"Par at 70 is slightly ridiculous but that is the modern trend, knock a couple strokes off so nobody makes our course look foolish. And nobody has." **
/Ah, I like sleeping in and leaving the live blogging to Van Sickle and Shipnuck. Here I was about to transcribe Peter Alliss' little rant about par-70s and they already have it up...
11:15: TNT is pretty much proving that eight hours of golf coverage is way too much. Paul Azinger provided some spark, and so did venerable Peter Alliss when he signed on after 11. Azinger and Alliss make a difference because they actually have things to say. Allis came on the air and immediately said, "Par at 70 is slightly ridiculous but that is the modern trend, knock a couple strokes off so nobody makes our course look foolish. And nobody has." Alliss is a gem.
**Peter Dawson shrugs off the comments to American players not being used to the conditions and the vagaries of seaside golf.
In this Elling blog post, he also reports that Dawson wasn't too pleased with early WD's by Sandy Lyle and Rich Beem.As for the sixth, Dawson shrugged.
"Six is 499 into the wind," he said. "It was a par-5 today, clearly. Treat it as a par-5. I don’t see it as an issue."
On the 11th, which is listed at 436 yards, the R&A moved the tee to the front of the championship box and shaved 10 yards off the length. Otherwise, the next available tee area was roughly 50 yards further up, he said.
In hindsight, Dawson said the R&A should have constructed another tee area between the champion and members' regular tees. Even with the extra 10 yards, some players couldn’t reach the fairway grass, a carry of about 210 yards over intermediate rough, straight into the breeze.
"It's another one into the wind," Dawson said stoically. "Links golf, tough day at the seaside."
