Friday Frolics

With the Scottish Open, featuring those epic views of the Moray Firth, in the background, let's catch up on a few items.  I shan't keep you long, as it's far too warm to overly exert ourselves...

Scenes From The Highlands - Have you watched any of it?  It's 110 degrees in the shade, what excuse do you have....

I caught a total of a couple of hours of taped coverage, and it was spectacular....  the open frame showed long, wispy fescue buffeted in the wind, causing a physiological reaction in your humble blogger heretofore only caused by redheads and bacon....  the wind was up and with it the scores, though I could here the locals characterize it as a "wee breeze."  Amusingly, the Euro Tour asked for a mulligan:

INVERNESS, Scotland – In a rare display of contrition, the European Tour admitted to 

Shane Lowry shows his best modern dance moves.

getting the setup at Castle Stuart wrong in Thursday’s first round of the Scottish Open. 

With wind projected up to 30 mph in the afternoon, the gusts routinely exceeded that speed, including a top gust of 43 mph at 4:40 p.m. 

These high breezes came on a day when the greens were running 10.1 on the Stimpmeter.

Combining those factors with the conditions, the European Tour realized in the aftermath that it had erred.

This lad, who grew up in the Highlands, might know whereof he speaks:

“It was a guessing game,” Scotsman Russell Knox said of his afternoon even-par 72. “We were just pulling a club and hoping for the best. It was borderline too windy. I mean, balls were rolling on the green multiple times during the round, but somehow we kept going. It was hard, though. It was really hard. When a par 5 plays driver, 3-wood, 5-iron and I was nowhere near the hole, pretty tough day.”

My viewing was of the morning groups, so I didn't see the worst of it....   But Castle Stuart is hardly Carnoustie, and as long as balls weren't actually moving on the greens, play on.  Given the way these guys devour the Par-5's, this was unusual:

The par 5 about which Knox was referring was the 18th, which measures 607 yards on the card. On Thursday, it played into the wind, with a small landing area off the tee.

Many players decided not to use a driver for fear of losing it right and having to re-tee as many eventually did. 

Other decided that the ideal play was a long iron and then try to get to the green in three from the fairway or rough. 

Either way, the 18th played as the hardest hole on Thursday, with a stroke average of 5.532 that included 14 double bogeys or worse.

But this old guy liked it:

Oddly enough, one player was happy with the setup. Two-time British Open winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland shot 2-under 70, just one stroke off the lead held by Scott Hend and Felipe Aguilar, in the afternoon and was almost giddy with the outcome. 

“I expected some tee boxes moved up – 17, 18 maybe, and 13 – but I was delighted that they didn’t,” Harrington said. “They won’t move them up next week (in the British Open at Royal Troon); that’s for sure. And the fairways here are wide enough. It wasn’t like there was nowhere you couldn’t make a carry. And to be honest, like even 14, I went down the – or is it 13? – I went down the long line off the tee. Still it was only 170 yards to the front of the green.”

Wind is the ultimate test of golf..... and watching the best players in the world manage their way around is a treat.  If you're a fan of Tour pros landing on their arses, and does it ever get old?, give this a look-see: 

This still-frame capture shows him sticking the dismount.

And when it comes to arses, Patrick's is, as they say, better than most.....

Have you ever heard of Ryan Evans?  I hadn't either, but he was the first alternate and made the eight-hour journey on spec:

Chris Wood was a last second scratch, and all of a sudden the unknown is teeing it up with stalwarts of the Euro Tour:

He made the best of it it with a credible 73 in those tough afternoon conditions.

Shack has arrived in the Highlands, and the bastard also got a late-day round in on famed Royal Dornoch.  He posted this photo of the rather modest Dornoch clubhouse:

And we'll need independent corroboration of this #humblebarg:

Remember that discussion of great short Par-3's such as Troon's Postage Stamp?  This one most definitely belongs as well....

Shack will no doubt be publishing a travel guide to the Highlands, and has photos from Cruden Bay and the delightfully-named Lossiemouth as well....Let's hope he ventures up to Brora as well....

The Ladies Have The Stage - Delighted that the ladies have the stage to themselves, though hwat are the odds that anyone can find the coverage on FS1?  Thanks again, USGA, and those incessant commercials about how the rules of golf are evolving aren't the slightest bit ironic.....

But this young lady stole the thunder from the glamour grouping:

One of the charms of the U.S. Women’s Open, if the word charm can ever be used to describe the grueling test of golf the USGA likes to throw at the best players in the world, it’s that the first round always presents surprises. 

Thursday at CordeValle was no exception. No one I talked to all week saw a 64 out there with most caddies telling me they think single-digit under par will be the winning score come Sunday night. 

That may still end up being true, but grabbing the early lead with a U.S. Women’s Open-record eight-under-par 64 was Mirim Lee, a South Korean playing in the U.S. national championship for just the second time. And there was nothing in her T-47 last year at Lancaster Country Club to suggest she’d make noise here.

That Ko-Brooke-Lexi made-for-TV pairing struggled in the tougher afternoon conditions, with the Canuck looking particularly out of sorts.

DJ, Techie - Doug Ferguson posts an interesting profile of the current "It" golfer, and his most excellent use of Trackman:

Johnson wanted it only for his wedges. 

"All I look at it is carry numbers, just so I have more of a feel when I'm on the course and playing," Johnson said. "I felt like that was one area I needed to improve on. I felt like I was good with it, but I was too streaky. One day I'd be perfect, the next day ... not that I hit them bad, I just didn't hit them good enough." 

Now it's perhaps the most underrated part of his game. 

Three years ago, Johnson was tied for 113th on the PGA Tour in approach shots from 50 to 125 yards. 

Now he is No. 1 on tour.

This may be our first post saluting the man's intelligence and work ethic... I'm as shocked as you, but there's a first for everything...

Enjoy your weekend and we'll be all-Troon next week.