Open Observations

I'm not sure that the Open Championship is my favorite amongst the four majors, but I'm equally unsure that it isn't...I've got some commitment issues, but that's not important now.

We have a few things to discuss related to this august championship that we'll throw together here.

Future Opens:  Future Open Championship venues were announced yesterday, per this AP dispatch

The British Open will return to Royal Birkdale in 2017 and to Carnoustie in 2018.

The Par-3 third at Birkdale.

Both have been part of the rotation for more than 60 years. The announcement Tuesday was more about when they next would stage golf's oldest championship. 

The Open will be at Royal Liverpool this year, followed by St. Andrews in 2015 and Royal Troon in 2016.

It had become quite strange that Opens had not been awarded past 2016, but now that's remedied.  Presumably Portrush will be slotted in for 2019, and back to The Old for 2020.  As Shackelford (and I, though he beat me to post) notes:

Plaque commemorating Arnie's 1961 win at Birkdale.

If you assume Royal Portrush or an English links hosts in 2019, and the Old Course in 2020, this means at least until 2021 for Turnberry.

Remind me, who owns Turnberry these days...

More to the point, these are two of the best courses in the rota, and hopefully the Birkdale Open will provide a boon for friends Paul and Trina who operate the lovely Waterford Hotel in Southport.  No word on whether Carnasty, the toughest damn links you'll ever find, requires a Peter Dawson "treatment" before staging another Open...

For those that like inside baseball, for some reason the announcement was made Tuesday at the Greenbrier, which is, after all, not under R&A jurisdiction.

More Tom:  This was perhaps in deference to Tom Watson, as Doug Ferguson informs:

Tom Watson will get one more chance at St. Andrews in the British Open. 

The R&A on Tuesday extended the exemption of Watson, allowing him to play one more time in 2015 when golf's oldest championship returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews. Watson holds The Open record for winning on five links courses - Carnoustie, Turnberry, Muirfield, Royal Troon and Royal Birkdale. 

But he has never won at the Home of Golf.

He had his chances, as Doug relates:

Watson was tied for the 54-hole lead with Peter Oosterhuis in 1978 at St. Andrews and closed with a 78 as Jack Nicklaus won his third claret jug. His best chance at St. Andrews was in 1984, when he was tied for the lead with two holes to play. He made bogey behind the road on the 17th, while Seve Ballesteros made birdie on the 18th in the group ahead to capture the title.

Didn't remember him in the mix in '78, which was Jack's last Open Championship.  Down the stretch Jack was chasing Now-forgotten Kiwi Simon Owen, with whom he was paired.  In '84 he famously played too much club into the Road Hole, and Seve gave us a fist-pump for the ages on the 18th green.

Glad to see see Tom granted one last walk across the Swilican Bridge, though that's one less spot for a youngster, who might contend, in the field.  Of course it occurs to me that they're just making nice with Cap'n. Tom before beating him like a drum in September...

It Depends on The Meaning of Open: Here's another subject on which I've deferred judgment, the substantive changes to Open Championship qualifying.  Doug Fergus lays out the changes:

The British Open this year decided to scrap its 36-hole qualifiers on the European Tour and PGA Tour in favor of what effectively is 72-hole qualifiers. Four leading players from the top 12 on the leaderboard at Congressional and the Greenbrier earn spots. In Europe, the leading three players from the Irish Open, French Open and Scottish Open get into The Open. The John Deere Classic gets one spot. 

It’s the same amount of qualifying spots as were available last year through both 36-hole qualifiers. 

But it eliminates any chance for Web.com Tour players, or for some of the top college players who turn pro in the summer. The only chance they have to qualify - without a trip across the Atlantic - is to get a spot in the PGA Tour (or European Tour) fields.

This one kind of snuck up on us, didn't it?  As Doug notes, it freezes out the younger players, which seems contrary to the spirit of an Open Championship.  Perhaps I should keep my powder dry until we see who qualifies under this system, but it seems to have the potential to reward so-so finishes in so-so events, as opposed to those that prevail in a grueling 36-hole marathon.  And, as I've harped on endlessly, a series of discreet moves have all conspired to make professional golf into a closed shop.  

Memory Lane:  I was channel-flipping last night and ran across a replay of the final round from the 1977 Open Championship, the famed Duel in the Sun.  Some random observations:

• I remembered that it was played during a very dry, hot summer (Scotland adjusted), but the

  

  Eek, Angelo Argea's pants might be worse than Tom's.

  brownness (I'm hoping that's a word) still took me by surprise.  Strangely enough, the greenest spot on the course was the turf just above the "Wee burn" that fronts the 16th green.  
• The whole world was in short-sleeves, yet Jack wore his yellow sweater all day....what was up with that?
• Watson's green shirt was seared into my memory, but in an act of justifiable repressed memory, I had forgotten about those pants.... We all made some regrettable fashion choices in the 1970's, but those were amongst the worst.
• Just loved the Peter Alliss commentary of the event.  It's not that he never says anything ridiculous, after all they have way too much time to fill, but it' kept to minimum and he allows the play to unfold without excessive intrusion.  Or maybe the inanities just sound better with that mellifluous accent.
• In terms of the outcome, it was Nicklaus's to win until Watson holed un unreal putt from off the green on No. 15.  But the outcome was truly sealed when Jack missed a short birdie putt on No. 17.  What struck me was that Peter Alliss, speaking before they reached the 17th hole, noted that Jack had missed 4-5 short putts that week.  Yowser....That would be 5-6 shorties with the one on No. 17 on Sunday, and Jack still finished ten strokes ahead of Hubert Green in third place.
• Lots of great shots of players form the era, including Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, Lee Trevino and Roger Maltbie.  Maltbie was quite the sight, with a cigarette that never left his hand.  Peter Alliss referred to Malbie as having a "Tragic day," which we probably shouldn't use for anything that happens on a golf course (excepting, of course, when it happens to your humble blogger).
• Theresa, better known to all as Unplayable Lies Employee No. 2, noted that Johnny Miller's hunched-over putting stance was quite similar to Michelle Wie's "Table top."  Good observation, and let me just note that it's about time that she start contributing to the content on the blog.  I can't carry her forever...