doors and will cease to operate at the end of March.
In a letter to the Yorkshire Union of Golf Clubs, club chairman Martyn Twigg said: “It is with great sadness that I must inform the Union of our intention to close Silsden Golf Club at the end of March 2020.
“You will not necessarily be aware of our difficulties at various times in the 110-year history of the club, although I’m sure we are not on our own in that regard, and the previous 12 months have been no different. Falling membership has resulted in a lack of necessary investment, and when the facility begins to suffer, I’m afraid the situation can easily snowball.”
The news comes on the back of the recent demise of South Leeds and Lofthouse Hill, while members of Temple Newsam are fighting Leeds City Council who want to turn their 90- year-old facility which has 27 holes into a family cycling centre.
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