Destination 18 at the English Open

The English Open is back - and after a long absence from the golfing calendar, it couldn’t have picked a better stage for its comeback than The Vale Golf & Country Club in Worcestershire. We were there for the pro-am, and it’s fair to say the old tournament has returned in style.

Revived by the HotelPlanner Tour in partnership with England Golf, the English Open ran from 18-21 June, with the event pencilled in to stay at this level through 2027 before an anticipated step up to the DP World Tour in 2028 - a serious vote of confidence from the sport’s governing bodies.

We joined the pro-am as guests of HotelPlanner, the tournament’s headline sponsor, and made up a fourball with the World Trick Shot Champion himself, Geoff Swain and our pro for the day -  South African MJ Daffue - a prodigious driver of the golf ball and one of the Tour’s leading lights. Whatever else is said about the golf, the setting deserves top billing first: The Vale’s International Course sits across 300 acres of Worcestershire countryside, laid out in what feels like a natural amphitheatre of mature woodland, with views stretching out to the Malvern and Bredon Hills. It’s parkland golf at its most handsome - tree-lined, generously contoured and genuinely photogenic from nearly every tee.

The course held its own against a strong professional field, and nobody took it apart. American John Catlin eventually got the job done, but only after a seven-hole play-off against Norway’s Kristian Krogh Johannessen - both players matched pars for six holes before Catlin finally settled it with a birdie on the seventh. It was Catlin’s fifth national open title, and his first win on the HotelPlanner Tour.

It was also a good week for our man MJ, who battled his way to 11-under and a share of 7th - a fine effort on a course playing every bit as tough as you’d expect from a quality championship layout.

PS: We played decently in the pro-am, though nowhere near the prizes - but the genuinely warm welcome from the club and from HotelPlanner as hosts made the day memorable. As did the rebirth of a national open; delighted to see it back on the schedule, and well done to England Golf and the Tour for making it happen.

Andrew Cooke & Nick Presley, Destination 18