“If you get greedy at all there…”, said Kevin Na, his voice fading off.
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The 145th Open Championship begins at Royal Troon on Thursday with a host of big names vying for supremacy while a new breed are snapping at their heels looking to win golf’s most famous trophy.
One of Clive Clark’s earliest memories of Royal Troon, the site of the Open Championship this week, was of Arnold Palmer winning the title at the course in 1962.
But, ohhh, this tiny little patch of Scottish coastline, somehow crammed in between a gully and clinging to a sandhill at the far edge of the course hosting this week’s British Open, is a treacherous place indeed.
The ball skidded into a pin-high bunker, one of five penal pits strategically placed around the long but diabolically narrow green.
Numerous others who have dropped out, such as McIlroy, Adam Scott and Charl Schwartzel, never have been to the JDC. “There is a lot of sand in the bunker”. “There’s been a couple of times this year, whether it be the third round at Augusta or even the first round at Oakmont where I’ve maybe just haven’t had the confidence in myself to hit the shots that are required, and that goes back to belief”. Obviously that lip there is basically vertical, so it sort of just stayed there. I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game.
The British Open golf starts on Thursday and the betting is again wide open when it comes to trying to predict a victor of the only major outside the United States.
“I just popped something”, Day said, via Golfchannel.com, after he finished the hole. “Even the best players in the world can miss by five yards, and that is all you’ve got on either side”.
Day appeared to be firmly in control at the World Golf Championship in OH two weeks ago until he three-putted for bogey on the 15th hole, made a mess of the par-5 16th hole on his way to a double bogey, and wound up three shots behind U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson.
Late in the afternoon, after the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in days and the nearby Irish Sea glistened in the glow, Johnston struck a tee shot that was right on the flag, careering into the green about 6 feet short of the cup.
On two occasions McIlroy managed to splash his ball out of the steep trap, only to see it catch the bank and funnel back down to his feet. “Most of the guys here that are either up around the top of the World Golf Rankings or at the top of the sport at the minute probably didn’t play the Open at Troon when it was last here”. It’s something of a cliche that winning the first major is the hardest, that they come easier once you know how. Playing the back nine into the wind can be touch, that short hole has a bunker alongside the green called Coffin bunker which has already tripped up some players practicing this week. “I’ve got my mind on picking a small target and forget where you are, hit a good yardage and dodge the bunkers”.
“Like two different golf courses”, is how two-time major victor Martin Kaymer describes playing Royal Troon.
That’s when the misery really begins.
That’s what makes a marvelous hole.
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Situated on the Ayrshire coast on the west of Scotland, much of the course is exposed to the elements and features a number of world-famous holes, including the iconic Postage Stamp and the Railway.
