When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Another strange day at Royal St. George's as the hole locations appeared to prevent anyone from going super low and the weather wasn't bad enough to make anyone go super high, so we have just a seven shot differential from the leaders to the bubble boys. And according to Steve Elling, who tries to make sense of the "biblical" weather forecast, four players are within three shots of the lead.
In pre-tournament stories some mentioned the lack of a driveable short four at Royal St. George's and who could blame them?Day one's late afternoon excitement means many of the leaders will be teeing off an hour that I can best describe as several before I awake, but I know you'll already have many shrewd observations by the time I log on.
I'd post the weather forecast, but we know how well that turned out Thursday.
**Tom Watson's 6th hole ace Friday morning:
The predictions of a vicious Royal St. George's didn't pan out due to light winds and surprisingly mellow greens, signaling that the R&A might have learned from last year's St. Andrews play-stoppage fiasco?
Before we get to read today's first round Open Championship stories on co-leaders Tom Lewis and Thomas Bjorn, you can read up on Lewias in an excellent story by James Corrigan that ran yesterday. I found it interesting that he's already signed with IMG, yet still an amateur. What a world!
They'll be starting at 1 a.m. PT, so I'll be joining this one in progress but recording it all. So if anything happens at 1:05...that's 4:05 ET, feel free to make a note of it here.
The weather is shaping up to be the dominant story before a shot is struck, but as Jim McCabe notes, the UK weather forecasts are not only wrong sometimes, but downright fun to analyze.
Doug Ferguson says the current forecast calls for the early/late tee times to get the worst end of the draw.
With the bizarre practice round winds, Jim McCabe notes that No. 14 played unusually short.
The only par 5 back on the homeward holes, No. 14, seems a pushover based on the yardage – 547. But there’s out-of-bounds down the right side and some 300 yards out is the “Suez Canal,” a burn that cuts through the middle of the fairway. With the hole playing dead downwind Tuesday, the sensible tee shot was a 4- or 5-iron to get it out there 250, 260 yards and not bring the water into play.
Dustin Johnson did just that, but then he re-loaded and gave it a go. His first attempt with the driver found the burn, but his second cleared it on the fly, much to the delight of a marshal who stood there in amazement.
Regardless of the wind, expect 14 to once again play a pivotal role in the championship: OB, water, a bumpy landing area and sound strategy make it fascinating. Though I'm not a fan of OB as a hazard, it is a course boundary and ample width is allowed to avoid it on No. 14.
A few photos taken a year ago when I visited Royal St. Georges. Click on the images to enlarge:
The Royal St. George's tee markers and yardage boxes.
Extending the tees means players are driving over the back of No. 13 green.
The player's view with the excessively marked out of bounds down the right.
Mounds in the fairway will deflect drives, unless you can bomb it over them, a huge advantage.
The OB is certainly not a secret!
A burn dissects the fairway.
The view after the burn shows fairway bunkers that add interest for those laying up.
The closer one flirts wit the out of bounds, the better the angle of approach to all hole locations.
Bob Harig on the question of Portrush's prospects raised during Wednesday's R&A press conference. Peter Dawson:
Other tours and governing bodies now just throw up their hands, shrug their shoulders and give the "it's always been that way" answer to slow play questions.
Not for the R&A's Championship Committee head Jim McArthur, with a nice assist from Peter Dawson!
It can be a little tricky figuring out broadcast times, but things are getting simpler with ESPN going live on all, gulp, platforms. If you want simple, golf.com posts a basic viewing guide.
Gambling on The Open is part of the tournament's essence, so even though this family values website does not condone such heathenness, as a full service blogger I'm obligated to steer you to helpful information from your fellow mongrels.
BetRepublic looks at some of the more intriguing "matchup" bets.
Jim McCabe makes this key point about the weather and the potential for an unlucky draw.
While dry and partly sunny weather is predicted for Rounds 1 and 2, the wind is expected to pick up as things go along, to the point where by Friday afternoon, it could be ripping at perhaps 25 mph.
Studying such news, none other than Harry “The Hat” Emanuel suggests we could have a situation similar to last year at St. Andrews, where those who had benign weather Thursday morning had fierce conditions Friday afternoon and saw their chances blown away – most notably Rory McIlroy (63-80) and Ernie Els (69-79).
Ian Chadband talks to host pro Andrew Brooks, who has some interesting insights into what kind of attributes the Royal St. George's favors, with a shock pick for the win.
Steven Rawlings gives one punter's perspective at the Betfair blog, seizing on the lack of rough to advocate some of the longer hitters.
Golfweek posts 20 players to watch.
Jeff Rude bats arounds some names and seems to like Jason Day along with talent over experience.
PGATour.com's expert picks includes one Ben Curtis selection.
Golfobserver's Sal Johnson has crunched the numbers and offers his selections.
**Alex Myers with his Fantasy Fix column at GolfDigest.com, highlights some obvious and not-so-obvious names.
I've noticed a recurring theme in a few stories about the course: the R&A addressed complaints by widening fairways and keeping the rough tame. Uh, let's give credit where credit is due: the Golf Gods have kept Sandwich dry and therefore, at least based on the player comments I could find, the course is going to present itself well thanks to the lack of tall grass lining the fairways that has become an R&A staple to slow down swelling driving distances.Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
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