Mad Mack and the gods of golf, don’t tempt fate at Royal Portrush

Max Faulkner was similarly rash when The Open came to Royal Portrush in 1951. The English golfer held a six-stroke lead after 54 holes when a boy asked for his autograph. “Max Faulkner, Open Champion 1951,” he wrote. He then hit his tee shot almost out of bounds at the first hole of the final round.

Faulkner, aided by a caddie called Mad Mack who wore a long raincoat but no shirt, bogeyed three of his last four holes but won by two strokes. It proved the pinnacle and the end of his career. The next year, Faulkner missed a 4ft putt at the start of his first round and thought: “That’s it. I’ll never win another Open.”

It would be 68 years before The Open returned to Antrim, when Shane Lowry, from Co Offaly, delighted Irish fans, once they had got over Rory McIlroy missing the cut, by winning at a canter. This week it is there again but before it starts (Thursday, Sky Sports Main, 6.30am), enjoy the gorgeous photos of the course at theopen.com and its encouraging hole names such as Giants’ Grave (the 2nd), Calamity Corner (16th) and Purgatory (17th).

Vaibhav Suryavanshi is only 14 and already our bowlers are sick of him. The left-handed batsman, who made a century in 35 balls at the Indian Premier League, hit the cream of young English bowling to all parts during India Under-19s’ one-day series for an aggregate of 355 runs off only 204 balls.

Having won the series 3-2, India began the Test leg yesterday in Beckenham (Cricinfo and Kent’s YouTube channel). Home hopes rest on a familiar name: 17-year-old Rocky Flintoff, who has two centuries from 10 innings for England U19s, more than his father Andrew made in 29.

As the Club World Cup nears its end (Sunday, Channel 5 and Dazn, 8pm), who were the first football team to win an international competition? The answer is West Auckland, an amateur side from Durham made up of coalminers. In 1909 and 1911 they won the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, created by the tea merchant.

They beat Winterthur, a Swiss side, in the first final and two years later defended their title by beating Juventus 6-1. A drama was made about it by Tyne Tees in 1982, called The World Cup: A Captain’s Tale, starring Dennis Waterman. It can be watched on YouTube and will pass the time before the rather less romantic Fifa final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.

Photograph by Matt Dunham/AP Photo