The Open Championship

Congratulations to Henrik Stenson!

Thanks sirb,
I received yr note but your inbox won't accept a "private message".

An opening salvo for you SirB.  Feel free to pick and choose for your article:

The 145th edition of the Open Championship sees the R&A return to Royal Troon for the 9th time.  Almost a home from home for American players as Arnold Palmer, Tom's Weiskoph and Watson, Mark Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard, and most recently Todd Hamilton have raised the Claret Jug as Champion Golfer of the Year the last six times the Open has visited Troon.  Calcavecchia was also the first to have won in a playoff under the four hole format.

Troon will be laid out as a par 71, out and back, over 7,190 yards and the back nine was described by Gary Player as "the most difficult in the world when the wind is blowing".  Each hole has had some minor tweaks to prepare for the Championship more significant changes have taken place on the ninth, tenth, and fifteenth holes.  The changes were to largely restore some of their previous characteristics and features.   Troon is also home to the Postage Stamp which is one of the shortest par threes in Major Championship play.  Although it may be short it still has teeth.  German Amateur Herman Tissies managed a fifteen there criss crossing the hole after numerous bunker shots finishing with just one putt.  In contrast a 71 year old Gene Sarazen didn't need a putter in the two rounds he played in 1973; he had a hole in one and then holed a bunker shot for a two the next day.

Zach Johnson is the defending champion having triumphed in a playoff on a Monday at St Andrews.  There are fifteen other winners in the field; Mark Calcavecchia, Darren Clarke, Ben Curtis, John Daly, David Duval, Ernie Els, Todd Hamilton, Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie, Justin Leonard, Sandy Lyle, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Mark O'Meara, and Louis Oosthuizen.  There are two amateurs, Scott Gregory and Stefano Mazzoli, playing for the Silver Medal which will be awarded to the low amateur.

The last four spots are still up for grabs to those in the top twelve at the Scottish Open and at the time of writing Matteo Manassero, Tyrell Hatton, Justin Walters, and Romain Wattel are in prime position to achieve that if they maintain their positions within the top twelve.

Here are some bits from me, nicked from The Open website, the club website and Wikipedia.

1. The first winner at Troon in 1923 won the princely sum of £75 in 1923. (Worth about £3000 today?) This year’s winner will receive £1,175,000. What that is in Euros is something that needs checking daily.
2. There was controversy before the start of the 1923 Open when it was discovered that the clubs of a number of American golfers had holes punched into their faces to help with back spin. Declared illegal, much work was necessary overnight to obtain conforming clubs.
3. Also in 1923 one player had the misfortune to hit a shot out of a bunker, have the ball caught by the wind, fly over his head and land in his jacket pocket.
4. Calcavecchias’ win was notable in that it was the first time a four hole play-off had been used instead of a full round.
5. Todd Hamiltons’ win in 2004 came after a play off. Ernie Els had a putt to win in regulation from 10 - 12 feet but missed. Hamilton became the sixth consecutive American to win the Open.
6. Hamiltons’ career subsequently tailed off – in his subsequent 187 tournaments, he missed the cut 111 times.
7. Gene Sarazen was notable in achieving a hole in one at the Postage Stamp 8th hole in 1973 aged 71 whilst the German Amateur champion Herman Tissies racked up a 15 at the same hole in 1950
8. No Sir Nick Faldo playing this year – he has commentating duties at Sky Sports along with injured Ian Poulter. I wonder what Sky will do to make their coverage different - and hopefully memorable - for the right reasons.
9. Notables to come through Final Qualifying include Colin Montgomerie, Paul Dunne (the amateur who did so well at St Andrews) and Robert Rock. Luke Donald qualified due to his position on the OWGR when others withdrew. A fine win by the 42 year old Greg Chalmers at the Barracuda Championship ensured his place, when the Greenbrier Classic was washed out and the qualifying position was transferred.
10. Scott Gregory is the British Amateur Champion making his debut; no place for the US Amateur Champion as Bryson DeChambeau has turned professional and not qualified.

kwinigolfer wrote:Thanks sirb,
I received yr note but your inbox won't accept a "private message".

Thanks Kwini, noted! Will it still not accept them as of now? I changed a setting!

Nope,
LadyPutt had the same issue a month or two ago; not sure what she did to rectify.

Yes I did and I'm sorry to say I can't remember what I did! I got some advice from LL Cool Nay so he might see this and come to your assistance.

See the post above about PMs!

So who's going? I have a ticket for the Sunday but can't make it, going to go Thursday now instead. If anyone wants a Sunday ticket PM me making me an offer.

Had a look at the Troon scorecard and crikey, there are some hellishly long par 4's.
Look out for a long hitter with a low trajectory for this.

Hate to say it, bit this could be could for the likes of Fat Shane.

super_realist wrote:Had a look at the Troon scorecard and crikey, there are some hellishly long par 4's.
Look out for a long hitter with a low trajectory for this.

Hate to say it, bit this could be could for the likes of Fat Shane.

Doesn't look like the weathers going to be especially cruel, how much rain has Ayrshire had in the past 2-3 weeks? i.e. how soft or fiery are the fairways going to be? I was looking at the players who performed well in the more testing conditions on Thurs at CS. The weekend was benign and with CS being such a different test from Troon it didn't really offer many clues plus a lot of the main protagonists gave the Scottish a miss.

McDoo hits a low trajectory and seems to have a bit of form, Brandon Grace is another that looked good early on but faded at the weekend. Of the ones who chose to miss CS, the big 3-4 won't be far away, Ricky is another who can shape the ball. For some obscure reason Troon always seems to turn up an American so "Top 5" perhaps?

I saw something, somewhere, I know not very authorative and shades of bloke down pub told me, that said there had been some rain in the last couple of weeks which had softened the course a little, the rough was fair, so it might favour the long hitter.  However, I have spent the last 20 minutes or so trying to find the source of that information to no avail so I could just be making that up.

*** Each hole has had some minor tweaks to prepare for the Championship more significant changes have taken place on the ninth, tenth, and fifteenth holes. ***

There have been quite a lot of changes. The 15th is the one where most work has taken place. The fairway has been routed left of its old route. I have long experience of Troon and I played it again in May. It was pretty firm then, and although there has been some rain in the last few weeks, I think it's still going to be quite firm.

As Gary Player said, the back nine is as tough a nine as I have ever played if there's any significant wind from the west or south west. And although the sandhill on the 10th has been changed a bit, the drives at the 10th and 11th are probably the two scariest shots on the Open rota.

Just had a look at the Open website (again). Looked at the form if you wanted to compete (For all qualifying and the Championship). Don't know if it is standard to do so, but you have to list the make, model and any markings of your clubs.

That would be to ensure they are on the conforming list, INW. square grooves and COR limitations have been introduced in the last ten years or so

I'm never wrong wrote:Just had a look at the Open website (again). Looked at the form if you wanted to compete (For all qualifying and the Championship). Don't know if it is standard to do so, but you have to list the make, model and any markings of your clubs.

That's the same as any R&A event. Your clubs get checked as well.

Day/Willett/Fowler
D.Johnson/Kaymer/Knox
Spieth/Rose/Lowry
McIlroy/Matsuyama/Watson

Some of the Open tee times!

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

Loving the 40 somethings 3 ball of LW, Figjam and Ernie!

Spieth/Rose/Lowry looks a good group

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:That would be to ensure they are on the conforming list, INW. square grooves and COR limitations have been introduced in the last ten years or so

George1507 wrote:That's the same as any R&A event. Your clubs get checked as well.

Thanks chaps. These nuggets of information are interesting to me. That's why I prefer the TV coverage to stay with a player when they are asking for a rules decision, for example, rather than an interview with a golfer.

Davie wrote:Spieth/Rose/Lowry looks a good group

In the old BBC Tiger slot at just gone 9

Did any of you see Sky's first preview show of the week?

Quite good!

Not sure if you can call Grace an outsider like McGinley did!

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:I saw something, somewhere, I know not very authorative and shades of bloke down pub told me, that said there had been some rain in the last couple of weeks which had softened the course a little, the rough was fair, so it might favour the long hitter.  However, I have spent the last 20 minutes or so trying to find the source of that information to no avail so I could just be making that up.

Going with Ayr racecourse today, was running soft. I would imagine Troon will be on the soft side.

Saw in the paper this morning that Sky will allow anyone to see the first day's play.

It's certainly free to non Sports subscribers. Being shown on Sky1 -not sure if that is freeview or not.

Sky Sports are on air from 6:30am though - as I've predicted all along. BBC coverage always began about 9am

I understood it was only free to air for those with a Now TV box or online access to Sky.com?

"Telegraph Sport has learnt that the pay-TV broadcaster, which snatched the live rights to golf’s oldest major from the BBC last year, is making Thursday’s action available online or to anyone with access to its NOW TV platform without them having to pay a fee."

It's definitely on Sky One so those who have a Sky sub but not a Sports sub can see it on Day 1.

Kwini, what US Channels are screening the Open as there are ways for us UK people to see US TV channel
Also, do you know if Peter Alliss is working for any of the US coverage now that he is redundant from live BBC coverage.

EmmDee,
Golf Channel and NBC, both for the first time, are on duty at Troon. Miller & Feherty trying to one-up each other no doubt.
Almost certain that Alliss will make a token Golf Channel appearance but doubt if it will be commentary as such, just a cameo. He'll say one or two politically incorrect things and be moved swiftly back under wraps until the following day I imagine.

Thanks Kwini. Do they share coverage or does NBC take the prime time coverage? The Golf Channel is easy enough to find and get a steady stream but what NBC channel? Is it just called "NBC"?

The best thing about the BBC coverage was listening out for Alliss making an inappropriate comment

Not sure how they'll split the coverage. If their dry run at Castle Stuart is anything to go by, Golf Channel will handle play Rounds 1 & 2 and weekend play (your time) until about 3.00 p.m. on Saturday & Sunday, then throw it over to NBC. Imagine NBC commentators might share the Rounds 1 & 2 with Golf Channel, but not really sure.

Got to say I'm impressed with Sky's coverage already and the real stuff hasn't even started. Good analysis on the course and the various holes, players on the range, coverage of the practice round tomorrow. We never got this on the BBC

You cant compare what Sky can show to what BBC could show, as Sky have the ability to show a lot more. They have 6 dedicated sports channels.

I did enjoy the preview show last night, quite like Claude Harmon.

If the BBC wanted to, it could easily have rivalled Sky for the big sporting events.
Last week at Wimbledon you could pick from something like 15 matches at any time, that's more than equivalent to Sky's 6 channels.
Unfortunately, Golf is not as popular as tennis. So few people watch it in Britain compared to Wimbledon, hence why they got rid.

I would have liked them to keep it, but if it makes no sense it makes no sense.

beninho wrote:You cant compare what Sky can show to what BBC could show, as Sky have the ability to show a lot more. They have 6 dedicated sports channels.

I did enjoy the preview show last night, quite like Claude Harmon.

That argument no longer holds water with digital TV. Maybe back in the analogue days when they only had 2 channels.

remember it's a damn sight easier (and cheaper) to cover 2 sweaty fat lads on a court as opposed to a full field of honed athletes covering many acres.

super_realist wrote:If the BBC wanted to, it could easily have rivalled Sky for the big sporting events.

Really?

Can you imagine the anti BBC brigade being ok with them spending billions on the EPL rights?

Davie wrote:

beninho wrote:You cant compare what Sky can show to what BBC could show, as Sky have the ability to show a lot more. They have 6 dedicated sports channels.

I did enjoy the preview show last night, quite like Claude Harmon.

That argument no longer holds water with digital TV. Maybe back in the analogue days when they only had 2 channels.

The bbc had 7 channels in total on digital tv. 2 kids channels, 2 channels after 7pm (now 1) which I think had restrictions on what could be shown and then BBC1/2. So its an argument that still holds water, even more so since they had to shut one down.

Rory McIlroy on skipping Olympics: "I didn't get into golf to try and grow the game. I got into golf to win championships and win majors."

Shouldn't it be the responsibility of a top player to grow the game though?

I'm guessing people get into sport because they like that sport, and if good enough they want to win the biggest events. But every professional sportsmen should have the responsibility to grow his game.

Why don't they just admit they don't fancy going to Brazil for no cash, when they can win bucketloads in the fedex cup.

So an Olympic gold medal doesn't count as 'winning championships' ?

pedro wrote:So an Olympic gold medal doesn't count as  'winning championships' ?

An excellent summation.

I'm never wrong wrote:
2. There was controversy before the start of the 1923 Open when it was discovered that the clubs of a number of American golfers had holes punched into their faces to help with back spin. Declared illegal, much work was necessary overnight to obtain conforming clubs.

INW, Thanks for your post. Enjoyed. I found item #2 very interesting as I never heard that anecdote before. Gives some context about the legend of Gene Sarazen and the invention of the sand wedge in 1932. It was said that he hid the club during practice rounds because he didn't want tournament officials to outlaw it.

As far as US TV goes, Golf Channel has wire-to-wire coverage on Thursday/Friday from 6:30 am - 9 pm BST.

and on the weekend GC has early coverage from 9 am to Noon BST and NBC picks up the primary coverage from Noon until the end of weekend rounds.

I think Rory will quickly regret his "grow the game" comment. Would imagine that's exactly what he'll do when he feels he's ready to.

Looking back at past Troon Open, no-one really competitive left from 1989 (sorry Sandy, Calc, etc) when a certain D.Feherty was T6, but a fair few played in 1997. Here's a sample of the more relevant amongst those who finished behind Leonard, Clarke and Parnevik (each of the three would feel they had great chances to win):

4th: Furyk
T5: Harrington
T10: Westwood, Els
T24: Mickelson
T38: Vijay
T61: Stricker
MC: Howell

If Shotrock is reading:
A past Genny Open winner, Wayne Westner, narrowly missed the cut. From Higby Hills days if I remember rightly.

Another interesting Rory comment regarding drug testing in golf
       
         "I could take HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and get away with it"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/36774868

Rory seems to be dominating the day's news about the Open. Talking about how little he's been drug tested, Rose talking up his chances and taking 6 to get out of a bunker.

Crucially he would't get away with sniffing deer antler.

Seems like Rory has done an about face on "growing the game" since April

https://twitter.com/RyanBallengee/status/752877704349876224

And the 2004 leaderboard behind Play-Offers Hamilton and Els included:

3rd: Mickelson
4th: Westwood
T11: Clarke
T20: Casey & Vijay
T42: Scott
Missed Cut, lowest scores first: Donald, Furyk, Harrington, Garcia, Zach Johnson, McDowell,Colsaerts, Howell, Oosthuizen,

Amazing how the guard has changed since then.

Interestingly enough Charl Schwartzel has switched from Nike to PXG, apart from the monetary benefit, what advantage could he gain at a major by switching brands?

Kwini

Someone clearly p*ssed mcilroy off.

He went on to say.

"“I’m very happy with the decision I made. I have no regrets. I’ll probably watch the Olympics. But I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I watch.”"


Not sure he has any regrets about dissing the olympics.

Quite bizarre to criticise your own sport in a press conference but hey Nick Kyrgios also does it! I suppose just cause you're good a sport doesn't mean you need to love it.