Thursday At The Open

The grounds on which golf is played are called links being the barren, sandy soil from which the sea has retired in recent geological times. In their natural state links are covered with long, rank, bent grass and gorse…links are too barren for cultivation; but sheep rabbits, geese and professionals pick up a precarious livelihood on them.

WALTER SIMPSON

How great to wake up to golfers on the course at Birkdale and flags flapping in the wee breeze....  A quick scan shows it to be middle ground conditions, lots of sweaters and vests.  No ski hats seen yet, but neither are any bare arms visible...

Annoyingly, the audio has been out of sink with the video, with the sound of contact preceding the visual.  I suspect the issue is more local, affecting the Bushnell ads as well as the coverage...

The R&A loves its history, and gave Mark O'Meara, who won at Birkdale in '98, the honor of hitting the opening tee shot of the championship, and the Hall of Famer rose to the occasion:

SOUTHPORT, England — The opening tee shot of any tournament might rattle the nerves of most players, but what about being the guy to lead off the entire tournament? 

That was Mark O'Meara's job at about 6:35 a.m. local on Thursday at Royal Birkdale, kicking off the 146th British Open. But this one was far from memorable for 1998's Open winner at Birkdale. O'Meara bombed it out of bounds right and made a quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 opener, which is one of the course's most difficult holes.

A breakfast ball anyone?  

Apparntly Justin Thomas was the only guy to like Tommy's Honour, as he's out there playing in this get-up:

Brandt Snedeker's surprisingly strong history in the event garnered him some fantasy love, though an undisclosed rib industry forced him to WD.  James Hahn, last scene celebrating Kevin Na's ace in a practice round is the beneficiary...  A just reward for making the trip as first alternate.

When last we heard from R&A majordomo Martin "Golden" Slumbers, he was crowing about the increasing selectivity of the broadcast audience, as well as uncharitably trashing his former broadcast partner.  The artist known as Tweeter Alliss has his own take on that:

So, he's a subject-matter expert....

Unlike our USGA, Slumbers seem willing to accept the input via his lyin' eyes:

For the first time since the R&A and the U.S. Golf Association released their Joint Statement of Principles in May 2002, the governing bodies are seeing an uptick in

driving distance on the major professional tours in the first half of 2017. The gains might be significant enough for golf’s leaders to take a hard look at the rules. 

The level of the movement is unknown, and Slumbers was careful not to suggest that is an issue. During the past 14 years, when the R&A and USGA have released their studies on distance, they have indicated that distance increases were not a concern. 

“If you look at the data over the last 18 months, we are seeing this year movements, only halfway through the year,” said Slumbers, who has headed the R&A since late 2015, during the organization’s annual news conference at the British Open. “We will take a full look at the end of the year, and then come back and make sure we analyze and think about it very carefully.”

It's noteworthy that he dares to address the B-word":

Slumbers said it would be counterproductive to take the technology away from new and amateur golfers, so he is ready to consider alternatives. 

“When we look at all the options we’ve got, it [bifurcation] will have to be one of the options we look at,” Slumbers said. “Whether that’s the right thing to do, who knows the answer. Up to date, we have had a view of one set of playing rules, one set of equipment rules, and I think that served our game extremely well, but we must make sure we get the skill and technology right, as a balance for the good of the overall game.” 

Next up will be the analysis of the 2017 driving statistics. If change is significant in driving distance, then 2018 could be the year when bifurcation, the ugly word in golf, becomes attractive.

It's interesting that so many of our modern issues, distance as well as balls moving on the greens, come to the fore at the oldest professional championship on the golf calendar.  We will see a major this week in which few drivers will be utilized, whereas the ability of effectively wield the big-dog has always been considered part of the necessary examination of skill.

Bob Harig dives into the issue of whether length matters:

SOUTHPORT, England -- Of golf's four majors, the Open has evolved into the one where length is not such an overriding key to prosperity. Sure, it helps. But in some

cases, it is of no advantage and can even hurt. 

For every big-hitting Champion Golfer of the Year such as Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, there is a Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton or Stewart Cink. The tournament seems to play no favorites when it comes to long or short hitters. 

"Length isn't that important,'' said swing instructor Pete Cowen, who works with, among others, defending champion Henrik Stenson and played in two Opens himself at Royal Birkdale. "You can hit a stinger 2-iron that'll reach 240 [yards] and run to 300. If you can do that, why not put it 300 yards down the middle?''

It all depends....  On both the venue and the year.  As for the latter, compare Hoylake '06 to Hoylake '14....  Tiger won by famously hitting one driver all week, whereas Rory won by dominating with his driver.   

And St. Andrews differs from most of the other venues, as most of the trouble can be carried with the big dog these days.....

Now Birkdale has more doglegs than other rota courses, so Bill Haas frames the issue well:

"You can play as safe as you want, but then your next shot is that much tougher to the green,'' said Bill Haas, whose tie for ninth last year at Royal Troon was his best Open finish. "Can you compete by hitting short irons off tees? Yes. But I remember Louis Oosthuizen when he won at St. Andrews [in 2010]. He hit driver everywhere. Just piped it. He hit sand wedge into every hole. No wonder he won.

But this is true as well:

"I think length is always a factor,'' said Brendan Steele, a two-time PGA Tour winner. "If you're playing a short golf course and you hit it a long way, and you get to hit 4-iron off the tee instead of 3-wood, it still should be an advantage, right?

It's always an advantage, just a matter of degree.....

Rory is drawing some ink for these comments:

“I want to win this week. I don’t need to win,” he said. “A second Open Championship isn’t going to change my life. But I want to win. I’m still as ambitious now as I was starting off my career, if not more so now because I know what I’ve achieved and I know what I can achieve. So it only makes you want to do that even more.”

Throwing fuel on Elk's fire?  I do get the distinction he's making, but it would sound better if he had been at all relevant this year.  

Lastly, it seems like we'll be getting some authentic Open weather:

There will be considerable wind and rain during the championship and it’s likely that the winner, as usual, will come from the side of the draw that played in the best weather conditions over the first two rounds. 

According to The Open weather forecast, Thursday should produce “a damp start but soon brightening up for, or soon after the start of play with much fresher conditions arriving.”

The afternoon should be clear with spells of sunshine then turn cloudier in the evening with a 30 percent chance of showers. Winds will gust up to 20-25 miles per hours and the maximum temperature will be 65 degrees. 

Friday’s second round will be cloudy and windy with heavier spells of rain expected throughout the day. Wind gusts will hover around 15-20 mph with an occasional gust coming from up to 30 mph. Temperatures will hover around the low 60s.

For the weekend, the report says, “changeable with a mixture of sunny spells and showers, perhaps heavy at times.”

Enjoy the golf.  I'll be back as circumstances permit.