“It was just a little flick with a wedge into the middle of the green”. The Open Championship is here, and with that comes a new style of golf that the majority of the players on the PGA Tour are unfamiliar with.
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Treacherous and unfamiliar challenges lie in wait as The Open returns to Royal Troon today and Rory McIlroy begins his hunt for the Claret Jug.
While the men’s event has been hit by a host of pull-outs, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko – current world No.1 – will lead an nearly full-strength lineup as golf makes it’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904.
Last year, The Open at St Andrews delivered an economic impact of £140 million to Scotland, making it the biggest golf event ever held in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Day is another man who is impossible to ignore as he has cut a swathe through the game over the past 12 months, going right back to the heartache of another near Major miss at this championship, when he missed a play-off by a shot at St Andrews.
On the final day of practice before the British Open, two more golfers pulled out of the Olympics but major champions Danny Willett and Justin Rose remain on board.
With the benefit of hindsight, Spieth clearly would have made his announcement before Monday’s Games deadline.
And, if there was any doubt that he still deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, McIlroy pointedly reminded everyone how they rank in terms of majors. Mark Roe was denied the chance to play in the final round of the 2003 Open because he and Jesper Parnevik did not exchange third-round scorecards. “I didn’t get into golf to get other people into the game”.
Australia’s Adam Scott threw away the chance to become an Open champion in 2012, when he made four bogeys at the last four holes to hand the title to Ernie Els, and again at St Andrews past year.
“This is going to be a very, very hard thing for me to do to watch the opening ceremonies and watch my peers compete for a gold medal. and watch people stand on the stage and hear the national anthem playing”, added Spieth.
In fact, it’s the Americans who have Troon all sewn up, winning the last six Open Championships staged at the South Ayrshire course in a run dating back to the great Arnold Palmer’s victory in 1962.
A strategic approach and brilliance on the greens is what Spieth is all about and he is the man to beat in my mind.
He called on golf’s major governing bodies to step up their anti-doping efforts, which he said are limited to a handful of urine tests each year.
In 1997 the victor was Justin Leonard, a Texan just like Spieth.
The 28-year-old has won three times this year and has formed a close friendship with Woods, who is likely to reprise his advisor role on the other end of the phone.
Will an underdog triumph this time to lift the Claret Jug?
Willet was within a shot of the lead in the second round of the Open at St Andrews.
He’s taken advice from the likes of Harrington and McDowell, and even the great Jack Nicklaus had some wise words for Lowry. “I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I watch”.
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Elsewhere, you could make cases for any number of players. Spieth is the fourth favourite behind his three rivals at Troon, but will hope to re-establish himself at The Open and has every right to feel bullish. He will be replaced by Matteo Manassero, who tied for third in the Scottish Open last weekend. The best players from around the world have gathered in Scotland to take on the iconic course, which is played as a out-and-in seaside links. He has placed in the top 10 in the last five major championships, including one win. If that means I have to go through a dry spell of two years, then so be it. He broke his major duck at the Masters the following year, and as a multiple victor this season is another likely to feature prominently.
