The Open Championship

First topic message reminder :

Congratulations to Henrik Stenson!

nope patrick will!

Porteous made two eagles in his first 6 holes!

Kwini
It still looks like Wood is playing!

Yup, Wouldn't put a lot of faith in Wood finishing, but beware the injured golfer!

Matt Jones has got a touch of the Scott Piercys.

Good finish by Harrington . . . . . . .

Do you mean Matt Jones is a tad cocky?

I mean he's putting together consecutive double bogeys. Piercy is a very heavy touch cocky!

Wonder how Casey & Na like being grouped together?

Today maybe a day Na is more popular than a fellow player in the same group!

Haven't been watching it all - has Charl or Casey done something untoward?

Perfect day for golf.

Nope, I just don't think Casey is that popular amongst his peers? Don't you think?

Casey, Na, Schwartzel all doubled 11!

Aah, Don't really know about Casey - quite possible that he's more popular in the States than in GB. When I've followed him with US partners he's seemed to get on well with them; certainly goes through caddies at Allenby-like pace though.

Great round from Tony Finau, my brother backed him @300/1 at the start of the week!

kwinigolfer wrote:Aah, Don't really know about Casey - quite possible that he's more popular in the States than in GB. When I've followed him with US partners he's seemed to get on well with them; certainly goes through caddies at Allenby-like pace though.

He does doesn't haha! Interesting to see how long he stays with John Mclaren

Jeez, Faldo talks a lot of rubbish

FIGJAM making it happen at the moment ... Jason Day not so much.

Wood retires.

254 for mickelson

How on earth did that miss from Phil! So close to the elusive 62 in a major

He is box office Phil Mickelson, what a legend!

That's a fine looking leaderboard!

Shotrock wrote:That's a fine looking leaderboard!

Indeed! Jason Day the only top 10 player over par today!

Hopefully they get difficult conditions tomorrow!

Chris Wood's w/d will be a black eye for his Ryder Cup chances, bad news being injured for The Open and, possibly, the PGA.

Fitzpatrick and McDowell also doing themselves no good at all.

kwinigolfer wrote:Chris Wood's w/d will be a black eye for his Ryder Cup chances, bad news being injured for The Open and, possibly, the PGA.

Fitzpatrick and McDowell also doing themselves no good at all.

If Chris Wood does make the team will Darren Clarke make him play a round to prove he is fit like Seve did to Miguel Martin?

If the right guys come to play this week and the next couple, it will become a moot point.

Monster putting from Mickelson.  Most of his birdies seemed to be in the 15 to 20 foot range.

https://twitter.com/TheOpen/status/753707354508632064

Pin Positions for RD 2

Ben Curtis with a 10 on the third hole

What a hacker

Will that be the highest score of the week haha?

sirbenson wrote:Will that be the highest score of the week haha?

Doubt it, Sandy Lyle still has 18 holes to play.

sirbenson wrote: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?

No, in the same way as it shouldn't be the expectation that a top footballer should be any sort of 'role model'.

navyblueshorts wrote:

sirbenson wrote: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?

No, in the same way as it shouldn't be the expectation that a top footballer should be any sort of 'role model'.

Not a valid comparison at all. Expecting a footballer to be a "role model" is expecting him to make a moral stance in the way a child should live their lives (unrealistic). Expecting a top golfer to help grow the game is asking him to be mindful and assist in the development of his own profession - not at all unrealistic

The Brutal weather has yet to come...

Football is also a lot more popular than Golf, so I can't see the valid comparison in growing sports...imo

super_realist wrote:

sirbenson wrote:Will that be the highest score of the week haha?

Doubt it, Sandy Lyle still has 18 holes to play.

Not a fan of Sandy I take it haha!

Mickelson now four clear.....real break for the morning starters!

Davie wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

sirbenson wrote: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?

No, in the same way as it shouldn't be the expectation that a top footballer should be any sort of 'role model'.

Not a valid comparison at all. Expecting a footballer to be a "role model" is expecting him to make a moral stance in the way a child should live their lives (unrealistic). Expecting a top golfer to help grow the game is asking him to be mindful and assist in the development of his own profession - not at all unrealistic

Reasonable point I guess. I still agree with McIlroy though. If he (and others) wins big events (Open, U.S. Open etc), he grows the game in the same way as Woods did. What happens if an Indian or Chinese wins, say, The Open? I suggest that'll do more than the Olympics ever could for golf in areas where it has huge room to grow. Golf in the Olympics is an anachronism and should never have been given the green light.
I also don't care that Tennis takes the Olympics more seriously now. Tennis was never about winning an Olympic gold medal, in the same way that golf isn't. Tennis just takes up a space for a more deserving sport (i.e. squash) to be staged at the Olympics.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SkySportsGolf/status/753878085582200832 Casey with a five putt

Isn't growing the game something players get into towards the end of their careers when they're thinking of their legacy. I'm thinking Nick Faldo and his series and the likes of Paul Lawrie and the work he does with young players. Surely it's unrealistic to expect a 20 something towards the top end of the game to not be focused on being the best they can.  They might start a foundation or something similar which would help with their tax bill but it might not be specific to golf.

In the context of Rory's comments towards the Olympics there's a whole other debate to be had on the merits positive or otherwise but, I heard Mickelson when asked about playing state "that he didn't grow up thinking this putt to win the gold medal it was this putt to win the US Open". He did go onto to say he was changing the schedule to see if he could improve his ranking sufficiently to qualify. I suppose we will never know if he would have gone or withdrawn.

Personally I don't think golf should be in the Olympics and between the ruling bodies and the respective tours they have ballsed it up by asking too much of the players in a Ryder Cup year. Condensing the summer and pitting the tours against one another was stupid and may mean that they have bolloxed up the chances to get it right next time.

No golfer has a responsibility to "grow" the game, that's the responsibility of the governing bodies.

No golfer has a responsibility to play in any tournament if he doesn't want to.

super_realist wrote:No golfer has a responsibility to "grow" the game, that's the responsibility of the governing bodies.

No golfer has a responsibility to play in any tournament if he doesn't want to.

Fair enough but should he insult his own sport? And why did he use Zika as an excuse when he clearly never wanted to play!

super_realist wrote:No golfer has a responsibility to "grow" the game, that's the responsibility of the governing bodies.

No golfer has a responsibility to play in any tournament if he doesn't want to.

Fair enough but should he insult his own sport? And why did he use Zika as an excuse when he clearly never wanted to play!!

As posted yesterday, Rory already does more to grow the game than any other golfer his age . . . . . . as Grumps suggests, the attention for the fiasco should be on the administrators, not the golfers.


Was wondering why no-one else was picking Casey in our fanto games. Now I know. Jeez, only missed one green today in 11 holes and 23 putts already. Guess his "won't join the European Tour" charade was just that.
EDIT: Yikes, Just saw Casey's 5-putt on 7, ugly stuff.

sirbenson wrote:

super_realist wrote:No golfer has a responsibility to "grow" the game, that's the responsibility of the governing bodies.

No golfer has a responsibility to play in any tournament if he doesn't want to.

Fair enough but should he insult his own sport? And why did he use Zika as an excuse when he clearly never wanted to play!

How did he insult golf by saying it's not a "sport" that belongs there?

Yes, he shouldn't have hid behind "zika", but he's entitled to have an express an opinion about golf's inclusion in an event in which it would look out of place.

At least he has spoken out now, and he should have done an Adam Scott and done it right away, but the likes of Vijay Singh, who surely isn't looking at having any children at his age is also hiding behind it and no one seems to give a toss about him.

Good on rory, tell it like it is and give the knobs in the governing bodies a bloody nose. It needed said.

Phil's lag putting has been fantastic and also holing several decent putts!

super_realist wrote:

sirbenson wrote:

super_realist wrote:No golfer has a responsibility to "grow" the game, that's the responsibility of the governing bodies.

No golfer has a responsibility to play in any tournament if he doesn't want to.

Fair enough but should he insult his own sport? And why did he use Zika as an excuse when he clearly never wanted to play!

How did he insult golf by saying it's not a "sport" that belongs there?

Yes, he shouldn't have hid behind "zika", but he's entitled to have an express an opinion about golf's inclusion in an event in which it would look out of place.

Well my criticism is the fact he did hide behind the Zika factor as an excuse when he never wanted to play or tbh he never wanted to represent Ireland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p041gf86


Here's a good explanation. People are entitled to give reasons and change that reason.

Is there a more painful sight in golf than Stenson's putting stroke?

Beef would be right up there if he could keep those 7's off his card . . . . .

Mac, Is that how Henrik got into 2nd place?

Soren doing his Ryder Cup chances no harm. Steady player.