THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

Congrats to Zach Johnson

I just thought it would be a good idea to have a place for Pre Open Discussion before Kwini does his thread for the Open on Tuesday or Wednesday and then you can move over to his thread to discuss the Open!

Cheers sirb,

Tiger is there already. He was 'shocked' how soft the course is. And with the weather forecast a bit mixed I wonder if that will bring other/more players into the mix when we talk about favorites?

pedro wrote:Cheers sirb,

Tiger is there already. He was 'shocked' how soft the course is. And with the weather forecast a bit mixed I wonder if that will bring other/more players into the mix when we talk about favorites?

Yep, I agree it certainly does but the Open really is the one major where the tee-times really matters cause at times half the field can be ruled out cause of the weather. Let's hope both sides of the draw get fair weather conditions!

sirb,
I'll leave the Open thread to you. I'll just jot down a couple of notes on the "opposite field" event in Alabama.
Over to you.
Hope this can be made a sticky asap, please!

Tiger Woods is playing a practice round today with..............Jason Dufner.

It kind of shuts up those rumours from a few weeks ago.

Qualfiers through the "Open" Qualifiers.

Gailes Links: Fox, Kinnear (AM), Young 
Hillside:  Arnold, Edberg, Neibrugge (AM
Royal Cinque Ports: Balcombe (AM), Boyd, Taylor(AM)
Woburn: Dinwiddie, Dunne (AM), Goosen


Four other Amateurs earned exemptions (Yang, Schneiderjans, Langasque, Chesters).

As far as I can tell, the only players in the field that are not touring pros are the 9 amateurs, plus Mark Young.

With a total of 10 Players in the Championship that are not touring pros, the Open is really not so Open anymore.

It does, however, make for a stronger field.  But labeling an "Open Championship" makes it a bit a misnomer, IMO.

Early forecast looks to rule out a 254.

super_,
What's Woods complaining about in his comments on the conditions? Does he expect conditions to be the same every time he tees it up?

Practice tee times are on The Open website - well for Sunday and Monday any way. (Thought for a moment they were the actual tee times... )

GPB wrote:
As far as I can tell, the only players in the field that are not touring pros are the 9 amateurs, plus Mark Young.

With a total of 10 Players in the Championship that are not touring pros, the Open is really not so Open anymore.

It does, however, make for a stronger field.  But labeling an "Open Championship" makes it a bit a misnomer, IMO.

I don't really understand your point here. How much more "open" would you like it to be? There are a gazillion ways to qualify through myriad routes. Would you prefer a field full of Maurice Flitcrofts?

Are you familiar with the movie "Tin Cup"?  A Driving Range pro goes through local and sectional qualifying to play in the Us Open

Yes through the Open Qualifying, a Club Pro can get into the Open Championhip.  But those avenues are not very plentiful as the R&A gives about 140 of its exemptions to Tournaments played on the Asian, Sunshine, Australian, European Tours etc.

I am not saying that is bad, I am just saying that doesn't say "OPEN" to me.  The field demographic is going to be very analogous to a routine USA PGA Tournament.  96% Touring pros and a smattering of Amateurs, Club Pros, Mini Tour pros who Monday qualify or given a sponsors invite.

That's great if you want to get the best possible field.  But it is not so great if you want to give guys on the Challenge Tour a chance to play.  Or college kids like Sam Horsfield and Jon Rahm.

Yes there are 12 spots available to these types of players in the Open Qualifiers but IMO, that is not very many if you want to pretentiously say "THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP"

Head pro and assistant pro at my club both entered qualifying. Sadly neither made it. Guess they just aren't Kevin Costner

Davie wrote:Head pro and assistant pro at my club both entered qualifying. Sadly neither made it. Guess they just aren't Kevin Costner

With just 12 spots, the odds are against them.

US Open has about 60-70 spots available.

Apples and oranges - as you well know!

kwinigolfer wrote:Apples and oranges - as you well know!

For sure, they have different roles to play in golf, and I have no problem with that.

I just have a problem with the Pretentious title "THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP" .

IMO, it is a misnomer.  Because the Championship is Not So Open anymore.  It used to be, but no longer.  IMO, the US Open is "The Open Championship".

GPB wrote:

Davie wrote:Head pro and assistant pro at my club both entered qualifying. Sadly neither made it. Guess they just aren't Kevin Costner

With just 12 spots, the odds are against them.

US Open has about 60-70 spots available.

Do please go ahead and list the 60 club pros that played at Chambers Bay.

It's not closed .. therefore it's OPEN. OK maybe not so many also rans as the US open .. but to call it "pretentious"?? You've just outdone McLaren in the trolling stakes there . .I'm not biting anymore except to say you could perhaps change your emphasis on CAPITALS

You may want to refer to the redneck open as "The us OPEN championship" .. but the Stan Drews pitch and putt is still "THE Open Championship"

Time to wind the necks in gents.

SmithersJones wrote:

GPB wrote:

Davie wrote:Head pro and assistant pro at my club both entered qualifying. Sadly neither made it. Guess they just aren't Kevin Costner

With just 12 spots, the odds are against them.

US Open has about 60-70 spots available.

Do please go ahead and list the 60 club pros that played at Chambers Bay.

Holy out of context, Batman!!  

I said there was 60-70 spots available, for qualifying.

Sure, It is not closed, but it sure ain't very wide Open.  

I would not mind labeling it the "The Slightly Ajar Championship"

GPB wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:

GPB wrote:

Davie wrote:Head pro and assistant pro at my club both entered qualifying. Sadly neither made it. Guess they just aren't Kevin Costner

With just 12 spots, the odds are against them.

US Open has about 60-70 spots available.

Do please go ahead and list the 60 club pros that played at Chambers Bay.

Holy out of context, Batman!!  

I said there was 60-70 spots available, for qualifying.

Most of which were claimed by?

It's a bit like aluminium really . . . . . . . .

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Apples and oranges - as you well know!

For sure, they have different roles to play in golf, and I have no problem with that.

I just have a problem with the Pretentious title "THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP" .

IMO, it is a misnomer.  Because the Championship is Not So Open anymore.  It used to be, but no longer.  IMO, the US Open is "The Open Championship".

We have THE Open, you guys have THE Masters. Sounds like a fair compromise, spreading the pretentious, self important competition titles.

Smithers

Most of them claimed by Tour players.

But quite a few players that are not members of a major world tour.

Brian Campbell
Denny McCarthy
Brad Fritsch
Nick Hardy


barragan


didn't realize it was a contest.

Hey, "The Open" pretentiousness continues ... after all, the winner is declared the "champeen golfer" for the year ...

A friend of mine, may he RIP, always referred to the US Open as the National Open.

Who cares what they call it. I do, however, wish Rory was there to make for a better competition.

Shotrock,
We can call the winner of The Open whatever we like. (Although British people would never call the winner the "champeen golfer".)
And, guess what, You can call the winner of your "National Open" whatever you like.
Neither is "pretentious".

If Americans don't like it, they can stay at home.
Which, to be fair, they did until the rewards made it compelling to risk the flight and our food.

As I said, it's just like aluminium.

I see the R&A have called the Met Office to order some defences for their pet pitch & putt course, Friday forecast currently looks hideous...no 254 this year then!!

Good work from Howeller JAS, he's quietly having a very good year.

GPB wrote:US Open has about 60-70 spots available.{via open qualifying}

 Which IMO is maybe 30-40 too many in this day and age.

Kwin - Traditions die hard in the UK. And by all means keep calling things whatever you like!

Silly, IMO, that a Kingdom (wouldn't Queendom be more accurate these days?) so rich in courses continually limits their Open Championship (sorry, THE Open Championship) to such few courses.

Go Jordan, I guess.

kwinigolfer wrote:super_,
What's Woods complaining about in his comments on the conditions? Does he expect conditions to be the same every time he tees it up?

We all know he's got no brain Kwini.

He claims to have been "shocked" how soft the course is. I'm sure even a mentally challenged moron like him can't expect the course to be running fast and firm if there has been significant rain. The green staff can't go round with blowtorches drying the course off.

We've had a full week of days when there has been very heavy convectional rainfall 2-3 times a day. On one morning we had 1 full inch. So not surprising that the greens and fairways are a bit on the soft side. Played one of the course right after, and it was actually enjoyable as the greens were stopping on a sixpence.

SR, dead right about the rota. You could take them all off and create a new list and it wouldn't be any worse. MIght even improve it to get rid of a few relics.

kwinigolfer wrote:Good work from Howeller JAS, he's quietly having a very good year.

He is gradually getting back to where he was pre-injury, could use a win though to get back into top 50.

Can we call it The World Series!

Super Spieth does it again! But can he complete the third leg of the grand slam this week? Would have to think winning yesterday plus the jet lag would take a lot out of him.

I'd say he's got an excellent chance Inco. A course as unchallenging as TOC will suit his fairways and greens game.

I know the Open is sacred and all that but I actually think GPB has a very decent point. For twelve places to be open from 156 really is not very many at all considering this is meant to be THE open championship.
The end result of who takes those 12, or the 60-70 available for the US if that's correct, is irrelevant. If you are THE open championship surely more than 7.5% of the spots should be 'open'?

super_realist wrote:I'd say he's got an excellent chance Inco. A course as unchallenging as TOC will suit his fairways and greens game.

An early test of how good this guy is/can be. Enormous pressure on him, first 3 Majors in one year not been done since Hogan? On a course of just average difficulty it should come down to who putts best and Spieth is pretty rock solid with the flat stick. Coming from Texas no reason to think he won't cope with the breeze if it blows as well. Fowler won't be far away either, only a matter of time before he bags a Major now and I think a claret jug is his best bet.

Yeah, Greens are so big that you'd think even a shortknocker can hit about 16 greens a round.
Very much a putting competition, so don't expect to see amazing shots. Going along on Fri and Sun, but reckon I'll be in the beer tent. Watching golf at the venue is really boring. Better off on tv, which is pretty boring in itself, especially the worst major of the year at the worst course on the rota.

MustPuttBetter wrote:I know the Open is sacred and all that but I actually think GPB has a very decent point. For twelve places to be open from 156 really is not very many at all considering this is meant to be THE open championship.
The end result of who takes those 12, or the 60-70 available for the US if that's correct, is irrelevant. If you are THE open championship surely more than 7.5% of the spots should be 'open'?

Tend to agree MPB.

Richie Ramsay replaced Tim Clark in the field last night

Isn't it just about time the tee-times were divulged?

I was just about to ask what time aren't they to be released today usually at some point?

Spieth now 5/1 for the Open .. I think that's possibly even lower odds than Tiger used to get in his prime.

I never thought I'd see a calendar grand slam in my lifetime and still believe this will be the hardest for Spieth - but if he WERE to win this one then the odds on a calendar slam will definitely tumble

Wasn't Tiger sometimes close to odds on in his prime though?

Pubehead must be so fed up right now. Just a matter of time before he loses #1.

http://www.theopen.com/TeeTimes#!/R1

Open tee-times have been released!

A bit mean of them to pair DJ with Spieth!

Some of those photos must have been taken 30+ years ago!

sirbenson wrote:A bit mean of them to pair DJ with Spieth!

Think that's a bit unfair? Think how Faldo must feel being paired with Fowler and Rose!