According to Royal Troon head professional Kieron Stevenson, the wider course remains a “proper test of links golf”. It’s just the only one of the 18 that’s world famous. “No round at Troon is secure until you have passed this hole in regulation numbers”.
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In fact, it’s easier than either of its American cousins.
Nine months later, Willett was patiently creeping up on Jordan Spieth in the final round of the Masters. It’s about 30 yards shorter, too, at a piddly 123 yards. “He has the game to really step it up and win a lot of tournaments and you’re now starting to see that”. For now, that player might be reigning U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson.
Jason Day is the favourite. I love the tournament. Sometimes they’re good, and sometimes they’re bad. “You can have a three-shot swing on a pitching wedge”. Might play the first five and the last five, something like that.
It can be a gap wedge. But on most days, it looks, well, simple.
“And that’s why it’s hard”.
The big issue, he said, is the wind, which players talk about as ‘a heavy wind.’ It becomes a particular problem when it is blowing from one side or the other, when the effect becomes more hard to judge.
“You stand on the tee with a wedge in your hands and think you should be making a birdie, but the danger lurks everywhere”, he said. “If you do happen to miss the green, well, game on, you know?”
“If you get greedy at all there …”, said Kevin Na, his voice fading off.
Do you think Martin Kaymer is in with a good chance of winning the Open this week? Stenson eventually kicked his ball out of it during a practice round last week.
When the pin is at the back of the green, the Postage Stamp is especially challenging. Johnson was the first to post at 15-under 273 through 72 holes. That’s normal prevailing wind. “It doesn’t matter what standard of golfer you are, it’s a change. If it means a dry spell of two years then so be it”. “It’s a great hole, great hole”.
The four-time major victor, who said during his presser that he had become more conservative and tentative as he’d gotten older, expected to play the Postage Stamp hole exactly that way.
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.
If it isn’t, then McIlroy – or anyone else – could shoot his way out of contention with a big number on that one little hole.
The other member of the so-called “Big Four” of world golf, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, is pleased to be back at his home Open after being sidelined past year because of an injury he sustained while playing a friendly game of football.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate given our decision on the Olympics”, he said. “Hit it into the front right bunker and it took me like five or six goes to get out of it”. “There is a lot of sand in the bunker”.
Rickie Fowler Will Miss Another CutThis one sort of seems like cheating because Fowler has had a rough 2016 season, to say the least. Obviously that lip there is basically vertical. “I was so into the round I was playing that I never gave it a thought until we got done. Hopefully the struggle is out of the way for that hole”.
“If anything, (it’s) probably a bit tougher, because you know you’ve done it and played well and competed and won against the best guys”.
Johnson has the ability to shrink the Royal Troon links course with his length off the tee, and his wedge play has become nearly as impressive.
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Who ever said the Scots have no sense of humour?
