My current blogging schedule has some limitations, most notably the conflict between our usual Midweek Musings and my regular Wednesday game. I can't actually solve that problem until winter, but I'll throw a few bones your way. Not only will the golf already be underway when I wake up tomorrow, but I have an early session with my trainer.... So enjoy these reads, and I'll see you Friday.
First, I simply don't know why I don't spend more time at The fried Egg, where Andy Johnson interviews the voluble Tom Doak about RSG
You told me that Royal St. George’s is one of your favorites of the Open rota. Tell us a little about the course and what you like about it.Tom Doak: When I lived in the UK in ’82 and ’83, Royal St. George’s was just coming back on the scene. They’d just had the Open there for the first time in like 30 years [32 years, to be exact—Ed.]. The course had been dismissed as being too blind and having too many weird bounces and funky short holes. Like the famous Sahara [3rd] hole that C.B. Macdonald liked so much—they changed it completely because it was an awkward length for modern pros and they couldn’t see where they were going.So some of the course has been changed, but to me the piece of property has more variety than Troon and Carnoustie and Birkdale. There’s just a great variety of dunes. It’s got four- or five-foot up-and-down waves near the clubhouse on the 1st hole and the 18th hole. And that goes into 40-foot dunes on the far end, where the 6th and 4th and 5th holes are. It has everything from flattish ground with a bunch of little ripples to really steep and deep stuff.
This is a point I've made several times already. The pros tend to hate this place, but that opinion isn't binding on the rest of us. They crave predictability, but the charms of RSG (full disclosure, RSG is the one current rota course I've not played) are its quirkiness and use of the large dunes and elevation changes. It sounds more like Cruden Bay than Royal Troon, and that's a very good thing for the rest of us.
The other reason to read the piece is the spectacular photos, including multiple angles for specific holes. I'll just throw in this one of the view from the fourth hole, including the massive Sahara bunker:
There was a lot to unpack in Brooks Koepka's presser, but I'll lead with his architectural criticisms:
“I don't know, it's not my favorite venue that we've played,” he said. “I think Portrush and St.Andrews are definitely the favorites. I haven't seen all 18. I'll see the back nine today. But a couple -- quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing. Fairways are quite undulating. I don't know, it's not my favorite of the rotation, put it that way.”
Most will logically conclude that you might want to see all eighteen before, you know, trashing the joint. It also doesn't sound like he'll do more than one loop before the event starts tomorrow, so adjust your wagers accordingly.
Now, it comes as no surprise that loves Portrush, because his caddie Ricky Elliott is a Portrush boy, and has no doubt sung its praises. But brooks as an admirer of the subtle charms of the Old Course? Yeah, I'm gonna need a little more here before I'm convinced.
Not surprisingly, it was other comments of Brooksie that garnered the pixels, first this on the Ryder Cup:
Q. Is there a point considering that the Ryder Cup is coming up later this year that you have to start getting along with Bryson somehow if you're going to be in the same team in September?
BROOKS KOEPKA: You realise it's only a week, right?
Q. But you are on the same team.
BROOKS KOEPKA: It's only a week. I mean, look, I can put it aside for business. If we're going to be on the same team, I can deal with anybody in the world for a week.
I'm not playing with him. I'm pretty sure we're not going to be paired together; put it that way. I think it's kind of obvious.
Shack added this obligatory snark:
Oh I don’t know, Hal Sutton might have put you two together. Go on…
At this juncture I always feel compelled to remind folks that pairing Tiger and Phil in '04 was no better than the second stupidest thing Hal Sutton did that week.
And, praise the Lord, finally an explanation of what Brooks meant by Bryson going back on his word:
Q. When you explained recently the start of this thing with Bryson, you said that he went back on his word, which is why you sort of -- did you explain what he did? How did he go back on his word? Apologies if you have said that and I missed it. What made you think he had gone back on his word?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it was at -- I said it a couple weeks ago. It was at Liberty. He didn't like that I had mentioned his name in slow play, so we had a conversation in the locker room, and then I guess we said something else in the press conference but didn't mention his name in it, and he walked up to Ricky, said something. It was, You tell your man if he's got something to say, say it to myself. I thought that was ironic because he went straight to Ricky. Ricky told me when I came out, hit a few putts, and then just walked right over to him, we had a conversation. We both agreed we'd leave each other out of it and wouldn't mention each other, just kind of let it die off, wouldn't mention each other's names, just go about it.
So then he decided I guess he was going on that little, whatever, playing video games online or whatever and brought my name up and said a few things, so now it's fair game.
Was that in Bryson's famous online Fortnite adventures? I'm a fan of rivalries and a little bad blood, but this has quickly devolved into the Pettiness Olympics....
This is a fun pairing, though they're missing another embedded issue:
Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith’s Open Championship pairing reignites old drama
This quite obviously references Patrick's Sandgate issue at the Hero World and the subsequent Prez Cup at Royal Melbourne. Who doesn't love this little bit of passive-aggressiveness from the Aussie:
“If you make a mistake maybe once, you could maybe understand but to give a bit of a bulls—response like the camera angle … that’s pretty up there (inexcusable),” Smith said at the time. “I don’t have any sympathy for anyone that cheats. I hope the crowd absolutely gives it to not only him, but everyone (on the American team) next week. I know Pat pretty good and he’s always been nice to me, so I don’t want to say anything bad about him. But anyone’s cheating the rules, I’m not up for that.”
Cam doesn't want to say anything bad about Patrick in the midst of accusing him of being a repetitive cheater... Those Aussies are really great guys, not that I think he's wrong.
But what amuses me is that the third guy in this pairing, an Ulsterman named Rory McIlroy, also has had issues with Mr. Reed. Specifically, that Rory folds up like a cheap card table in Patrick's presence. So, as if Rory hasn't had enough Thursday issues in majors since 2014, he now needs to play well in front of his personal nemesis. A "Featured Group" indeed...
What kind of Open will it be? From these two presser quotes, it'll be more Carnoustie '99 than Hoylake '06:
Rory McIlroy: “The course was quite lush, quite green. We maybe weren't getting the bounces that we're accustomed to getting here at St. George's with the bumpy fairways. Honestly, I think the course plays a little better that way, so I was pleasantly surprised at -- I walked away from the golf course on Saturday and Sunday thinking, this is a much better golf course than I remember it being, and I think that's just because of the way it's playing right now.”
Tommy Fleetwood: “I think what the rain has brought is the rough is pretty thick. If you're going to -- from what I could tell, if you sort of know your lines off the tees and everything, the fairways, they're not like overly tight. You can get some -- obviously the way the bounces work, then it can easily be bouncing off the fairways, but they're not like massively tight. But if you do hit it off line, you're sort of going to be lucky to get a lie a lot of the times. Bad shots are probably going to be punished due to sort of long rough.”
Not your humble blogger's favorite kind of Open, but an Open nevertheless.
That is all time permits today. I'll be back later this week, just not exactly sure when.
No comments:
Post a Comment