the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (October 2 to 5) as an amateur is a knee-knocking affair. Sure, players have the anxiety of playing with the pros and in front of crowds, but they also have the weather, which can be counted on to wreak as much havoc, if not more, than any amateur player’s cold-topped 3-wood or balky putter stroke. The tournament, first played in 2001, is, with all due respect to the AT&T Pebble Beach An invitation to play
Pro-Am, at least the equal trium- virate of golf, Mother Nature and fashion. Spread over three courses – Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and the Old Course in St Andrews – the DP World Tour event is a showcase for three of the most celebrated links courses in the British Isles, where, as the saying goes, you can expe- rience all four seasons during a round and sometimes, it seems, si- multaneously. If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute, and it will change. The tournament is a showcase for Richemont, the luxury goods house, which is the parent com- pany to Dunhill but is also home to such brands as Cartier and Montblanc, as well as sportswear company Peter Millar. The event is one that of- fers “great brand exposure from a product stand- point but also from a global perspective,” says Peter Millar CEO Scott Mahoney. He is referring to the 168 amateurs who come from around the world to participate and in addition to playing with world-class golfers, receive tour-quality swag bags. Just some of those amateurs in re- cent years have included actors Catherine Zeta- Jones and her husband Michael Douglas, Bill Murray, and Andy Garcia; athletes Gareth Bale, John Elway, Kelly Slater and a slew of cricketers and rugby players; musicians Huey Lewis, Tico Torres and Dave Farrell. Irish businessmen and powerbrokers Dermot Desmond and J P McMa- nus usually play, and the 2024 edition saw PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan intriguingly paired in the same group as His Excellency Yas- sir Al-Rumayyan. Actress Kathryn Newton, from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, says, “The gift bag is a big deal. Peter Millar gave me a cashmere cape two years ago that I wore everywhere. I could wear it golfing, but I wore it everywhere, to pieces.” After her dogs got a hold of it one day, it was then literally in pieces, so she went out and bought another one. “I loved it so much because it’s the kind of thing where I wore it on and off the golf course, and it was luxurious. It feels el-
78 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
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