Hybrid Blogging - Updated With a Crail Connection

Just a few notes and pictures from our Saturday, then perhaps some Open blogging?

As has become the norm, the weather actually experienced was far better than that promised by the Met. Office, you might have noticed the same at Hoylake.  Interestingly, the rain seems to have disappeared from today's prognosis, although the fierce winds, high teens with gusts into the mid-20's remains, at least on paper in pixels.  We'll be using the morning for shopping, Elsie and Johan arrive tomorrow, then hunker down with the Open coverage.

Yesterday we went in search of fish for our dinner, only to find that the fishmonger across the Pittenweem Road is closed on Saturday and Sunday.  Curious that, for a retailer, though we found a guy as we drove into town with a mobile fish van, willing to sell us a couple of fillets:

That's the mobile fish van to the right, which he told us typically sets up shop in places like Dundee, obviously part of that Bowman Industrial Complex we've noted previously.  

Our major activity of the day was a walk to our old haunt of St. Monans, specifically to the St. Monans Auld Kirk (church).  

Probably 1 1/2 miles each way along the Fife Coastal Path, past the Pittenweem Tidal Pool and towards the St. Monans Tidal Pool:

We had a lovely stay in St. Monans in 2019, which is a wee little village even by the standards of Pittenweem.  There are a couple of serious restaurants located there, but no bakery (and, really, how would we get on without those sausage rolls) or market.  We have fun memories of watching the village kids jumping into the water off the pier, though the tides were completely different then.  In fact, one thing missing from our walks and photos is an actual high tide, one where those tidal pools disappear.

The church was our usual post-dinner walk that trip, as it's good fun reading the headstones in the adjoining cemetery:

Most definitely into the wind heading home, and Theresa pointed out the whitecaps in that St. Monans Tidal Pool:

You'll want to stay attuned to our every exciting experience, in this case it was laundry day in the East Neuk:

We've avoided the Arts festival crowds, but the line at the village ice cream shop was, literally, out the door:

The ice cream is allegedly Janetta's of St. Andrews....

We were delighted to seize on a evening calming to have dinner outside, though the leaders were on the 15th hole.  Under the circumstances, rules will be broken:

It was quite enjoyable, though we won't be able to even consider such a thing today.  but, that's as good a segue as any to a little Open blogging, no?

First, the streaming experience has been good.  It's 12 quid per day, so they're not giving it away, but it's worked well enough, except for that outage on Thursday as a result of a blown fuse.  On Thursday-Friday the broadcast from dawn-to-dusk, similar to what folks of a certain age remember of the old timey BBC coverage, the principal difference being commercials.  The commercial load seems far lighter, though you'll be jumping out of your seats to remind me that it's a paid service, and the better question is why there's any commercial load at all.

The only negative is that I'm forced to endure a lead analyst that I thought I'd seen the last of, Sir Mumbles of Montana.  Of all the gin joints in the world.....Argh!

So, just some quick hits and then I'll leave you to enjoy the final round.  First, the Tour Confidential gang takes on the burning question of the day:

Brian Harman is running away with the final major of the year, as he leads the 2023 Open Championship at 12 under, five shots clear of second-place Cameron Young (seven under). Jon Rahm, after a Saturday 63, is six under and six shots back, and there’s also a handful of golfers seven shots behind at five under: Viktor Hovland, Antoine Rozner, Jason Day, Tommy Fleetwood and Sepp Straka. Is the margin too big? Who wins come Sunday at Royal Liverpool?

Jack Hirsh: At first glance, it sure looks like only Harman, Young and Rahm have a chance at winning this thing. But if Young and Rahm have a chance, they’ll either have to go really low or

Harman will have to come back to them. I sense the ladder, especially with the bad weather that was supposed to come all week hopefully coming Sunday. If that happens, then it opens everything up for the guys at five and maybe four under. The last player to lose a five-stroke lead in an Open was Jean van de Velde in 1999. I think the chasers are better this time. I think Rahm shoots 67 and beats Harman in the four-hole playoff.

Sean Zak: The margin is too big.

Josh Sens: If the margin were too big, they’d have the trophy ceremony this evening. As solid as Harman has looked, it doesn’t seem likely but we’ve seen larger leads than this lost in majors before. Young and Rahm are very much still in it. For guys farther back to win, I think we’d need to see a bit of wildness in the weather. If the wind picks up, things could go topsy-turvy quickly.

Alan Bastable: ​​Before the third round, I posted an (unscientific) poll on Twitter, querying folks on whether, if they were placing a bet, they’d take Harman or the field. Only 23% of respondents took Harman, despite the fact that in the last 40 years all eight players who have had a five-shot-or-greater 36-hole major lead have gone on to win. Ye of little faith! Harman appears undaunted by the moment. On Sunday, he will become the ninth member of that group.

Josh Berhow: He’s been playing too well, and five strokes is a lot. I think it really helps him he won’t have an intimidating presence like Jon Rahm in that final group with him — no offense, Cam Young — and he’ll be able to post a score good enough to win. Like I said, he’s got room to make a mistake or two. But maybe not three.

I have two contradictory reactions, neither of which is dispositive:

1. I expect that Harmon should benefit from having slept on the big lead Friday night and his sluggish Saturday start.  he'll know he can turn it around if he has an early hiccup or two, and he'll know that other will likely be overly aggressive.
2. At the same time, there's a cumulative effect to playing with the lead on successive days, with fatigue a primary concern (perhaps more of the mental variety than physical).

One further conclusion is that, while we're all hard-wired to focus on the conclusion, perhaps the most interesting bits will be to see the start of Harman's round.  He could render those finishing holes moot, but that assumes much...

Harman himself is an interesting player to be be so positioned, a guy credited for grit, odd for a guy best known for coming up short.  he's won twice, but nothing of much significance and the last win was in 2017, so the chase pack will not be intimidated...

How far back is too far?  Hard to say when it's only the one guy that's broken out, but I think the guys at -5 (Fleetwood and Viktor, most notably) are in it in only a tenuous sense.  They'd need to do something special even to jump over Rahm and Young, in addition to generous assistance from the leader.

In a Writers Hardest Hit moment, Shack provides an amusing (in an angsty, first world problems sort of way) timeline of the press center reactions to Harman, who apparently can't be forgiven for enjoying hunting:

3:23 p.m. - Jon Rahm birdies seven of his last nine holes en route to a 63 for a new Royal Liverpool course record. The Spanish section lets out an audible cheer, there’s hope for a double major winner in 2023 and a winner this week whose greatest career feats do not include the words “qualify”, “skin to the bone” and “FedExCup.”

3:42 - Third round leader Harman, five clear after Friday’s 65, bogeys the opening hole to cut his lead from four and then to three in a matter of 15 minutes. Golf writers are heard cancelling their Sunday morning tee times at Wallasey to be here early for one last serving of black pudding and a fun Sunday final round.

4:30 - Harman’s lead is down to two after a bogey at the short 4th. The media center buzz gets so loud I have to put on noise cancelling headphones and prepare to scrap all Todd Hamilton references from today’s newsletter.

4:38 - Food lines grow when media digestive tracts relax after it appears we might just have a proper championship. The combo of joy and hungry stomachs gets so out of control that several scribes happily go for the gruesome, pre-made “Mexican bean and avocado sandwich with sweetcorn and salsa picante on granary bread.” Life is good.

6:09 - In a short time Harman’s lead grows back to five strokes following a birdie on 12. I try to offset the news with The Best Is Yet To Come on a headphones loop as a tribute to Tony Bennett, whose passing at least ensures the legendary crooner won’t have to witness a Harman victory walk Sunday. Godspeed Mr. B.

6:38 - Cameron Young makes birdie on 18 from an awkward greenside bunker stance. This keeps the Harman lead at five, setting up a Harman-Young final grouping that should upset NBC execs except that they run so many commercials it’s clear Comcast already has lost interest. Meanwhile, a pungent odor envelopes the press tent. In order of blame: Harman’s lead, the salsa picante, the granary bread and the “avocado” that tastes more like Tofu infused with fescue.

6:58 - Note to self: look into magic mushrooms if the “wee slice mon” wins this major.

7:20 - Harman pars the difficult 16th and 17th. Several writers begin stockpiling Cadbury Double Decker bars for what could be a long night in search of inspiration while sidestepping the urge to invoke the phrase “worst nightmare since” and the names Todd Hamilton, Shaun Micheel or Ben Curtis.

7:24 - Harman drives into the 18th hole rough, avoiding the interior out-of-bounds that, not coincidentally, was taking on real architectural appeal like never before.

7:28 - Sepp Straka (70/-5) bogeys the 18th because I have £10 pounds each way on him at 200-1.

7:31 - Harman wedges out to the fairway and slaps his third shot short of the silly greenside bunkers that need to be raked flat again for Sunday’s final round. You know, to give the world hope until the very, very end.

7:33 - Harman is greeted by a half-empty 18th hole grandstand as writers draw inspiration from knowing fans are already gone and ordering dinner. The best West Kirby eateries may just greet us with open tables and stiff lagers.

7:40 - Semi-local favorite Fleetwood (71/-5) hits a three wood into the home hole grandstand and registers his 16th par of the day. He is all-but-out-of-it after Harman salvages par.

7:43 - A writer returning from media dining is armed with a gin-filled flask and reports that Harman is 100% this week on putts inside 10 feet. Cheers!

8:14 - Harman enters the interview room and discusses the accomplishment he’s most proud of (“12th straight year that I've made the FedExCup Playoffs”), whether he looks like cricket’s Ricky Ponting (“Handsome fella”), and discusses innocent animals he’s stalked all day instead of reading Dostoevsy or The Life And Dogged Times Of Vince Dooley (“some really cool elk hunts out in Colorado, really tough* hunting”). *Especially for the elk.

8:25 - An official request is submitted to media relations asking if the R&A slogan “Forged By Nature” will be forever retired if Harman wins and every tabloid headlines with, Forager Of Nature.

Well, we can't have a Champion Golfer of the Year that doesn't enjoy his Dostoyevsky... Makes me want to root for him even more.  I do understand that almost anyone else on that leaderboard might provide better copy but, given the current LIV-infused zeitgeist, I thought that Geoff would embrace the reminder that golf isn't merely about those top twenty players....

Headlines I thought I'd never see for $100, Art:

Brian Harman, 'The Butcher of Hoylake,' holds 5-stroke lead at 2023 British Open among third-round takeaways

How about this 2018 tweet from a man in a completely different line of work?

I love watching you, Brian. You have it all. You can hit it a mile, and feather it around the greens, but what will win you your majors, the Masters likely being your first, is your easy perfection with the blade. Respect. https://t.co/56pyXshuXQ

— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) March 15, 2018

Good call, though maybe still a titch early.... though I can watch that silky-smooth putting stroke all day.

Remember that famous photo of Rory and Rickie from the 2007 Walker Cup at Royal County Down?

What, you didn't know that Rory had jowls back then?

Here's an old one of Harman and Rickie:

That's from the 2009 NCAA's, and I'll allow the reader to decide whether the backstory might be applicable for what's to come today:

The most legendary story about Harman, however, involves his performance at the 2009 NCAA Championship while competing for Georgia. It was Harman’s senior year, and the first year that the team title was being decided via match play. The Bulldogs were the No. 1 seed of the eight schools that advanced to the match-play bracket at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, but they had to face the team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation, Oklahoma State, in the quarterfinal round. And Harman, as Georgia's top-ranked player, was matched against OSU’s No. 1, Rickie Fowler, in what played out as the deciding match between the two teams.

Impressively, the match lived up to the hype, Fowler taking a 1-up lead through 14 holes as the crowds from the other matches descended on the two future PGA Tour winners. On the 15th, Fowler two-putted for par, forcing Harman to make an eight-footer to halve the hole and stay just 1 down. He drained the putt but noticed that Fowler and his coach, Mike McGraw, had already left the green for the 16th tee, forcing Harman to put the flagstick back in. This minor breach of etiquette proved a major sore point for Harman.

So, how did that play out?

“He jammed the flag in the hole,” said Georgia coach Chris Haack, “and said, ‘This really pisses me off.’”

Shane Ryan, who chronicled the rise of young golfers in the Tiger Woods era in his book Chasing the Tiger, touched on the match in his book and characterized Harman’s thoughts in a little less family-friendly manner.

“You mother***er,” Harman thought to himself. “I’m about to kick that guy in the teeth.”

On the 16th hole, Fowler made a birdie from outside 15 feet, but so did Harman. Then on the 17th, Harman made another birdie while Fowler’s birdie try lipped out.

All square on the 18th hole, Harman found the fairway off the tee. Fowler was first to hit his approach on the par-4 home hole, leaving himself a 30-footer for birdie. Harman proceeded to go flag-hunting, leaving his ball four feet from the hole. Fowler missed, Harman didn’t, and proceeded to end the season for Fowler and Oklahoma State.

They call him gritty, and we're about to see that quality tested to its limit.

Mind if I dump one last overly-long excerpt on you?  Eamon Lynch has a piece up under this header:

Lynch: The Masters? Meh. The Open is golf’s greatest major. Here’s why

 I'll just allow Eamon to wax poetic:

And the Open? It’s defined by a multitude of elements that combine to make it the greatest championship in the game. Why?

Because of the history, for starters. The first shot was struck in the Open three weeks before Abraham Lincoln was elected president and every single great in the annals of the sport has contributed their share since.

Because its the original DNA of a game that morphed into a global sport, essentially unchanged as the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible over wild contouring land set hard by the sea.

Because the Open doesn’t try to protect players from the capriciousness at the heart of links golf, at least it didn’t until the R&A softened bunkers at Royal Liverpool. Good shots aren’t guaranteed good results and poor shots are often saved by a fortuitous carom off a contour. Vagaries are a virtue, not something to be mitigated.

Because it not only tests execution — which every man in the field has mastered — but also imagination, an asset lacking in many. Forget the video game golf familiar to the professional tours, where balls drop and stop with the precision of drone strikes. Here, routes to the target are foraged along the ground, negating wind and navigating hazards. Even if range finders were permitted, they’d be useless. Raw numbers are as meaningless at the Open as they are in a Russian election; it’s all about how you process them to an acceptable outcome.

Because it presents in abundance the one requirement to make golf interesting: options. Particularly in encouraging a tremendous variety of shotmaking around the greens. Nothing is uniform, which allows competitors to play to their strengths or around their weaknesses, whether lobbing wedges or bunting fairway metals. It’s a beguiling upgrade over the standardized test so prevalent on professional tours these days.

Because the conversation on Sunday night focuses on what might be consumed from the Claret Jug, not on how much honey is in the prize pot.

Because it’s a necessary reminder that golf is an outdoor sport, where the turf is hard and the rain moreso. The other three majors are held in locations and seasons where rain is frequently accompanied by electricity, sending everyone to shelter. It’s a rare Open that doesn’t see wind barrel in from the sea, bringing nasty squalls and taking the dreams of many. Golfers, like livestock, are expected to work in all weather at this major, and there is no better means of separating contenders from pretenders than golf on a filthy day along the British coast.

Because it stands as an annual reminder to golfers, superintendents and greens committees the world over that courses need not be lush lawns and floral extravaganzas, that brown doesn’t equal decay. The motto of the 151st Open — Forged in Nature— ought to be a guiding principle everywhere.

Because of the delightful incongruity between the reputation of the venue and the reality of the surrounding area, usually charmless seaside villages whose luster, such as it was, faded shortly after the Wright Brothers created an alternative for vacations. St. Andrews is the exception that proves the rule, but every Open mixes the stuffy air of an elite club with the faint whiff of fish and chips on the breeze.

Because of the spectators. British golf fans have been progressively deprived of upper-tier golf since the European circuit set out for warmer pastures and despots’ dollars, but the Open has the permanence of Dover’s white cliffs, at least when pandemic insurance payouts aren’t a preferred option. Crowds never disappoint, the number of spectators in shorts inversely correlated to the horridness of the weather. And they possess a deep appreciation for links golf, applauding shots that finish far from the pin because they understand how good that result actually is.

Because of the characters particular to Opens, past and present. Like the longtime first tee starter Ivor Robson, whose advancing years belied bladder control that was marveled at for four days every July. Like retired R&A chief Peter Dawson, who — jaw squared like a navvy shovel — summoned forth the Champion Golfer of the Year with the authority of a field marshal in Arnie’s Army. Like Maurice Flitcroft, the infamous gadfly who gatecrashed Open qualifying five times despite being banned after his first foray, during which he shot 121 (“Does that mean he’s won it?” his mother asked a reporter). Like the gaggle to be seen peering from the clubhouse, white-haired members with teeth like toppled tombstones and dandruff on their lapels, bursting with pride yet faintly irked at the inconvenience of the world’s finest golfers interrupting their weekly four-ball followed by G&Ts.

These are the inseparable components of the Open, each contributing to a potpourri that encapsulates everything that makes up the greatest championship in golf. It’s a list that has remained largely unchanged for most of the century-and-a-half they’ve been playing this thing. Long may it continue.

Yeah, there's a few nits to pick, as I have to believe he could salute the open qualifying into the event without wasting pixels on the abuse thereof....As for those spectators, well there's been more shouting of "Mashed Potatoes" on the Sky broadcast than he'd lead you to believe.

But I do embrace the essence of his argument, typically reverting to describing the experience of links golf as more primal.  As he notes, the nature of the turf and other elements elicit as range of shot-making not required in parkland play, and thereby renders the golf more exciting to watch.  And, I should hardly have to add, more exciting to play.... It's why the bride and I come back each year and are out there in the rain and wind.

Enjoy the final round and whatever it might bring, especially if it annoys those in the press center. 

UPDATE:  Just noticed this in a general e-mail from Crail:

If you are looking for someone other than local hero Michael Stewart (nephew of past M&H

Convener Malcolm) to support in The Open, you can be proud of the Crail connection to current leader Brian Harman.

Brian played Balcomie with Fluff Cowan as part of his preparation for the 2015 Open and shot a 59 over Balcomie. He clearly talented and can cope with links golf, so maybe worth a wee wager even at this stage? He was utterly charming and a delight to host.

On a general note, there was this confirming the wisdom of our rather spontaneous decision to join the Crail Golfing Society on that 2019 trip referenced above:

Waiting List

The waiting list for membership continues to grow, which is a testament to the popularity and allure of the Society. We all hope that the patience of those who may be waiting up to two years to join is rewarded with a rich network of friends and opportunities to play an active part in the fabric of Crail Golfing Society.

 If the draw bridge is to be raised, better I suppose that it happen after we're inside.