Hollywood legend Bill Murray will be back in St Andrews next month to celebrate his tenth appearance in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
A very good golfer in his own right, Bill is also much loved by golf fans for his role as wacky greenkeeper Carl in the film Caddyshack.
His other big screen highlights have endeared him to millions of film enthusiasts, including Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, a superb performance in the 2003 film Lost in Translation which won him a Golden Globe, and Hyde Park on Hudson, in which he portrayed US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. More recently he has engaged a new generation with The French Dispatch, On the Rocks and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
A winner of the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach with professional partner D.A.Points, he always produces the unexpected when he plays, At the Dunhill Links in 2019, spectators still talk about how he went into one of the on-course food tents at Carnoustie to make burgers for the scorers in his fourball.
He will be joining fellow film stars Michael Douglas, Matthew Goode and Kathryn Newton, who could easily have become a professional. As a talented high school golfer, she initially wanted to play as an amateur in the 2012 US Women's Open, but had to withdraw after getting her first ever film lead in Paranormal Activity 4, which set her on a totally different path to stardom.
The tournament incorporates two separate competitions - an individual professional event for the world's leading golfers and the Team Championship in which the professionals are paired with the amateurs, creating a unique atmosphere.
From the world of sport, making his debut is Canada’s Wayne Gretzky, widely regarded as the greatest ice hockey player of all time having won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers and set over 60 NHL records. He joins 11-time World Surfing Champion Kelly Slater and Olympic rower Steve Redgrave who has appeared in every Dunhill Links since it started in 2001.
The galleries at St Andrews will have a new local hero to cheer in Andy Murray, who is also playing for the first time. In a glittering career, the Scotsman won Wimbledon twice in 2013 and 2016 and the US Open in 2012, and also won two Olympic gold medals: in London in 2012, beating Roger Federer in the final, and in Rio in 2016.
Murray, who retired in August 2024, is now working on his golf with the same passion he showed for tennis. He said: “It’s very special to be able to play in a full-blown professional event, and to be able to do it in Scotland at such a unique location as the Old Course makes it even more exceptional.”
Cricketers Kevin Pietersen, Allan Lamb and Mark Nicholas are also playing along with South African rugby stars Schalk Burger Jnr, Morné du Plessis and Rob Louw.
A super group of global music celebrities will be hoping to hit the high notes on the golf course, including Keane’s Tom Chaplin, Linkin Park’s Dave Farrell, singer-songwriter Ronan Keating, Mike Rutherford of Genesis and US rock legend Huey Lewis, who played in the first Dunhill Links back in 2001.
Broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan also returns to the event along with Dragons Den panellist Peter Jones.
The amateurs will be joining one of the strongest professional fields in the history of the event. England’s Tyrrell Hatton will be back at St Andrews to defend his Alfred Dunhill Links title, with the goal of becoming the first ever golfer to win the Championship four times, plus Major Champions Matt Fitzpatrick, Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith and Bubba Watson.
Also back at St Andrews will be the ever-popular Tommy Fleetwood, two-time runner-up for the individual professional title and winner of the 2019 Team Championship, fresh from his victory in the FedEx Tour Championship in Atlanta last month, and Bob MacIntyre, hoping to become the first Scottish winner since Colin Montgomerie in 2005.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is a celebration of Links golf, played over the Old Course St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, three of the greatest Links courses in the world, from October 2 – 5, culminating in the final day on the Old Course.
For the first three days entry is FREE, tickets are not needed. Only tickets for the final day, Sunday, October 5, on the Old Course, need to be purchased. To purchase tickets click here.
This is the 40th year that Alfred Dunhill has supported golf at St Andrews – first in the Alfred Dunhill Cup from 1985, then in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship from 2001. During that time, many millions have been raised for charity.
In June 2011 the Alfred Dunhill Links Foundation was established as the official Foundation of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The Foundation is committed to developing young amateur golfers in Scotland and South Africa and also supports the University of St Andrews and the St Andrews Pilgrim Foundation, which refurbishes and preserves historical monuments in the town.
