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
Good to see David Feherty and friends are in fine form heading into next week’s Open coverage on NBC/Golf Channel, with some fantastic commentary on Tyrell Hatton’s splendid club hurl.
And as a few Twitter-posters noted, wait for the delayed vocal hurl if you’d like to be haunted by Hatton’s rage! Lovely consideration for his playing partner.
There isn’t much mystery to the 191-yard par-3 13th at Royal Portrush (view flyover here). It’s the most heavily-bunkered green here and features some nice wings for hole locations—at least they are nice if you aren’t trying to play to them in The Open.
The 470-yard 14th plays back toward the sea, with a fairway filled with bumps and pits to make it one of the most challenging tee shots on the course. Another elevated green awaits, with a steep fall-off left and a slight swale right.
Carve out a few minutes to read John Fischer’s look back at Max Faulkner and the 1951 Open win at Royal Portrush. Fischer covers so much of note about a fascinating character from the past who was rightlyfully remembered as an eccentric who lived an extraordinary existence.
Here is just one of many tidbits of note:
Faulkner had a major weakness: putting. His idol, Locke, seemed to make every putt, but Faulkner missed too many, and he continually changed putters, sometimes even making his own. His most unusual putter had a shaft made from a billiard cue and a head made from a piece of driftwood that Faulkner had found on the beach. He got good press about the odd putter, but it wasn’t that often in his bag.
Here is the official Open site’s write-up of the ‘51 event where hometown man Fred Daly was the favorite son.
There is also this cartoon—yes—recreating the greatest shot final round playing partner Frank Stranahan had ever seen, documented in Fisher’s piece.
Peter Alliss on Faulkner and the 1951 Open. He’s a bit more frail and yet as elegant as ever.
And the old film:
It was an auspicious kick off to the new 3M Open with a thrilling final round headlined by Matthew Wolff’s last hole eagle to top Bryson DeChambeau’s last hole eagle, but some reported affiliates signing off as the event ran long. Others noted an AT&T satellite dispute with that meant coverage on at all for many.
Paulsen at Sports Media Watch compares ratings with last year’s 2018 Greenbrier Classic, now a fall event. He also notes pretty steady early round numbers and a nice increase over the 2019 Rocket Mortgage event’s ratings.
The 475-yard par-4 11th—viewable in this flyover by clicking on the link—poses the most daunting drive if the wind is up. A left-to-right shaped shot is called for but some of the trickiest dunes and vegetation await the wayward. Another green complex with only one bunker and a fall-off to the side.
The hole is named for the club’s first professional.
The par-5 12th plays straight away with pits off the tee to easily catch a slight miss. The par-5 narrows gradually as it plays through dunes and finishes at a small green fronted by a deep swale and fall-offs on all sides. Dhu Varren is the local railway station.
I’m overseas now and seeing some Sky coverage, but for those in the U.S. the Scottish Open accelerates the run-up to The Open. This year from the Renaissance Club, where architect Tom Doak and Sam Torrance are scheduled to make booth visits today.
Martin Dempster sets the table for The Scotsman, where the focus is understandably on Rory McIlroy. He’s kind of big over here in Ireland too, just based on the 14 questions I’ve gotten at customs, the taxi, the bartender, the…
Anyway, your Golf Channel Scottish Open coverage details that include network coverage on NBC during the weekend…
Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open
Dates: July 11-14
Venue: The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland
Tournament Airtimes on GOLF Channel (Eastern):
Thursday 5:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Live)
Friday 5:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Live)
Saturday 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Live)
Sunday 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Live)
Tournament Airtimes on NBC (Eastern)
Saturday 12:30-3 p.m. (Live)
Sunday 12:30-3 p.m. (Live)
Broadcast Notes:
New venue: The Renaissance Club is hosting the event for the first time, and also will stage next month’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.
Final opportunity to earn a spot in The 148TH Open: The event will present the final opportunity (for those not already in the field) to gain entry into next week’s 148TH Open. The top-three finishers inside the top-10 (not already qualified) will earn a spot into the field.
Stone defends: Brandon Stone finished four shots ahead of Eddie Pepperell to claim his third European Tour victory.
Headlining the field: Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, Kevin Kisner, Graeme McDowell, Si Woo Kim, Martin Kaymer, Matt Wallace, Henrik Stenson and Ernie Els.
NBC Sports Broadcast Team:
Play by Play: Rich Lerner
Analyst: David Feherty
Tower: Curt Byrum / Tom Abbott / Matt Adams
On-Course: Jim “Bones” Mackay / Warren Humphreys
Interviews: Damon Hack
The ninth at Royal Portrush will be a brute with any wind at all, as a right-to-left tee shot is needed with firm ground to offset the ground tilt and small bunkers awaiting drives not turned over. But turn it over too much and the trouble left appears to be of the pitch-out variety.
Playing through a beautiful dunescape, the 432-yard par-4 finishes with an uphill second shot to a deep, bunkerless green with a fall-off to the right, sideboard left. With two bunkers well short of the green, judging distance may be tricky here.
After a distinctive right-to-left bend to the previous par-4’s, the 10th turns things around and asks for a left-to-right shot shape to shorten its 456 yards. Maybe.
Playing through the Himalaya-like dunescape for which the 10th is named, the optimum view of this long, slender green set amidst dunes comes from the left side of the fairway, otherwise the sightline into the green is likely to be obstructed.
It’s the question on many minds as Tiger returns to the major he nearly won last year and where his creativity, shot shaping and wind-management give him an edge over less-seasoned players.
But as he goes from Pebble Beach to The Open without a start, it’s reasonable to wonder if just waking up at 1 am is enough to get ready. David Feherty thinks so, sort of. Pat Ralph at Golf.com with Feherty’s comments.
“He sticks to a plan,” Feherty said. “I think a good deal of it will depend upon the weather, which I suspect being from there may not be great. We may get some real Open Championship weather. Personally, I kind of hope we do. There’s something traditional or special about playing golf in bad weather. And Tiger typically is not renowned as a bad weather player. I don’t know what sort of shape his back is in for that kind of thing, but I know Freddy [Couples] suffered with it over the years. But the only mistake I’ve ever made about Tiger Woods is underestimating him. He’s an unknown quantity at the moment.”
Bob Harig takes a deeper look into the numbers and considers Tiger’s chances at Portrush for ESPN.com, noting that Woods has never played the week before The Open as a professional. There was this headline-grabber last week from Padraig Harrington:
"I personally think if you're serious about winning The Open, you've got to be playing tournament golf at least before it," two-time Open champion Padraig Harrington said before last week's Irish Open. "You'd rather be playing links golf and being in a tournament than just [playing] on your own, so if you're serious about trying to win the Open, you should be playing at least one, if not two, of the events running into it.
"I was always mightily impressed when Tiger Woods would play in a major without playing the week before. I'd be a basket case if I didn't play the week before."
It should be noted that even when Woods went over early and hung out in Ireland, he was usually playing golf at an inland course and not on a links buddies trip.
We’ve arrived at the two new holes created to make this Open a reality. You’ll see much coverage on this, including a Golf Channel feature I hope you’ll enjoy early in the week, with a special emphasis on architect Martin Ebert. (As with the previous flyovers, I can’t embed, so hit the links and enjoy.)
The new par-5 7th measures 590 yards and features a tribute to Nellie (hit link to see the flyover), the huge fairway bunker at the old 17th hole where the tented village will sit this year. What will be done with the old 17th has yet to be officially announced. But in the meantime, we will see if Ebert’s fairway bunker poses the same risk/reward threat as Nellie. From there the 7th winds through steep dunes that used to be part of Valley course holes before a fairly simple looking green, with some fall off left and in front. Note the exposure of sand in the dunes.
From there Ebert created a dogleg left par-4 8th that looks pretty stunning. The tees sit atop dunes and the 430-yarder bends around a ridge line except for one open sand pit that still looks a bit raw and new in this flyover. There are two small bunkers on the outside of the dogleg to catch drives not turning the corner.
This green complex looks much livelier than the 7th and similar to many at Portrush, with plenty of trouble for the missed approach.
Here are two R&A-produced videos with Rory McIlroy playing the new holes and giving his endorsement.
Good to see the R&A is simply looking at the holes before them at Royal Portrush to reduce their normal four-hole aggregate Open playoff to three, as Doug Ferguson reports here.
The mind immediately goes to (A) St. Andrews and its perfect four-hole rotation of 1-2-17-18 and (B) a possible caving to the demands of other majors to shorten the Open Championship playoff. (The Masters is silly sudden death, while the U.S. Open is two holes and the PGA Championship three holes).
I’m at a loss to understand why a Matthew Wolff winning putt put into the Menery mode was worthy of a takedown notice, but the under-par living Instagram influencer was ordered to take down his exuberant post.
He’s already posted a replacement thanks to an under-par living spectator.
Gary Trock presents the almost-full story of Menery and the takedown message his received via Twitter.
He was shocked Monday when the golf organization sent him a direct message that read, "We will issue a takedown on this video by this evening if we don't hear back from you."
The video in question had to do with pro golfer Matthew Wolff sinking a 26-foot eagle putt to win the 3M Open tournament last weekend.
Menery thinks the PGA may not appreciate his use of comedic vulgarity in his videos, but believes the "world is shifting" and people just want an outlet to laugh, which he provides.
He also points out that he does not monetize any of his videos from the PGA, and believes he played a big part in getting "kids to be interested in the game of golf."
Surely there is more to the story from the Tour’s perspective—maybe player or broadcast partner complaints—but that part of this story is uncertain. But what is certain? The idea of Living Under Par, the Tour’s silly slogan cooked up by marketing executives seeking authenticity and younger audiences, has never sounded more insincere.
The UK Golf Guy gives a nice review and details about playing The Renaissance Club, Jerry Sarvadi and friends’ upscale course and club next to Muirfield and host to this week’s Scottish Open.
As for going to a private club in the grand East Lothian region, Martin Dempster explains that options are limited in the area due mostly to yardage and space.
Here is a good teaser clip on the club’s backstory from the European Tour’s social account.
#MeetRenaissance 🎬 | Episode 3
— Scottish Open (@ScottishOpen) June 30, 2019
In our penultimate episode, we hear from Jerry Sarvadi, the Co-founder of The Renaissance Club.
He tells us what makes The Renaissance Club a truly world class venue for this year’s #ASIScottishOpen 🏴 #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/aQYmORzK1g
Ewan Murray explains the “celebration of marching bands” concert to take place Saturday of The Open at Portrush. You may hear drum sounds as the last groups are playing and depending on who you believe, there may be an Orange Order appearance (here’s a different view than Murray’s).
As the third round of the final major of the year concludes, spectators will exit Royal Portrush to the sound of flutes and drums. The R&A wants us to cast our minds dreamily back to 1951, when Max Faulkner triumphed on Antrim’s north coast; Saturday evening will instead catapult us back to 1690 and the Battle of the Boyne.
In what has been billed as a “celebration of marching bands”, a three-hour concert will take place from 6.30pm in the centre of the town. The performers are listed on social media as if it were as natural as Glastonbury (which, in respect of Northern Ireland, you can make the reasonable case it is).
The William King Memorial band start proceedings, followed in half‑hour slots by the Derryloran Boyne Defenders, Dunloy Accordion, Ballykeel Loyal Sons of Ulster and Moneyslane Flute Band. The Drumderg Loyalists will round things off from 9pm. The Sons of Ulster will then march to an Orange hall. There is naturally a comedic, ludicrous undertone to this in 2019 but when placed on the Open’s doorstep it is a horrendously embarrassing look.
Lovely!
The land has gradually grown more interesting with each hole and for many the par-4 fifth is the front nine’s best hole, a dogleg right over and around rumpled grounds rewards a left-to-right play. A deep green abuts the sea and White Rocks nearby and is generally the course’s most photographed spot, affording incredible views in all directions.
The 189-yard sixth sets up for a left-to-right shaped shot, depending on wind, and gradually narrows to a back peninsula featuring a steep falloff to the rear. Shots that are not shaped into the back third of the green will likely bound through into trouble.
That’s the question on some minds as the PGA Tour nears the end of its current television contracts in 2021 and looks to potentially line up suitors for both broadcast and cable rights.
AT&T, with golf-loving CEO Randall Stephenson, who also sits on the PGA Tour Policy Board, is believed to have an interest in a major investment, even potentially turning a current channel acquired from Time Warner into a standalone sports or golf network.
But Nabila Ahmed, Eben Novy-Williams and Scott Moritz write for Bloomberg, a sale of its regional sports networks appears all about reducing debt after $180 billion in acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner.
A sale of the regional sports networks -- known as must-see content for avid fans -- highlights AT&T’s ongoing struggle to fix a debt-heavy balance sheet. The company, which has to spend money on a number of priorities, including an expansion of its 5G wireless network, has been financially handcuffed after amassing more than $180 billion in debt with the acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner Inc.
Despite a steady decline in TV subscribers, AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson has said the company’s top priority this year is to reduce debt. As part of that plan, he has been raising cash by selling holdings, including its stake in Hulu and its New York offices. The two deals fetched $3.6 billion in proceeds.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
