East Lothian Golf: Musselburgh Golf And Racing

/

To kick off Light Posting/Celebrating East Lothian Golf Week, I’d like to direct you to a story I wrote for the July 2013 Golf Digest on making your golf pilgrimage to Edinburgh and East Lothian. Nothing against St. Andrews, which is terrific, but if you love the history of the game, want to make the essential trip for a golfer and want to take a trip to Scotland without the long drives and travel stress, this is the place to set up shop.

Having spent another week here playing some golf, seen the courses in their perfect dry state, experienced more of the eateries, hung out in Edinburgh and settled into the towns of North Berwick and Gullane as a guest, I’m even more confident in my reporting from a year ago that this is a golfing mecca like no other.

To put it another way, I had that uniquely bittersweet emotion of driving through Gullane today, happily seeing life getting back to normal for the town but so desperately hoping I will get to come back and do it all over again.

As I outline in the story there are so many places to see and while I should start with the most historic locations in Edinburgh, in honor of today’s Tuesday racing card at Musselburgh Race Course, I’d like to direct you to videos I posted previous on the site from one of my favorite days in golf: morning play at the oldest played course in the world (with hickories), and afternoon of racing. Where the turf meets the turf.

And of course, should you decide to make this journey, GolfEastLothian.com is a super one-stop-shop for most questions, planning help and even tee times at some courses.

Enjoy and may all the horses come home safe!

An overview:

And the fourth hole:

ESPN’s '13 Open: Third Most Watched Golf Event On Cable

/

For Immediate Release...

ESPN’s Open Championship Sets Cable Viewership Records
 
With many of the sport’s biggest names in contention, ESPN’s live telecasts of the weekend rounds of play in The Open Championship on Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21, set cable viewership records for golf’s oldest major championship. ESPN’s digital platforms also saw double and triple-digit increases during the event.
 
According to Nielsen Fast National data, ESPN earned a record-tying 3.1 U.S. rating for the 8 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET live telecast of Sunday’s final round as fan favorite Phil Mickelson scored a come-from-behind win at Scotland’s Muirfield Golf Links. The telecast, which averaged 4,372,000 viewers, tied the ratings record set in last year’s final round for the highest-rated cable telecast of the event and set a cable viewership record for the event, eclipsing last year’s mark of 4,227,000.
 
The 9 a.m. – 2:47 p.m. Saturday telecast earned a 2.7 U.S. household rating, averaging 3,776,000 viewers, beating the 2.6 U.S. rating and 3,545,000 viewership average ESPN earned for third-round coverage in 2012. It ranks as cable’s highest-rated and most-viewed telecast of the third round.
 
Sunday’s telecast ranks third-highest among all golf telecasts on cable, only behind the 2008 U.S. Open playoff and the 2010 Masters first round (when Tiger Woods returned to golf). The Saturday telecast ranks ninth. ESPN golf telecasts hold nine of the top 10 positions, including all of the top five.
 
ESPN’s telecast of the opening round on Thursday also attracted more viewers than last year, with the 7 a.m. – 3:45 p.m. telecast averaging 1,398,000 viewers, up from an average of 1,343,000 last year, with both telecasts earning a 1.1 U.S. rating. Friday’s 7 a.m. – 3:39 p.m. coverage was down slightly from last year, earning a 1.3 rating with an average of 1,658,000 viewers, down from a 1.4 rating and 1,771,000 viewers last year.
 
Saturday’s encore presentation airing on ABC from 3-6 p.m. was up in metered market ratings, earning a 1.4, up from a 1.3 last year. Sunday’s presentation earned a 1.6 metered market rating, the same as last year.
 
The Open Championship (July 18-21) across ESPN digital platforms – including ESPN.com, Fantasy, the ESPN mobile Web, ScoreCenter and WatchESPN – logged an average minute audience of 95,831.  Specifically on ESPN.com, the Golf section logged an average of 890,000 daily unique visitors (up 22 percent) and an average of 9.3 million minutes per day (up 65 percent).  On mobile, the Golf section on the mobile Web averaged 7.6 million minutes per day during the championship (up 32 percent), while the Golf section on the ScoreCenter app averaged 413,000 daily unique visitors (up 107 percent) with an average of 2 million minutes per day (up 105 percent).  Additionally, The Open Championship on WatchESPN and ESPN3 generated 74.8 million total minutes throughout the event, up 21 percent compared to last year.

R.I.P. Jim Langley

/

Quite possibly the nicest man who ever lived. The longtime head professional at Cypress Point, former Marine, former Cal basketball player and great golfer passed away Saturday night the 19th and would have celebrated a birthday Sunday the 20th.

Joel Zuckerman recently interviewed Jim and posted this wonderful profile of the great man.

Reactions? Phil Mickelson Wins 2013 The Open Championship

/

Karma, preparation, experience and incredible skill on a fiery links added up to a historic win by Phil Mickelson, who captures his fifh major and is a U.S. Open away from the career Grand Slam.

He appropriately joins a list of superstar winners at Muirfield and put away a leaderboard for the ages. It's hard to image a more impressive win and validation of both Mickelson's career along with Muirfield as a venue.

Your kneejerk reactions...

2013 Open Final Round Preview And Comment Thread

/

Sunday is noticeably cooler and the overcast more stubborn, with the same easterly winds we've seen since Friday. Whether the hole locations are more accessible--well, not placed on humps and bumps--remains to be seen but with a stellar leaderboard we should be in for a doozy. I'll be trailing the Woods and Scott group from the moment they hit the range but will be following on Twitter and via The Open's Lee Westwood Radio Network (87.7 on the dial if you are in Scotland).

Previewing the finale, Jim Moriarty thinks Lee Westwood has a shot at breaking his 0-61 record in majors.

For a UK take, James Corrigan and Kevin Garside understandably feel it's Westwood's chance and and based on post round comments, the Englishman is certainly sounding confident.

I wrote in Golf World Daily about Tiger's decision not to lay-up on 17 yesterday and how his refusal to play driver there could be key to today's finale.

Bob Harig breaks down what's at stake for the various leaders and their chances of winning.

In the polling here, after nearly 900 votes, Tiger is your pick at 37%, Lee at 29% and Adam at 14%.

Oddschecker turns into exchange wagering Sunday and might make for fun viewing.

The Guardian's live final round blog for those of you unable to watch, or if you are on Twitter, ByTheMinuteGolf will be joined by Mike Clayton and Lloyd Cole today.

Sunday Tee Times.

And the leaderboard.

Note To Open Competitors: Yell In Wake Of Laird Penalty

/

Kevin Murray with the strange saga of Martin Laird not speaking loudly enough for his playing competitor or referree to hear him tough his ball to identify it in the 10th hole rough.

After a 9 on the third hole, this happened at the 10th:

On the par-four 10th, he found the rough twice in succession and, on the second occasion, did not tell playing partner Dustin Johnson or the referee he was going to touch his ball to identify it.

Laird is adamant he told the ball-spotter, but that is not enough under the rules.

He said: "If I had said, 'Dustin, just went down to find my ball,' or, 'Rules official, I'm going to identify my ball', loud enough for one of them to hear, it would have been fine.

"It's the fact that none of them heard it, even though I said it.

"A spotter said to me, 'There's a ball here. I'm not sure if it's yours'.

"I said, 'I'm going to identify it'. I put the tee in the ground [to mark it] and didn't even lift my ball, just moved it a quarter roll to see the number.

"At the time I was thinking more about the golf shot I had coming up than about the ruling. It's one of those lovely rules of golf."

Here is the Q&A with David Rickman explaining why a penalty was incurred:

Q. Can you explain what happened?

DAVID RICKMAN: Well, my understanding and what's been explained is that Martin hit his tee shot in the rough. He then looked to identify that by just gently parting the grass on that occasion. That was fine. He then hit a second shot, also stayed in the rough. And on that second occasion he marked the position of the ball and touched it and just moved it ever so slightly. This is now a situation, by putting his hand on the ball, this is a situation covered by Rule 12-2, which requires the player to announce to his fellow competitor, before getting his hand on the ball, either to move it slightly or to lift it, in either of those circumstances, and he didn't do that. Obviously this week we've also got a walking referee and an observer. Those two individuals would also have qualified as somebody to make that announcement, but I'm afraid by not doing that, it's a breach of Rule 12-2 and it's a one-stroke --

Q. (Inaudible.)
DAVID RICKMAN: Well, I believe he maybe said it to the ball spotter, who was in closest vicinity. But the rule is very specific. It needs to be the fellow competitor, the fellow competitor is there to protect the interests of the rest of the field, and therefore, we are specific about who that needs to be. Because you need to give that fellow competitor, or as I say this week, the referee, the opportunity to come over and observe the player's actions. That's the protection that the rule gives.

Q. (Inaudible.)
DAVID RICKMAN: The ball spotter saw that this was happening. The referee also saw a tee, on this occasion, a tee coming up and down, and that, of itself, indicated that perhaps there had been more than just the parting of the grass, I'm afraid.

Q. (Inaudible.)
DAVID RICKMAN: I don't believe it was a spectator, no.

Instant Poll: Who Will Win The 2013 Open Championship

/

Here you go...for what it's worth my money (really) is on Adam Scott but I feel like anyone listed below could do it. The golf course is just not set up to allow for a 66. Or hasn't so far. Tomorrow might be different, but I doubt it.

The poll:

Who will win the 2013 Open Championship
  
pollcode.com free polls 

2013 Open Championship Third Round Open Comment Thread

/

As Paul Newberry's AP game story notes, 22 start day three at Muirfield within five shots of the lead. Early groups showed some signs of scoring life but now that the sun is drying things out and the breezes are kicking up scoring has neutralized.

Alex Myers off a "cheat sheet" on what to look for today. And as I noted in Golf World Daily, things have set up well for a plodder and Tiger Woods seems to be one of the players willing to play that game.

Tee times.

Your leaderboard is here.

The forecast calls for winds of 10 mph with gusts to 15 mph.

Open Attendance Noticeably Down Over Last Muirfield Visit

/

In case you were wondering if the fans were coming dressed as empty green grandstand seats, the answer is now. Prices may be harming Open attendance at Muirfield despite great weather and sound infrastructure work by the R&A to get people here with relative ease.

Ron Sirak Tweeted the shocking drop from the last Open at Muirfield through two rounds.

Attendance at Muirfield down from 2002 in @The_Open with 23,393 Thursday compared to 30,620 in '02 and 29,144 Friday vs. 34,479.

The Daily Mail's Mike Dickson wrote in the Tee Room notes today that "Charging 75 pounds for a ticket is looking very steep in this economic climate."

 

Thank You Finchy: Westwood's 18 One-Putts

/

The Telegraph's James Corrigan follows up his original story with more backstory on how an accidental meeting and conversation led to Lee Westwood's putting advice from Ian Baker Finch.

Through the first 36 at Muirfield, Westwood has 18 one-putts.

When contacted last night, Baker-Finch, who has been watching on American TV, welcomed the transformation. “Lee looks different on the greens – more confident and calm,” said Baker-Finch.
That much has been obvious, as Westwood has cut his way through the field, using the putter as his scythe. As revealed in last week’s Telegraph Sport, Westwood had “a light bulb moment” when he had an hour-long session with Baker-Finch a fortnight ago.