The DP World Tour returns to England’s Golf Coast this week as Hillside Golf Club plays host to the Cazoo Classic, which continues a stretch of summer tournaments on the 2022 schedule in the United Kingdom.
Hillside back on Tour schedule
The Tour is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and returns to a venue that was on its schedule in its inaugural season in 1972, when Tommy Horton won the Piccadilly Medal. Hillside, situated in Southport nearby to Open Championship venue Royal Birkdale, last staged a Tour event at the 2019 Betfred British Masters hosted by Tommy Fleetwood. That year, Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult finished birdie-birdie to win his maiden Tour title. Hillside was also the host of the 1982 Sun Alliance PGA Championship – the precursor to the BMW PGA Championship – when Tony Jacklin beat Bernhard Langer in a play-off. The R&A has been a regular visitor to the historic Merseyside links – designed by Fred Hawtree – with The Amateur and Ladies Amateur Championships being staged there as well as Final Qualifying for The Open from 2014 to 2017.
History of the event
The Cazoo Classic returned to the Tour schedule in 2021 following a 19-year absence. The tournament was previously called the English Open after it was established in 1988, when England’s Howard Clark won his tenth and final Tour title at Royal Birkdale. After the first edition, the Brabazon Course at The Belfry served as host before the event switched from Forest of Arden to Hanbury Manor and back. Future Open Championship winner and Ryder Cup Captain Darren Clarke won his third title at the event in a four-year span from 1999 to 2002 before its hiatus on the schedule.
Last time around
Scotland’s Calum Hill won his breakthrough DP World Tour title in last year’s inaugural edition at the London Club as he became the fifth consecutive first-time winner. A week after losing out to countryman Grant Forrest at the 2021 Hero Open, a final-round 67 saw Hill finish one shot ahead of France’s Alexander Levy as the victory propelled him into the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career. The 27-year-old has only played once this year at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, where he was forced to withdraw because of an injury caused by an insect bite towards the end of 2021, and he is unfortunately unable to defend his title this week.
UK golf fans treated once again
The Cazoo Classic forms part of a brilliant British summer of golf on the DP World Tour. Following on from the Genesis Scottish Open and The 150th Open Championship, this is the third event of a six-week UK Swing. The Tour returns to Scotland for the third time in the space of month next week for the Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews, before Celtic Manor hosts the Cazoo Open at the start of August. The final event of the series sees Galgorm Castle Golf Club in Ballymena, Northern Ireland stage the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Modest! Golf, tri-sanctioned by the DP World Tour, LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour.
Blossoming with age
It seems fitting that the week after The Open there should be a former Silver Medal winner in the field at a Tour event. Alfie Plant came to prominence when he was the only amateur to make the cut in the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. After turning pro at the age of 25 later that year, the Englishman won his first professional title in 2019 on the Euro Pro Tour. Plant, now 30 years old, recently became a two-time Challenge Tour winner, with victory at the Blot Open de Bretagne to go alongside another success in France at the Hopps Open de Provence last season boosting his bid to win a Tour card at the end of the season.
