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
From Tod Leonard's Junior World preview...referring to 14-year-old sensation Tianlang Guan.
Guan is the 14-year-old Chinese golfer who made history by reaching the weekend in this year’s Masters. He was invited to compete in Junior World next week for a third straight time, but he declined because he’s hoping to play in the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open in two weeks. That is, if he gets some visa issues straightened out.
Reps of Guan asked Junior World tournament director Megan Mahoney if he could play in the media day on Torrey South because he’s been in San Diego for a couple of weeks practicing at the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside.
From the left tee this is one of the most inviting drives in the world--at least for a righty. There is also a tee right of the 14th green that is not as appealing though it's still a fine hole posing plenty of interesting questions.
The par-4 15th hole analysis from Golf Monthly and Strokesaver:
On a back nine filled with so many super holes, the 16th is not very interesting visually or strategically. Playing gently uphill to a bunkered green with few hole location options and little opportunity to run the ball up, the hole figures to play the same each day unless the wind varies drastically.
The overhead and analysis video:
Interesting stuff in this from the R&A
For Immediate Release:
FOLLOW THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE NEW OFFICIAL IPAD/IPHONE APP
12 July 2013, Muirfield, Scotland: Golf fans can follow all the excitement and drama of the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield next week on the new official iPad/iPhone App.
The App has been specially developed for the 2013 Open and will feature a range of digital innovations designed to bring fans closer to the action and give them a unique behind-the-scenes view of the Championship.
Among the many features of the App will be up-to-the-minute live scoring, video highlights of the play and an interactive course guide. Live coverage from @TheOpen Live and @TheOpen RADIO will be available along with coverage of holes 9, 10 and 11 during the Championship. The Open Timeline offers fans a wealth of historical information about golf’s oldest Major Championship.
The App, along with the Official Open Championship Apps available on the Android, BlackBerry and Windows 8 Mobile platforms, is part of an expanded array of digital content designed to enhance the spectator experience at this year’s Championship.
Michael Tate, Executive Director – Business Affairs at The R&A, said, “We are continually looking at ways to deliver a better experience for spectators and golf fans at The Open Championship. Our fans around the world download our apps in huge numbers and relish being able to interact digitally with The Open.
“The new App will enable people to access a great deal of dynamic digital content from live TV and radio to video highlights and live scoring. It will be an ideal tool for people with handheld devices who will be able to follow their favourite players from wherever they are whether it is at home, in the office or on the move anywhere.”
The U.S. iTunes store link to get the app for iPhones.
The website improvements sound promising. Especially if you have a job and want to get nothing done:
TheOpen.com website enables people to access wall-to-wall live coverage of play on the interactive digital channel @TheOpen Live and through multiple television and radio channels available online. The website’s newly designed video player will allow spectators to watch live and on-demand video seamlessly in the same player.
Users at home can follow comprehensive television coverage of all four days of the Championship from the official broadcasters - the BBC in the UK and ESPN in America on the website. Scoring has been further enhanced with a new hole statistics section and the interactive course guide features 3D flyovers of all 18 holes of the course as well as extensive information about Muirfield.
The hill climbing at Omaha Country Club? Not so much. 
From Bill Fields' U.S. Senior Open report on Tom Watson's continued good putting:
To the 50-year-old who was not enjoying Omaha CC's hills either, despite bettering Watson's score by a shot, it was still pretty impressive. "Amazing," Mongomerie said. "Fantastic effort. Good home support for him. I think he's quite close [to home]. I think Kansas is the next state down. Flatter, I believe, in Kansas. So we should have played there. Good golf for Tom. Sixteen pars for nearly 64 years old."
Watson will go from Nebraska to Scotland, for another British Open at Muirfield. "He has every chance to do well again, as he did at Turnberry in 2009," Montgomerie said.
"He's just being nice," said Watson, who had more immediate concerns.
Last time we had Matthew Goggin fresh off a solid showing at Merion in the U.S. Open, this time we managed to get Geoff Ogilvy to chat from Scotland during his pre-Open Championship leisure golf. Topics covered include Muirfield, the state of Geoff's game and of course, the state of the game.
We kept him too long but the discussion was great until the cell phone Gods said enough! Hope you enjoy either via iTunes or hitting play on the the player below...
One of my favorite one-shotters on the planet is a Tom Simpson redesign of H.S. Colt's hole and it is the centerpiece of a Golf World story I filed on uphill par-3s. A 191-yard new tee extends the hole and changes the angle in an unfortunate way, but this is still one of the world's most fascinating, beautiful and rewarding par-3s.
The Golf Monthly/Strokesaver analysis:
The original tee view:
The new tee view:
And from the green looking back:
The 14th plays from an elevated tee and there is huge incentive to get past the last fairway bunker 300 yards from the tee, which has been extended to 476 yards. Avoiding that bunker opens up a pretty simple second shot to a receptive green.
What a world: David Duval gets some money to be part of one of the Mission Hills courses in China built by Brian Curley, and now that the course has been rebuilt and Duval is not a top player, hipper, younger player-architects are called in to...phone it in.
From Doug Ferguson's AP notes column:
Mission Hills China announced two weeks ago that U.S. Open champion Justin Rose and Ian Poulter of Ryder Cup fame will stage an exhibition match Oct. 28 to celebrate the opening of the redesigned "Rose-Poulter" course.
Brian Curley is the architect of the redesign. The course had been "designed" by Duval and was known as the "Duval" course.
Rose said in the press release, "We've had a number of discussions with Brian Curley and I look forward to coming to Mission Hills in October and seeing the end result."
Glad to see we're exporting the best of golf to China!
From a Q&A with Ron Kroichick in the SF Chronicle, touching on many topics:
"Then I would say it's one thing to change your driver or wedge, but you're asking for huge trouble when you change all your clubs and your golf ball at the same time. I did it with Wilson, and I went into an immediate slump for four or five months.
"His 9-iron and wedge have been really horrendous, and he just lost the magic with his putting. He's hit the grand slam of things you have to watch out for when you're at the top. He's a bit of a mess."
Many thanks to reader Eugene for spotting and sending this CBS News report by Chip Reid on what the American Lake Golf Course is doing for wounded vets. The course is staffed by more than 200 volunteers and was designed with injured vets in mind.
"They make sure the walls of the bunker aren't too steep," said Jim Martinson, who lost both legs to a landmine in Vietnam 45 years ago, "and that you can get up to the tee boxes and things like that."
Martinson admitted he never golfed in his life. "I thought that was the stupidest game in the whole world," he said. But he doesn't feel that way anymore. "It's the greatest game in the whole world."
He tries to pass along that feeling of optimism to the recently disabled. "I tell them, 'Don't let your life be over. Do whatever you want. Set a goal,'" said Martinson.
It's a message that Aaron Boyle has taken to heart. "I don't care what people think," he said. "I love the game. If I didn't have the game, I don't know if I'd be the same person I am today."
**Mike Seidl has a nice post with images of American Lake from a few years ago that still holds up well.
Literally.
Thanks reader Brian for this, which also gives us a sneak peak at a very lean and fast looking Castle Stuart. Paul Lawrie is also looking fit these days...
**Seems the European Tour was filming a spot...
Muirfield really picks up steam with the blind tee shot at the 11th to kick off a number of outstanding driving holes coming in. A new tee has extended this hole 33 yards while the green is one of the more interesting on the course with a steep front.
The Golf Monthly/Strokesaver analysis:
The approach to the eleventh green in 2012, with the red flagstick for the 5th green directly behind:
There isn't great reward for hitting driver at the 380-yard 12th even if the wind is helping, so most players will lay back to less than 263 yards setting up an approach to a tightly bunkered green with the short left bunker being particularly deep.
The 12th hole video:
View of the approach to the twelfth:
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
