FROM the window of our Pontins chalet, which can be a bit like peering out of a bunker in the midst of a nuclear winter, the diarist and his colleague spot the 2004 Open champion Todd Hamilton hanging about at the gates in his shorts. From Claret Jug winner to potential Blue Coat? Either that or he was a late entry for the weekly, on site Knobbly Knees contest.

IF you’re ever going on a driving tour around the UK, then the diarist suggests you don’t follow PGA Tour player Daniel Berger’s route planner. “In my rookie year I got into the British Open so I went to Scotland for the Scottish Open but that was too much time in England,” he said.

THE R&A top brass may be holed up in the finest of Southport hotels, while nonchalantly feasting on swan fillets for tea and washing it down with goblets of fine wine, but they’ve not forgotten the

masses. A free campsite for the under-25 spectators is once again going like a fair. As Richard III didn’t quite say: “Now is the summer of our discount tent.”