Andy

Sullivan

Sullivan opened his day with a bogey but erased that easily with a nine-pack of birdies sprinkled throughout the card. All but one of those birds were poured home from inside of 10 feet, a testament to his ball-striking today. The lone exception was a 34'6" birdie bomb at the 17th. Sullivan entered at just 114th in the season-long DP World Tour Rankings but has picked up his pace with two top 10s and a T22 over his last five lead-in starts. The Englishman missed the cut at Wentworth last year but had posted top 35s in six of his previous seven BMW PGAs before that, including a T3 in 2020.

It marked the third top 10 of the European Tour season for Sullivan, who’s No. 131 in the world rankings. However, it wasn’t enough to secure him a spot in this week’s season finale at the DP World Tour Championship. The 34-year-old Englishman, a four-time winner, finished 55th in the Race to Dubai and is listed as the first alternate for the event. Sullivan has played in the last seven consecutive Tour Championships, dating back to 2014 and highlighted by a second place in 2015 and back-to-back T-10s in 2019 and 2020. “I sort of knew I needed a big finish to get into next week, so I started great but then it wasn’t going to plan and then when I was on 13-under par I relaxed and thought it wasn’t going to happen this week,” he said. “Then I started to hit better shots, had great putts. It was amazing. It’s been such a poor year for me and to finish like that -- if that’s my last nine of the year I’ll go into next season with loads of positives.”

Last year in Dubai, the 34-year-old Englishman flirted with history during the first round with a bogey-free, 11-under 61, setting a new course record and taking an early two-stroke lead. He followed up with solid rounds of 66-68 before fading on the last day with a 2-under 70 to finish two strokes back of winner Antoine Rozner of France. Sullivan is coming off a bumpy finish in Portugal, where he carded a 6-over 77 in final round that included three double bogeys, one bogey and two birdies. The four-time European Tour winner, who last visited the winner’s circle at the 2020 English Championship, has made 18 cuts in 24 starts this season with two top 10s (T-6 at British Masters, T-5 at BMW International Open). He stands 66th in the Race to Dubai.

The 43-year-old world No. 92 sits at No. 25 on European Points list, well out of the top four that earn automatic qualification spots, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s made a rally for Ryder Cup consideration: Sullivan won three times in the span of 10 months in 2015 to earn his debut on Darren Clarke’s European team in 2016 at Hazeltine. The four-time ET winner hasn’t visited the winner’s circle in nearly a year, though, at last year’s English Championship. However, he’s said he’s drawing on his T-26 finish at the 149th Open for positive reinforcement ahead of teeing it up at London Golf Club. “It’s been nice to have a run of events on UK soil and to play in front of the best fans in golf,” Sullivan told European media last week. “It really gives you a boost and especially after a long time when we had no fans at all due to the pandemic. My game has been trending nicely and I feel like I’ve had a decent run of form in the last couple of months so hopefully that can translate into a good performance at the Cazoo Classic and maybe I can put myself in contention come Sunday.” On the season, he’s 13-for-16 with two top 10s. He finished T-48 last week at the Hero Open.

The 34-year-old Englishman rebounded from a missed cut at the abrdn Scottish Open by opening with a pair of 67s at Royal St. George’s – good for a place inside the top 10 after the second round – but faded with rounds of 71-72 over the weekend. Sullivan is the highest ranked male player in the field at this week’s event, which is being played at Galgorm Castle and Massereene golf clubs and is tri-sanctioned by the European Tour, LET and LPGA. “I think it’s great, and I think it’s the way things should be where we’re playing for equal prize funds and going against each other,” he said. “At the end of the day we’re all competitors. We all want to beat each other. It doesn’t matter if you’re disabled, lady, male -- we want to win.” Sullivan is a four-time ET winner, but hasn’t won in nearly a year – at the English Championship last August. This season, he’s made 12 cuts in 14 starts with two top 10s at the BMW International (T-5) in June and Betfred British Masters (T-6) in May.

The Englishman striped 10-of-14 fairways en route to landing 12 greens in regulation. “I felt like I was really disciplined out there today. Didn’t really try and chase too many flags down. Just put it into areas where par was an easy score to make and you might have a sneaky chance at birdie.” The real test will be whether he can maintain that patience over the weekend or if he’ll get an itchy trigger finger and fire at some flags. Currently T4 on the live leaderboard, this will be the sixth time that he’s posted inside of the top 10 after any round in a major championship. His best finish in a major is a T12 at the 2016 Open Championship (Royal Troon).

The Englishman found out on Friday, while playing last week’s Scottish Open (MC), that he was into the field after Matthew Wolff decided not to play. This is his sixth Open, first since a MC by eight at the last edition contested in 2019 (76-75), while his best among one top 25 is T12 in 2016 (Royal Troon), where he was T4 after 18 holes (67-76-71-69). Overall, it’s the 35-year-old’s 16th major, missing nine cuts, with his best among two top 25s the aforementioned T12 in Scotland, which is also his best on the PGA TOUR in 33 career events. On nine (of 14) fairways and 13 greens in regulation, he offset three squares at holes 7, 9 and 11, with six circles at 1, 4, 8, 10, 15 and 18. Sullivan posted 1.56 putts per GIR while the current field average is 1.65. (See link to post-round comments below).

Before competing in the U.S., however, the 34-year-old Englishman posted a top 10 at the British Masters, which put him T-6 in the European Tour qualifying series’ standings for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Sullivan, a four-time European Tour winner, carded four consecutive subpar rounds at The Belfry to finish T-6 at 11-under 277 and two strokes back of winner Richard Bland. He’s made seven cuts in eight stroke-play events this season, with two other finishes inside the top 25. This week marks Sullivan’s fourth appearance in the Denmark event, and he’s made the cut just once prior – in his last appearance in 2019 where he finished T-33. Sullivan’s last title came last August at the English Championship.

With the afternoon wave just getting going, that’s one clear shot of Swedish duo Alexander Bjork (63) and Marcus Kinhult (65). For the second day running, Sullivan outpaced a lone bogey with six birdies. He started his day with an opening circle at No. 10 and added further par breakers at 13 and 14 before his one blemish, a bogey-4 at No. 15. After turning in 33, the World No. 135 matched that score coming home by splashing red at 1, 2 and 8. So far so good for Sullivan, who has a strong record in desert conditions, including T11 in this event last year when it was held at previous venue Doha GC. We’ll see if the afternoon wave can reel him in.

Sullivan went 28-34-11 at Doha from 2017-2019 but shot his lowest score in the event this afternoon. The Englishman was slow to get into his stride with a par-birdie-bogey start from No. 1 but, from there, he took flight. The 32-year-old World No. 135 birdied 6 and 9 to turn in 2-under 34 and ticked three more holes coming home, his gains at 11, 12 and 16 lifting him into the top three. Sullivan has three finishes of T27 or better in five starts this season with a best of T6 at the South African Open.