One of the most-loved tournaments of the 2015 PGA Tour, the British Open, is here.
Not only is the great old tournament back, but it will be played on the Old Course at St Andrews for the first time in five years.
Sadly, defending champion Rory McIlroy isn’t playing due to injury, but there are still many quality players in the field this year, including nine former winners. Plus Jordan Spieth.
It will be a celebration of golf. What more can you ask of a professional tournament?
There are unique challenges playing a links course that your weekly USPGA event doesn’t have.
Sure, you don’t get your ball behind a tree and have to chop it back out into the fairway. But the penalty for being in the rough, or in the bunker is that much tougher on a links course.
There are also shots that work their way into links golf that you won’t see in your average, drive and nine iron tournament on a parkland course. Low six irons into a long, thin green. Running eight irons up a slope rather than flopping a 60 degree wedge. It’s a different challenge for the players.
Though with the rains coming down in Scotland, the course isn’t expected to be as firm as, say, the one players encountered at Chambers Bay in the US Open this year.
Here’s everything you’ll need to know ahead of the Open Championship this weekend.
Why should I watch it?
Golf right? Zzz!
Well, that’s certainly the case for some links golf, when the wind blows, it rains and players struggle to keep it on the cut stuff.
But even that’s entertaining in a kind of evil way.
More than anything, golf is a fabulously attractive sport. A bit like watching bike riders move in and out of the great chateaus of France, seeing golfers negotiate grass, water and sand is an aesthetic experience.
It’s one of the oldest events on the calendar, played on green, sloping fairways and undulating greens. It’s great to look at, and once you know the storylines of the game, it’s great to watch.
The Aussies
Links golf favours players who have great all-round games. You need to able to play flops, chips, pitches, bump and run and punch shots.
For this reason, Adam Scott is a two-time near-winner at the US Open. Two years in a row he had a big chance to win, and blew it.
Before he won the Masters, people wondered whether he’ll get another shot.
The reason he is so good is that his tee-to-green play is so good – one of the best in the game. His accuracy off the tee is great, and he can hit a four iron as far as some players hit woods and hybrids. On a course like St Andrews, in strong winds, his game excels.
If he can sink putts, he will contend.
Jason Day is an Aussie rising star who should win a major before too long. He was in the lead at the US Open this year, and finished in the top ten.
Steven Bowditch is a recent winner on the USPGA Tour at the Byron Nelson, and is one we would think can step up at this major. The same goes for Mark Leishman, who has been in tremendous form for nearly two years. Can either of these two make their presence felt in a major?
Out with the new, in with the old
Links golf tends to have a set of challenges that suit players with an old head.
The last Open champions have been Rory McIlroy, who’s been on tour for around six years despite his youth, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Darren Clarke and Louis Ousthuizen. Before that was Stewart Cink, then two in a row each for Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods.
No rookies in that lot.
Thankfully for tournament favourite Jordan Spieth, he has a very mature head on his shoulders, despite only being 21 years old. He’s already won the first two majors of the year, along with two other tournaments, including the John Deere Classic last weekend.
Does that means he is exempt from the rule of thumb that older players excel on links courses? Well… no.
He has limited experience on links courses, and virtually none on the Old Course at St Andrews, bar through a simulator.
When the great Tiger Woods speaks on such matters, you tend to listen.
“You have to hit the ball well. You have to really lag putt well here. But if you haven’t seen the golf course in various winds, bunkers that you don’t even see on the yardage book because you’re not playing it, you don’t see it with that wind, all of a sudden become apparent.”
Spieth played well at Chambers Bay, but it’s a different challenge than the Old Course. No one will complain about these greens, which should be true and firm as the ground staff can make them. The course will be very windy on the Friday, presenting a very unique challenge.
Which brings us to…
Links form
There are still a few tournaments where links golf is played.
The US Open this year was a notable example, but realistically that course was so unique it’s hard to think of it as links golf in the same way you think of St Andrews.
Touch firm out here pic.twitter.com/1eiiqz2QcF
— Lee McCoy (@LeeMcCoyGolf) June 16, 2015
So if you choose to ignore Chambers Bay, where Spieth won and Dustin Johnson blew it at the last, what other tournaments can you look to?
The Scottish Open was played last week on a very fine links course, so there’s a start.
That was won by Rickie Fowler, and has been the event Phil Mickelson prefers as his Open Championship warm up. Experienced players Matt Kuchar and Raphael Jacquelin were both up there as well, while Miguel Angel Jiminez and Luke Donald were not too far back.
Mickelson was a little off the pace, but not too far. It will have been a decent hitout for the former champ before he tackles St Andrews.
The Irish Open was held on a links course earlier this year, and was won by Dane Soren Kjeldsen. It was a complete dogfight, with two under the card the winning score after four rounds of golf.
St Andrews should be nothing like that. Last time the Open was played here the winning score was 16-under, fired by Louis Ousthuizen.
It should be somewhere in that vicinity again this year, particularly if the course plays kindly.
Tiger Woods
Considering Tiger has been talking big this week, it’s worth mentioning that he has won the Open on this very course before, in 2005.
He thinks this could be his week that he makes his resurgence.
Tiger’s experience here could well see him score well. He’s won here twice before, in 2005 and 2000. The runners up in those years were Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie.
Els has been fairly quiet in 2015, but Montgomerie has been on a tear in the Seniors Tour, so it’s a shame he’s not fronting up this year, failing to qualify.
If there was a course that Tiger could make the comeback some people seem to desperately want, it’s this one.
So who wins?
Picking golf is hard.
With McIlroy out, and Spieth probably still a little jetlagged having flown over after his win at the John Deere Classic on Monday morning, it’s wide open.
Look at Justin Rose, Mickelson, Kjeldsen, Rafa Cabrero-Bello and Kuchar to be up the top of the leaderboard with 18 holes to play.
Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson are all highly-ranked and should perform well.
Of the Aussies, Jason Day and Adam Scott are the two to watch, alongside the in-form Steven Bowditch. One of them should be in the top ten after 72 holes.
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