What is the best preparation for the Open?

As we all know,at the moment, 2 tournaments are finishing up ahead of the Open (the JD and Scottish Open).

Kwini has provided me with a stat of 19 people playing in the JD are coming over for the Open, with a few more due to withdrawals.

My question is, what do you think is the better way to prepare for the tournament for these guys? Is it to play in the USPGA tour event or to get used to links golf ahead of RSG?

Do you think that with the weather conditions in Inverness, some others are regretting their decision?

And from memory, didnt Tiger miss Loch Lomond a few years ago to play in Ireland instead?

So what do you think is best for the pros of the USPGA?

I would go for some links practice every time, especially for the americans. It's a completely different type of game to what they are used to on parkland courses where the game is all played through the air. Yardages go out the window as well, players need to get used to how far the ball will run on the firm fairways, especially down wind

They are so good that it doesn't seem to matter if they haven't seen a links before. Plenty of people have just turned up and won the Open without much more than a practice round at the venue. Tony Lema won at St Andrews years ago without even a practice round.

Until the R and A stop over watering the courses and find some guts you may as well practice anywhere. It is not like they are playing the links conditions of middle July that you play on a real links course. Last year at TOC I did not see one player have to run a ball up onto the green. Now some of this may be the technology but it is hardly like they are playing real links golf at the open.

George.
I watched Lema win and he was one of very few players who were playing TOC like a local.
I think he had a local caddy and Lema just did as he was told. It may have been Tip Anderson before he linked up with Palmer.

I watched Lema him hit a soft three-quarters 5/6 iron second shot into the road hole green. He held it up into a stiff breeze and the ball hardly moved when it hit the green. The greatest shot I have seen in my life.

even the pros struggle to deal with the mental side of golf ..thats why they all employ phsycos..

getting your head around links golf is all thats required because as a rule they all hit the ball well enough.....a good imagination around the greens helps too

DTW - it was Tip Anderson. Arnold Palmer was injured and didn't play in the 1964 Open Championship. Years later I was lucky enough to play the Old Course when Tip was caddying for another guy in the group. It was wonderful to hear his stories and his observations of the game.

He introduced me to Miss Grainger's bosoms, and the Coffins. Miss Grainger must have been a fine looking woman. I've been looking for one like her for years.

I met Tip a couple of times, he was a real gentleman.

I forgot Palmer missed that Open and I was sure Tip caddied for Lema so I could not get my old brains round that one.
Tip started with Palmer when Neagle beat him in 1960.

I'd go for links preparation every time. No brainer really.
With regard to those that played Castle Stuart this week regretting their choice. No they've had a competitive 54 holes of links golf. In saying that it probably didnt feel quite so linksy today.

Hobo wrote:And from memory, didnt Tiger miss Loch Lomond a few years ago to play in Ireland instead?

Did Tiger EVER play Loch Lomond? I think he usually played in Ireland the week before as a guest of JP McManus and some others.

Not that it matters really. He's not exactly someone who we should be using as a yardstick this year.

Seem to recall Watson (Tom that is) stopping off at Ballybunion the week before the Open - didn't do him any harm.

I would have thought a week at Castle Stuart better than a typical USGA darts course. That said, I'm not sure a 'links' that yields a -19 winning score after 54 holes is that good a piece of preparation either.

navy

in fairness, Castle Stuart isn't really designed as a tournament course, the fairways are virtually unmissable they are so wide. After all the rain, I imagine the greens must have been pretty receptive as well. About the only thing resembling a tournament links is the run off areas around the greens.

drive4show wrote:navy

in fairness, Castle Stuart isn't really designed as a tournament course, the fairways are virtually unmissable they are so wide. After all the rain, I imagine the greens must have been pretty receptive as well. About the only thing resembling a tournament links is the run off areas around the greens.

Why play a big tournament there then? Guess they simply bought the rights to host it for how ever many years. It might be a good, challenging course in a fantastic place for the rest of us but (McDowell excepted ) I'm not that bothered about pros of that ability slaughtering a course; there's no reason to think that if it'd been four rounds, Donald wouldn't have run up something like -25/-26 or so. Somewhat absurd. To be fair, I guess this was the first running of it there so maybe they'll add a few more traps, narrow a few fairways and generally make it more of a challenge for >€550,000 next time.

I guess because money talks. There is a multitude of quality links that could host the SO but with Castle Stuart being so new, they wanted the exposure so they can justify the green fees they are now charging (£160 and they may get even higher!) I agree it could do with toughening up and I'd like to see it happen.

I hate it when I don't find a course challenging

I think the course is one element, the players' preference is another.

Some of the top guys (Westwood, Mickelson for instance) prefer to play competitively the week before a Major, others prefer not to, Tiger for one, though he's compromised now with the switch of Bridgestone dates.

Then there's Stewart Cink who plays Majors as a warm-up for his wins. Clearly Watson and Westwood and others screwed up his plans at Turnberry, but all his other PGA Tour wins have come the week following a Major.

Hopefully the Barclays Scottish Open people will stick with Castle Stuart and ratchet the degree of difficulty up a tad, even if it's not a true links. They'll have better luck with the weather for at least the next hundred years.

To answer the question, I'm sure Stricker, Kyle Stanley, Charlie III and Zacher will love the fact they enjoyed success coming into The Open; those who sloped off to Ireland, Castle Stuart or some other seaside layout, Littlehampton pitch and putt, Hayling, Holywood, will think that's the best route to go.

And then there's Paul Casey who seems to have stopped playing completely.

D4S
Re fairways width.
It was quite amusing to see the last group all miss the widest fairway on the course.

DTW

Was that the 'incident' with GMac having to hole a good putt to avoid double figures?

McLaren wrote:Until the R and A stop over watering the courses and find some guts you may as well practice anywhere. It is not like they are playing the links conditions of middle July that you play on a real links course. Last year at TOC I did not see one player have to run a ball up onto the green. Now some of this may be the technology but it is hardly like they are playing real links golf at the open.

Mac, there's virtually nowhere on TOC where you actually need to do that type of shot, except perhaps the right hand side of the 14th green and the bump in front of the second, and it's nothing to do with watering, because they hardly ever water the course.
It's entirely down to the course being virtually flat, I simply don't understand this obsession with playing a traditional way, it's about getting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. How you do it is down to you.