Open Championship Micro-Blogging

When last we met, I neglected to consider how busy the late-week calendar is, including tomorrow's Play for P.I.N.K. fundraiser.  I've got ninety minutes right now, so let's use it productively, with early day USA coverage as my soundtrack.

Wither Tiger - Golf.com convenes its daily Tour Confidential panel to consider the Big Cat's prospects:

The 150th Open Championship begins on Thursday, and for the first time since May and the PGA Championship, we’ll see Tiger Woods. He’ll be playing his favorite course and at a place he’s won twice. But can Woods actually contend? What’s your prediction for him this week?

Sean Zak: He’s shown an impressive ability to make the cut this year, and I’d expect the same thing to happen this week. And a better finish on the weekend, too. But contention? Nah. T34.

James Colgan: Agreed, Zak. I think it’s reasonable to expect Tiger’s best performance of 2022 this weekend. As for what that looks like? Sign me up for T8, and a whole lot of watery eyes when he crosses Swilcan on Sunday.

Alan Bastable: His game can certainly contend — he’s still one of the planet’s best iron players, and with as fast and firm as Ye Olde Course is playing, Woods’ guile will put him in good stead. I do fear for his body, though. His ever-so-ginger dismount of the Swilcan Bridge the other night gave me pause. He looked sore and shaky. Still, Tiger gonna Tiger: solo 21st.

Josh Sens: The mind is still willing, which in Tiger’s case is plenty to make the cut. But I think we’d need more severe weather, and for Woods to get the good side of the draw on it, for him to come close to winning this thing. Without wild conditions, there are going to be too many big guns in the mix for Tiger to outfire them all.

Nick Piastowski: I’ll go the optimistic route and say he finishes top 10. I’ve mentioned here it before, but I think that if Tiger is signing himself up to play, he’s believing that he can contend. And I like that confidence.

Josh Berhow: Given his play since his return, I just don’t see him having a great week here. I know he’s got great history, it’s an easier, flat (relatively speaking) walk for him, and that he’s been working up to this all year, but I just don’t see it — at least given all the evidence we have to look at. He won’t be in contention, and I’m not sure he makes the cut. I think he’ll miss it, barely.

Luke Kerr-Dineen: The funny thing about Tiger Woods, both this week and frankly every major he’s playing in, is that he’s facing the opposite problem to everyone else. Put him down the stretch with a few holes left, and that extra pressure will probably help him. He’s still Tiger Woods in the mind and heart, after all. He can still beat anyone. The problem is getting Tiger to that point, which I just can’t see happening. He’ll make the cut, then throw in one rusty round where he can’t get anything going and his body doesn’t feel great. Low end of the top 25 sounds about right.

They've pretty much covered the range of mathematical possibilities, yet I can't help but think that they're suffering from a case of tunnel vision. 

Not sure why they didn't include this guy on the panel:

Few have a better sense of how Tiger is doing than Fred Couples, a longtime friend who used to have Tiger’s caddie Joey LaCava as his own sidekick.

Speaking during his Fred Couples Radio Show on Sirius XM on Wednesday, Couples gave a window into the state of Tiger’s game and this ringing endorsement: “I talk to him every night and when he tells me things, you know, some are top secret. But when he talks about his game, he says, ‘I am driving it really, really well. I’m putting well.’ And again, at St. Andrews, if he does his deal, he’s one of the best iron players to ever play, if not the best. And if he’s not striping four irons into par fours, but he’s got nines and wedges, I honestly think he knows that he can win this thing.”

 Stop it, y'all!  The man's a cripple and you got your miracle in 2019....

And yet, it is all setting up rather perfectly for the guy, no?  Though I suspect he'd prefer those early week wind forecasts, but the firm turf is right up his alley, as are the warm temperatures.  I don't expect that he'll have a full four days of grind in him, but I've been surprised that the word "Hoylake" hasn't come up more often this week, given the obvious parallel in course conditions.  Though, per Geoff, I'm not the only one seeing that connection:

After his press conference, I asked Tiger if this is the firmest he’s ever seen the Old Course. He pondered, looked up briefly to recount his five previous appearances and said, “Yes…here. Not in the Open.”

He smiled. “Hoylake’s still the firmest.”

Tiger had a lot to say of interest at that link, but did you catch how gingerly he stepped off the Swilican Bridge during Monday's festivities.  I hadn't considered this aspect of it:

On crossing Swilcan Bridge: “I tell you what, honestly, now I've got to be a little more careful with spikes on on that bridge. I don't quite have the agility that I used to. I almost ate it today.”

There's no avoiding it, so let's hope he has to traverse it at least four more times...

LIVing The Dream - It won't go away, though Martin Slumbers certainly drew a line in the sand on behalf of the R&A.

Martin Slumbers opened the R&A media conference by making a strong statement against the

Saudi-backed LIV Golf League and doubled down under relentless and eventually, tedious, questioning.

“I firmly believe that the existing golf ecosystem has successfully provided stable pathways for golfers to enter the sport and develop and realize their full potential,” he said in prepared remarks delivered without any other committee members present.

“Professional golfers are entitled to choose where they want to play and to accept the prize money that's offered to them. I have absolutely no issue with that at all. But there is no such thing as a free lunch. I believe the model we've seen at Centurion and Pumpkin Ridge is not in the best long-term interests of the sport as a whole and is entirely driven by money. We believe it undermines the merit-based culture and the spirit of open competition that makes golf so special.”

That's actually fairly direct, and compares favorably to the wishy-washiness of Mike Whan.

 And appropriately calling BS on the infidels:

Slumbers also sounded genuinely offended by “grow the game” references and made clear—bless him—that pro golf is not the game, the 70 million or so golfers and the courses they play are.

“I would also like to say that in my opinion the continued commentary that this is about growing the game is just not credible and if anything, is harming the perception of our sport which we are working so hard to improve. I have often talked about the 99 percent who play golf for love. And I believe that the vast majority of the 70 million-plus golfers do so because of the values of golf, which to me are integrity, personal responsibility, and respect.”

Under questioning, Slumbers suggested the R&A will review qualification and that led to some spirited moments over standards and the Official World Golf Ranking.

Also calling BS on a certain shirtless Aussie:

There was plenty more but this is a newsletter about the majors and I’m getting sleepy just thinking about the First World dreariness of it all. I did enjoy this on Greg Norman’s non-invite this year out of fear the Shirtless one would

“Greg hasn't been here since 2010. He didn't come in 2015. In fact, it's many years since he's even been to The Open. So there would have been another reason for that.”

Ya think?  The funniest bit, of course, being Norman's vainglorious assertion that he should, for reasons unclear to mortal men, be allowed to play in the event.  because he's still big, it's just the shotgun tournaments have gotten small....

The Course -  It's the most analyzed real estate in golf (with the possible exception of Augusta National), yet one feels that it's hard to appreciate from a distance.  But this feature is well worth your time as you watch play:

British Open 2022: A deep-dive look at the subtle but ongoing evolution of the Old Course

Through flyover footage, one can see ways the Old Course has been altered to stay relevant in the new millenium

The flyovers are quite spectacular, as I especially like the view from the 14th tee, one where the player is almost completely dependent upon his or her caddie for line of play.  But folks who think this is some museum piece are uninformed:

Given its historic place, the perception is that the Old Course has just sat there unchanged all these centuries as golfers and their tools have gotten better. In truth, though, it has evolved, almost constantly. According to Scott Macpherson, a golf course architect who has studied the Old Course through all its changes for his book The Evolution of the Old Course, the introduction of the Haskell ball led to a lengthening of the course by roughly 200 yards. By the 1920s, a map done by Alister Mackenzie showed the yardage to be nearly 6,600 yards. By the 1940s, it was over 6,800 yards and well above 6,900 yards in the 1960s. But since 2000, and the modern ball and club era, it’s added nearly 400 yards. Throughout, tees have been lengthened or repositioned at new angles, even stretched outside the normal boundaries of the original links itself, adjustments that might seem grotesque to some while others might call it a natural evolution.

“It’s trying to find a sensitive way to do it that will protect the integrity of the course,” Macpherson said recently on his podcast Golf Design Matters.

Do scroll through it, but here's the discussion of the critical 14th hole, as good a hole to focus on this week as any:

No. 14: Par 5, 614 yards

Even the longest hole on the course, the par-5 14th, might not provide the trouble it should, despite playing 614 yards, or 50 yards longer than it did 25 years ago. The hole is famous for the collection of bunkers known as the Beardies that guard the left side and the enormous pit called Hell Bunker that thwarts all but the best or most conservative second shots. But again, the changes in tee length and location have changed the effectiveness of these hazards, the fear factor has become almost a non-factor, except when the wind blows. In the 2015 Open, when the wind was up for three of the four rounds, it was one of only five par five holes on the PGA Tour that year with a scoring average over par. “It’s such a spooky tee shot when the wind’s this way,” golf commentator Ken Brown noted at the time.

In the early days, players had to fly tee shots on the 14th over the Beardies, but too often now they are almost like a garnish on the hole, Macpherson said. It is rare that the Old Course adds a bunker these days, but he believes a fourth added to the Beardies could inject some fear back into the tee shot. Instead, players now club down to more easily navigate the out of bounds up the right, but somewhat uncharacteristically for a links, there’s rough along an out-of-bounds stone wall that further pinches the fairway, presumably to push a player’s aim more toward the Beardies.

Another 200 yards or so beyond the Beardies is Hell Bunker, but it, too, seems only a minor distraction these days. Players often can safely and easily play to the 5th fairway, although that often leaves a blind third shot. And while Jack Nicklaus famously took four whacks to get out of Hell in 1995, he only found himself in there after a poor shot with a 4-wood, not a club any current player is likely using on that hole. As Macpherson writes, “Today, this bunker is a museum piece for modern professionals with their 200 mph ball speeds and towering shots, so Hell is all but reserved for mortals and tourists.”

If The Beardies and Hell Bunker are no longer functioning hazards, then we've truly crossed the Rubicon....

Say What? -  So, fresh off Jordan Spieth's apology for going to the Deere in 2015, shall we nurse another grievance?  The unknown to me Gabrielle Herzog has this tourist guide up:

British Open 2022: 15 St. Andrews landmarks you need to know

Which oddly includes this:

Tom Morris Golf Shop

It’s not surprising that the oldest golf shop in the world rests just off the 18th fairway of the Old Course. The store was owned by Old Tom Morris, the father of golf, but the site of his original workshop is disguised as an Open Championship merchandise store this week.

Which is great, except that last I looked, they had rebranded that shop into something far more commercial:

Literally scrubbing away the history that made St Andrews such a great place to visit #shame #shame #shame pic.twitter.com/qABuUuPnfj

— DaleConcannon (@DaleConcannon) March 26, 2018

Literally.  This was Tom's actual workshop adjacent to the hole named "Tom Morris", but far more important to have more Open signage, because we know how hard that is to find.

Unless they've seen the error of their ways and changed it back, but color me highly skeptical on that front...

Enjoy the golf from the Auld Grey Toon and we'll wrap everything on Monday.