The 2015 Open Championship Is Here: Mini-Preview

The major we've all been waiting for, The Open at St. Andrews kicks off after the inspiring Champions Challenge saw legendary former winners play four holes. Headlined by Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Peter Thomson, the sun popped out to give us the added colors and that cinematic vibe to the 18th hole setting.

The golf course took an unexpected rain this morning, softening things up a bit. Watch for a low round early Thursday. As I noted in Golf World, the course isn't as lush green as stated, but in contrast to Chambers Bay it practically looks overseeded in ryegrass.

Regarding the changes, they probably won't make any difference, though the new ampitheater outgrowth of mounding added to the Road hole bunker could impact the championship. And looks worse and worse every time I walk by at that magnificent hole. Todd Lewis and I discussed the changes for Live From.

Soak up your Ivor Robson this week because this is the legendary first tee announcer's final Open Championship, writes Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com.  EuropeanTour.com also has a nice long story on Robson.

The tee times are here...

A few images from the last few days before the camera must be retired per the media regulations:

Update on 2015-07-15 22:29 by Geoff

**Jim McCabe on Arnold Palmer's appearance at the Champion Golfer's Challenge.

At 85, Palmer is clearly having trouble walking, bothered by a painful  hip, and when he hit the ceremonial opening tee shot at the Masters in April, he conceded that it was the first golf ball he had hit in months.

But this was to be his farewell to St. Andrews, a place that in many ways is as crucial to his legend as is Augusta National. In 1960, Palmer had won the Masters and U.S. Open and deemed it important to go to St. Andrews and win the British Open. He created talk of a “Grand Slam” for the first time and oh, how he came agonizingly close to a third straight major. He lost by one to Kel Nagle, but remained smitten with the challenge. When he won the Claret Jug in 1961 and 1962, he brought this championship back into prominence and never has the British golf citizenry forgotten.

It's A Wrap: Jordan, Hogan And The Grand Slam

Maybe it's Wimbledon ending Sunday with spectacular wins or maybe it's the world not recognizing what a rare opportunity Jordan Spieth has, but his pursuit of the Grand Slam does not feel like it's getting the play it deserves.

Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com takes the big picture route and compares Spieth to fellow Texan Ben Hogan, talking to Dan Jenkins.

That was Hogan personified, said Jenkins, who has covered more than 200 majors during his distinguished career. In Hogan's mind, his  scorecard was the standard in which all other scorecards should be judged.

"Often it was," Jenkins said. "But sometimes it wasn't, and Ben would accept that, too, as being part of the game and graciously congratulate the winner."

Graciousness is a Spieth trait. Someone once asked him about his humility. Spieth responded that to talk about humility defeated the purpose of humility itself.

Who says something like at age 21?

Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com talked to other players about the challenge of learning the Old Course on short notice and includes some telling comments about what players think of the task facing Spieth.

Spieth visited the press room early and was his usual eloquent, introspective self. Though the mentions of "feels" could prove to be the first early sign of trouble. Ryan Herrington on the feels word and what it might mean.

Hmm?!? Good to know that there is a thing called "feels" and that it can "travel."

And travel, indeed it did, from Woods to Spieth. As he tries for the third leg of the calendar Grand Slam, Spieth was asked about arriving on Monday and whether there were positives of playing the John Deere and getting to St. Andrews late.

"Not necessarily, other than going to a place I was familiar with, I could get in contention and get the right feels."

Alex Myers at GolfDigest.com considers the Grand Slam ramifications in his watch of the historic chase and noted that Spieth opened the door to some concessionary views that the Old Course is complex and that the simulator was not an accurate representation of reality.

And he doesn't sound like he's had enough time dealing with St. Andrews' winds -- an area which Tiger Woods said experience is most crucial -- either on his simulator:

"The course was a lot easier with 68 degrees and no breeze coming out of the air-conditioner in that room, so I got over here, and the real preparation really started."

Rex Hoggard played off of Jordan's comments about studying the history of the game and knowing what is on the line.

As Spieth has proven in his short career, he’s a quick study when it comes to high-pressure situations – like when he converted his disappointment over his loss in the 2014 Masters into his first major championship earlier this year at Augusta National – and with the world watching he seems to have struck an impressive balance between competitive indifference and situational awareness.

“I like to study the history of golf, and I think it's extremely special what this year has brought to our team and to have a chance to do what only one other person in the history of golf has done doesn't come around very often,” he allowed.

Ewan Murray notes in his Guardian story that Spieth's attitude toward the wind forecast is to embrace the coming trouble.

Spieth also brushed aside the prospect of strong gusts, possibly up to 40mph, disrupting his game. “I think it’s fun,” Spieth said. “If we wanted good weather we’d go play in California.

“We come over here because we want to embrace the opportunity of  handling these conditions. I understand that there’s a possibility for a  lot of this tournament to be dependent on the draw the first two days, at least for a few strokes. It doesn’t mean you can’t make it up if you get the bad end of it, but it will be harder. Nobody is going to know what that is here because it changes hourly.

Update on 2015-07-15 22:42 by Geoff

**Todd Lewis reports on Morning Drive that Spieth hired a St Andrews "expert" to help him better learn the golf course.

Handicapping Time For The 2015 Open Championship

I’ve made my usual trip to Ladbrokes and William Hill storefronts after much consternation and study, though the pricing this year made wagers a tad more simple than recent Open Championships.

Here’s the up-to-the-minute spreadsheet of the various betting entities here in the UK where it’s perfectly legal to wager on the golf.

As for The Old Course, I talked with Todd Lewis about how the changes look and how it's playing. It's hard to imagine that a slightly greener course makes it much easier for those with less experience here, as it's the wind and angles players need to understand how to deal with. Which is why, as you'll see below, I am leaning towards good links players and those with good experiences here.

Heading in I have each way wagers that pay top 6 finishes on the following:

Rickie Fowler 20-1 - Placed that just an hour before his Scottish Open win.

Branden Grace 40-1 - Tremendous record on the Old Course

Phil Mickelson 33-1 - Will reliably hang around and hope the putter gets hot.

Marc Warren 150-1 - Final round 64 in the Scottish Open almost got him to a playoff

Geoff Ogilvy 200-1 - Prepped at Barnbougle, loves the Old Course, solid week at Chambers Bay.

Few other prices were very enticing, though Justin Rose's pre-tournament confidence (Mark Tallentire reports for The Guardian) in his track record over the Old Course and the state of the game makes him an attractive 25-1 option, despite his Open Championship record as a pro.

I'm also going to check in on some missed-cut opportunities, as they've been good to me in the past. But as of yesterday the various entities weren't offering anything on that front.

For some other ideas, the tour two sites (go figure) offer some good options. EuropeanTour.com's five players to keep an eye on is here, and PGATour.com's usual group offers their views.

Update on 2015-07-15 14:19 by Geoff

**Forgot to mention the luck of the draw. Will the late-early or early-late times be affected more?

The current forecast calls for light winds Thursday morning gradually picking up as the day goes, with gusts up to 25 mph.

Friday's forecast is dire, with heavy rain forecasted overnight and into early play. Winds are expected to strengthen as the day goes with a direction change throughout the day. Gusts of 40 mph are possible, "particularly late afternoon and evening."

Good luck with that!

Video: A Visit To Old Tom's Shop

The Links Trust has reimagined the historic Old Tom Morris shop at St. Andrews with a new clothing line and many of the shop design features exposed after years of layer-upon-decorating layer.

The storefront today looks eerily close to what it looked like in his day:

The result is very special place to go for worshippers of Old Tom. Getting to walk on the original stone floors of his most prominent and final shop is an honor. But to see markings left over from the club making days is a bit like stumbling on an archaelogical site:

And it's irresistable to not at least touch the dinged up wood counter top where Old Tom and his artisans finished clubs over looking the 18th green that he created (a view that had long been mysteriously covered by recent shop lessees). The playground, workspace and house of worship for the first and most important Golf God. (Don't forget all of the storied visitors who walked those floors too, from Bobby Jones to A.W. Tillinghast to C.B. Macdonald, for starters).

For a Golf Channel segment this week, I was joined by Laurie Watson of the Links Trust and Roger McStravick, author of a beautiful new book on Old Tom Morris. We chatted about the significance of the shop as a place to remember the man who is more responsible for shaping the game than any single figure in our sport.

Video: Old Course Fifteenth And Sixteenth Hole Flyovers

"Cartgate (in)" at the Old Course looks narrower than ever to me and the green is one of the most intricate on the course. Aim at the church steeple, so the locals say, and place your drive through Miss Grainger's Bosoms (named for Miss Agnes Grainger). Still, at 455 yards anything avoiding trouble off the tee sets this up as a birdie opportunity if a player has a good sense of this large green.

The video:



"Corner of the Dyke" is one of the best spectator holes here, as fans lean on the boundary fence and are withing just yards of the players hitting their approaches. The Principal's Nose is just 220 yards or so to carry on this 418-yard hole.  The key bunker to avoid is Deacon Sime, about 290 off the tee.

The video:

Tiger Would Love To Play The Old Course In Reverse

Tiger revealed in his 144th Open Championship press conference he's still "right here in front of you" and insisted he's not done.

But more fun for golf junkies, he revealed that he would love to play the Old Course in reverse, as they do every April 1st.

Ewan Murray of the Guardian with the Tiger news from St. Andrews:

Of St Andrews, Woods added: “Obviously it’s the home of golf, we all know that. But to me it’s brilliant, how you can play it so many different ways. I’ve always wanted to play it backwards, one time before I die. I want to play from 1 to 17, 2 to 16, so forth and so on. I  think that would be just a blast because I can see how certain bunkers – why would they put that there? And then if you play it backwards, you see it. It’s very apparent. That’s totally in play. That one day would be a lot of fun to be able to do.”

Jeremy Glenn filed this excellent look at the reverse Old Course for GolfClubAtlas.com

One Day Olympic Golf Test Event On The Docket For 2016

Though generally thought to have needed to be a year out from the Games, the International Golf Federation has pushed a rumored test event for Olympic golf from Thanksgiving weekend to closer to the games.

Alex Miceli reports from The Open where officials revealed that when the even it s played, it'll be a one-day event and sounds more like a contractual obligation than any kind of serious competition. This should ensure that the

The International Olympic Committee had scheduled a test event for the last week of November, but after a thorough review by the PGA Tour agronomy staff and IGF representatives in June, the IGF recommended that the test event be delayed until early 2016.

“We think it would be better to have the test event take place after having had the benefit of a second grow-in season,” IGF vice president Ty Votaw said during a news conference at St. Andrews, site of this week’s British Open. Votaw, a PGA Tour executive, added that the timeline was a better fit “taking into consideration the availability of players, world-class players, on a November-December time frame.”