AYRSHIRE, Scotland — Former UTSA golfer Johan Edfors is playing in the 138th Open Championship at The Ailsa Course at Turnberry (par 72/7,204 yards) on Thursday-Sunday, July 16-19.
Edfors, a native of Varberg, Sweden, who now makes his home in Dubai, is appearing in his fourth consecutive British Open. He has missed the cut in his three previous appearances in the event with a top finish of 71st place two years ago (72-75=147).
A two-year letterwinner at UTSA from 1994-96, Edfors posted seven top-10 finishes. He was the individual medalist at the both Hal Sutton Invitational and Billy Bundrick Intercollegiate in Fall 1995 and took top honors at the UTSA Spring Classic and Crown Colony Invitational during the previous spring campaign.
As a professional, his best year on the European Tour came in 2006 when he posted three victories, including the Barclays Scottish Open, and finished 10th on the Order of Merit. Edfors was the first Qualifying School graduate to post three wins in the ensuing season and he topped the 2003 European Challenge Tour Rankings with nine top-10 finishes, including two wins.
Turberry is hosting its fourth Open Championship this weekend and first since 1994. Built as a luxury hotel and golf course development by the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company in 1903, Turnberry became a landing strip for planes of the Royal Flying Corps during the first world war and then for Beaufighters and Liberators on anti-submarine and convoy protection patrols during the Second Great War.
Though all the Open venues have their own particular charm and beauty, it is Turnberry that stands above them all in terms of scenic beauty. It’s a beauty that offers plenty of scoring opportunities — the winning aggregates in both 1977 and '94 are among the lowest recorded in Open history — but when the wind blows the elevated and exposed cliff-top holes are treacherous.
For complete online coverage of this year's Open Championship, please visit opengolf.com.
