Hole in, hole out, Portrush is generally acknowledged to pose the sternest test of driving of any championship course in the British Isles. The fairways incline not only to be narrower than what we have come to expect at the sea, but the curving nature of them persistently bedevils us. No small measure of control is required here.JAMES FINEGAN
It was Jim Finegan's books that, along with Herbert Warren Wind's New Yorker essays, that introduced me to the wonders of links golf. We lost him back in 2015, but good of Shack to remind us.
We'll lede with Eamon Lynch's wide angle view of this Open, captured poignantly in this header:
Funny, they don't look Jewish....
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — When Darren Clarke steps to the tee at Royal Portrush at 6:35 a.m. Thursday morning and gets the 148th Open Championship underway, hewill become the first Northern Irishman to fire a shot here and have it universally welcomed.
That observation may be trite, but whistling past the graveyard is a common personality trait among those of us who grew up in Northern Ireland during what we euphemistically called ‘the Troubles.’ And Thursday will be just the latest in a series of days that once seemed so improbable as to be barely worth the dream.
I just can't believe that they're making the old guy get up that early....But back to the serious, recent past:
Even in the darkest of days — and there were many, still etched on the faces of older spectators at Royal Portrush this week — the perception distorted the reality. For much of my childhood, the annual death toll from the conflict hovered around 100, a figure described with callous indifference by one British government official as “an acceptable level of violence.”
One hundred souls. That’s about two days worth of murders in the United States. The threat of violence was more pervasive than the violence itself, metasticizing into every aspect of everyday life. Even today, two decades after the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland retains a slightly sinister air, its people still able to decipher clues about the beliefs of strangers from language or utterances that seem meaningless to the untrained ear.
But that's quite a big number in relation to its population...
And even though I'm a bit more familiar with these political dynamics, I completely missed that it's Rickie that's hardest hit:
But the 148th Open isn’t like the 147 that preceded it of course. If we were at St. Andrews, folks wouldn’t fret about language or symbolism that might cause offense. If we were at Muirfield, TV analysts wouldn’t hesitate to say the course is at the mercy of bombers. If we were at Birkdale, Rickie Fowler would have packed his iconic head-to-toe orange outfit. That’s a politically potent color in these parts. Ricky Elliott, caddie to Brooks Koepka and a Portrush native, gave Fowler a heads up on that long ago.
And if Fowler did wear it? He’d be gently laughed at by people who might assault their neighbors for wearing the same. We fight amongst ourselves. The rest of you are entertainment.
Rickie, perhaps a missed cut would be the safest course of action? Do it for the children of Northern Ireland.
Are you tired of hearing about the two new holes? Shack had this video on Golf Channel yesterday (and how about a hand for your humble blogger, who actually figured out how to embed it?):
One thing I've not heard is whether these holes now become a permanent part of the routing? There's issues for their Valley course, and little use for the old 17th and 18th holes, although like most old links there's never been a range or practice area.
All agree that the old 16th provides a great finishing hole for the links, including the new tee box at altitude. But it comes with a smattering of controversy, or at least the potential therefore:
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Visitors are advised to avoid talk of boundary lines in these parts. But at Royal Portrush there is a problematic, two-shot-inducing boundarylooming as a potential rules and fun spoiler.
A set of freshly painted white stakes down the 18th hole cannot be ignored on a links where there are nature-inspired land forms and an overall sense of possibly a new Open rota favorite that seemingly needs no embellishment. But there is a rationale behind the normally loathsome internal out-of-bounds worth considering. And maybe admiring. Or fearing. Here goes.
Seeking to replicate conditions for member play and the 1951 Open’s most famous shot, the R&A has positioned less-than-subtle white stakes atop a native-grass covered ridgeline down the left side of the 18th hole. The area once supported the barbed wire fence where eventual 1951 winner Max Faulkner drove and, while avoiding entanglement, played a heroic slicing 4-wood out over the boundary to seal his British win.
Ummm Geoff, it was a great shot and all but, given that it happened in the third round, it's a stretch to say that it sealed his win. But as Geoff explains, this could get ugly:
That strategy is sensational and poses a rare risk-reward decision off the British Open’s last tee. With all of the elements put together, this could be the rota’s best finisher. But with the out-of-bounds not actually denoted by a permanent fence, the R&A may face criticism should a seemingly good drive down the left bounce out of bounds and still appear playable.
Not helping matters: the 18th’s left-hand boundary line regularly confronted by members is now the home of a two-story corporate tent. The R&A course setup team made the call to shift the stakes closer to the low ridgeline, maintaining a challenge and fear factor in line with the past Opens here. But at just seven paces from the fairway around 320 yards off the tee and delineating no real property edge like St. Andrews’ Links Road, players will take offense at what looks forced.
The R&A’s efforts in setting up courses is generally lauded by players as the best because the R&A appears unconcerned with scoring. But with a row of white stakes — albeit historically inspired ones — what looks to be a sensational championship in the making could be spoiled by something rulemakers generally hope to avoid: a discussion of boundaries, imagined or otherwise.
C'mon, it's not like balls ever take crazy bounces on links turf....I've got a bad feeling about this, as it seems quite unnecessary. Can't they just put a plaque out there to honor Max Faulkner?
We've flooded the zone on backstopping, but are you up on grandstopping as well? We saw this first a few Opens ago, maybe at Birkdale, but it's really quite brilliant. First, let's let LKD explain:
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The best way to explain “grandstopping,” golf’s latest, greatest rules loophole, is by laying out the following scenario:
You’re a professional golfer, sitting in the middle of the fairway on a long par 4. Front-ish pin, some kind of hazard short — water, perhaps — bunkers left of the green, grandstands surrounding the green long and to the right. Pretend you’ve got something to lose, too. You’re leading the tournament, let’s say, or you’ve got a juicy paycheck on the line. What’s the play?
The hero move is to go straight at the pin, Tin Cup-style. The textbook play is to take your middle-of-the-green club, aim at the bailout zone and try to work something toward the pin. But the smart play is to take an extra club, or two — or three while you’re at it — and pump it long into one of those grandstands. Take your free drop, and finish out. That’s grandstopping.
And it happens way more often than anyone realizes at the highest levels of the game. But the solution turns out to be delightfully simple:
Though it was more emotionally satisfying back in the day, when the drop was from shoulder height.
All Things Ireland - A tad off-point, but it's Ireland's year, so let's go along for the ride....First, this very much delivers on its header:
Golf Life: Links of Ireland throw golfers into unforgettable terrain
Because the dunes are simply bigger in Ireland.... Now, that's not always a great thing for course design, but when it works it becomes other-worldly. They cover the Northern classics, including Beloved Ballyliffin™:
Ballyliffin offers 2 courses, incredible views
After a drive south to the Bishop’s Gate Hotel in Londonderry followed by another hour in the car north to Ballyliffin the next day, I was confronted with an incredible ocean view and two courses on opposite ends of the modern/classic spectrum.The club’s Old Links lives up to billing, playing across rollicking links ground that is anything but flat but that doesn’t climb into the mountainous dunes.
The club’s newer Glashedy Course, meanwhile, looked like a moonscape.A co-worker had told me he preferred the Old Links. That day the older 18 was open only to members, so I can’t provide an opinion on which layout is best.But if the Old Links is better than Glashedy, it must indeed be truly special, because Glashedy was an incredible march into and out of the dunes. Up, down, round and round we went. These are the types of dunes that nature constructed as if the goal was to attract roving golfers looking for modern links thrills. Especially after Ballyliffin’s turn hosting the Irish Open, the tour-bus crowds frequent the two courses, which are more than ready to provide a can’t-miss experience.“We’ve seen about a 25-, 30-percent uplift in visitor bookings since the Irish Open,” said Farren, Ballyliffin’s GM. “When you look at the aerial pictures, it’s a bit of a lunar landscape that we have here. … Because of the constantly changing climate and the constantly changing light, you never get tired of being out there. No two days are the same.”
Well, you know how I feel about the place.... I never get tired of talking about that rumpled linksground on which their Old Links is built.
This Golf.com panel is presented a prisoner's dilemma of the sort that no one should ever face:
When people talk of golf in Northern Ireland, Royal Portrush is often mentioned in the same breath (or at least the same few sentences) as Royal County Down. If someone had a chance to play just one of the two, which would you recommend and why?
Who cares about their answers, you play them both, and maybe each one more than just the once. Oh, and make time for that front nine at Portstewart as well....
RCD is usually the fave of the traveling golfer, as it just looks magical. But it's second nine is decidedly inferior to the first, and Portrush is the superior track in its entirety, especially with the old 17th and 18th removed.
Would now be a good time to share the bad news?
British Open weather often results in a wet, rainy, and cool tournament, and this year’s event at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland appears to be no exception.
The weather forecast for the fourth and final major of the year is calling for rain all four days of the tournament, according to The Weather Channel. Light rain is expected during Thursday’s first round, as temperatures will reach a high of 63 degrees and low of 52 degrees. Light rain is forecasted to continue on Friday, but the low should only be about 54 degrees during the second round.
Light rain is expected to turn into showers during Saturday’s third round as well, with temperatures remaining the same as Friday. Light rain will return for Sunday’s final round and the low temperature will bump up to about 55 degrees. The high for the entire weekend is expected to remain at 63 degrees.
I've also heard that it'll be fairly calm, so scoring conditions should be ideal. This is Rory weather for sure....
This history of the claret jug conflicts with my understanding of the history:
4. The first golfer formally awarded the jug was Tom Kidd, when he won at St. Andrewsin 1873. However, his is not the first name that was engraved on the trophy. Young Tom Morris, winner of the Open for a fourth time in 1872, has his name above Kidd’s out of deference to the fact that the trophy had been commissioned but was not ready when Morris was victorious the previous year. Morris was given a gold medal, which also became an annual award given to the champion.
5. The original claret jug was awarded to 28 different golfers through 1927, when the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews decided to put it on permanent display (well, almost permanent) in its clubhouse along with the original Challenge Belt, which was donated back by the Morris Family. Since then, a full-scale Champions’ replica has been presented to each winner, starting in 1928 with Walter Hagen.
I had always heard that the original Challenge Belt was lost after Young Tom's death....
It's gonna be a great week, folks. I plan to play tomorrow morning, so there will be no blogging possible. I should be back Thursday and Friday, though, so check back early and often.
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