No More Cell Phones At The Open

This was overdue...

NO MOBILE PHONES AT THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

Spectators who intend attending The Open Championship, to be played at Carnoustie from Sunday 15 to Sunday 22 July 2007, are being advised that they will not be permitted to have mobile phones in their possession within The Open site. 

This policy is in line with other major golf championships, including this year’s Ryder Cup at the K Club, and follows comments from players concerning the excessive numbers in evidence this year at Hoylake.

David Hill, Director of Championships for The R&A, said, “We have so far resisted the call to ban mobile phones on the grounds that it may be an inconvenience to the public. However, after receiving complaints referring to the numbers that were in use as play in The Open was proceeding, we feel there is no other reasonable option other than a complete ban.

“As at the Ryder Cup, we believe that spectators will understand that this measure is being put in place to make The Open a more enjoyable experience for all spectators and players. I would stress that we will install additional public telephones for use by members of the general public.” 

In order to implement the ‘No Mobile Phone Policy’, security checks of every spectator will be in operation at the paygates.

Slam Success

The Orlando Sentinel's Steve Elling published this list of the best players in all four majors.

<sup>Here’s one race that Tiger Woods can’t win. For the third consecutive year, the Sentinel has crunched the numbers at golf’s major championships and come up with the collective king of the court for 2006, and since only players who made the cut in all Grand Slam events are eligible, Woods didn’t make the grade. Among the other highly ranked stars who missed the cut in at least one major this year were Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington and David Howell. Phil Mickelson and Woods won the cumulative titles in 2004 and 2005, respectively, both at 26 under. In our three years of compiling the list, the two Americans to make the chart marks by far the lowest total, down from seven in 2004 and five last year. (Note: Woods was added purely for the purpose of comparison since he didn’t play on the weekend at the U.S. Open, his first missed cut at a major 10 years as a pro).

Player            Masters    U.S. Open    British        PGA    Total
Phil Mickelson        -7        +6                 -5                -6    -12
Geoff Ogilvy           +1        +5                 -6                -9    -9
Jim Furyk               +3        +6                -12               -3    -6
Adam Scott             +4        +12               -9              -12    -5
Mike Weir                -1        +8                 +1              -11    -3
Ernie Els                +4        +13               -13              -6     -2
Robert Allenby        +3        +11               -6               -5    +3    
Luke Donald           +8        +9                  -2             -12    +3
Jose Maria Olazabal -4      +12               +1              +4   +13
Miguel A. Jimenez    -1        +11              -1               +8   +17
Tiger Woods             -4        +12 (MC)     -18              -18    NA</sup>

GWAA British Accommodations Contest Winner

Alan Shipnuck and Barker Davis delivered memorable rants (here and here) on their Hoylake hotels, but if I were judging the (no chance in hell) Golf Writers Association of America's writing contest award for best British Accommodations story, Bob Verdi's July 28 Golf World rant (not posted) would take the Weekly division prize.

If they can build a Rolls-Royce, why can't they build a shower that works? I stepped into the shower stall the other day, and that's exactly what happened. A shower stall. Instead of a simple knob or handle, there's a control panel that looks like it belongs in an airplane cockpit. Flashing lights, arrows, diagrams, cables, dials. Everything but water. When I attempted to activate the contraption, the spigot just sort of hissed, as if to mock my pathetic body.

I yelled for help, and was informed that, in order to secure hot water, I first must flip a switch. It's 100 degrees and I've got to flip a switch to get warm? And where's the switch? It's in the adjoining room, the one with a toilet. Once water arrives, it does so reluctantly and in wild spurts, occasionally so scalding that you hang from the glass partition, hugging it for safety, as if posing for a chest X-ray. 
 

Huggan Reviews The Open...

After praising the R&A for their general wonderfulness, John Huggan slips this in:

Perhaps the only murmur of discontent came over some of the weekend pin positions. Although the overall course set-up confirmed the impression that the R&A are relatively unconcerned with the winning score, there is still a line to be drawn.

Prior to the championship, Scot Graham Brown of the host club, a former club champion, asked R&A chief executive Peter Dawson if the old formula of "six hard, six medium and six easy" was still followed. Dawson laughed. "No," he said, "today it is more like 15 hard and three impossible!"

That estimate was borne out by the experience of former European Tour pro Mike Clayton. The Australian, now a successful course designer, toured the links on the eve of the championship with Retief Goosen's caddie, Colin Byrne. On each green, they tried to find the yellow dot marking the following day's hole location. It wasn't an easy task, given the colour of the greens. But it became easier when they decided simply to walk around the edge of every putting surface - for almost every dot was within four yards of the fringe.

Still, on that count it is hard to be too hard on the R&A. In the almost total absence of wind - only on the final day did it blow with any sort of significance - tucking the pin positions actually rewarded the tactics employed by Woods. Just about the only way to get anywhere near the flags was by playing from the correct position/angle, even if that meant hitting much longer clubs into the greens.

While the 'floggers' were invariably much closer to the hole after one shot, the firmness of the turf combined with the difficulty of the flag locations meant that they were, more often than not, playing away from their ultimate target. Or that they had no chance of getting close, no matter how lofted the club in their hands. Not only is Tiger the best player, he's also the smartest.

And this is something that few other Open stories pointed out:

Then again, for all the magnificence of Woods' play and ball-striking, it was difficult to leave Hoylake without feeling just a little depressed at the direction that golf is headed at the highest level. First, the biggest reason that this Open was so enjoyable is that it was nothing like anything else we will see in golf this year. Amid a week-to-week diet of courses and tournaments that are basically indistinguishable from each other, the world's oldest and most important event stood out like a 160-pound lemon, or Sergio Garcia.

This was proper golf that asked a variety of questions, some of which didn't really have an answer, which is as it should be on a links. Part of playing well by the seaside is realising when there is no reasonable shot available, and proceeding accordingly.

Then there are the now laughable distances that leading players are capable of hitting the modern ball. Before the championship, Ron Whitten, the architecture editor of Golf Digest magazine, caused something of a furore with his less-than-charitable comments on the Hoylake links. While most of his comments proved to be laughably inaccurate, one did strike a chord with this reader.

"Best that members of Royal OB [Hoylake] enjoy this Open as its last hurrah," wrote Whitten. "Sooner or later, every Open course will become obsolete, the Old Course at St Andrews included. Some day the R&A will quit clinging to that which its name evokes, and finally move on."

Now, maybe it's just me, but that little paragraph is more than a little frightening. If Whitten is correct - which, given his recent track record, is admittedly a bit of a stretch - then the time for action on new technology is surely now. If the thought of links like Hoylake and the Old Course at St Andrews being reduced to pitch-and-putt doesn't galvanise golf's authorities into action, surely nothing will.

Taking AIM With Michael Bamberger

Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger has authored this week's cover story on Tiger Woods's win at Hoylake as well as a new book on director M. Night Shyamalan and his new film.

After returning from Hoylake, Bamberger kindly took a few minutes chat about The Open Championship for this site's occasional Taking Aim series.

GeoffShac:    Your game story focused on Tiger, but I'm curious what you thought of Hoylake

MBamberger:    I thought Hoylake looked dull, and there was nothing about it that would make me want to play it. But when you heard the players talking about, especially Tiger, it was a reminder that they see courses completely differently.

GeoffShac:    so even after seeing how it rewarded thought, you still can't get excited about it?

MBamberger:    I'd play it in a minute, because I think you can understand these courses only if you've played them yourself. But no dunes, no sea, no wind--nothing to get too excited about.

GeoffShac:    What did you think of the weekend hole locations?

MBamberger:    Excellent. Kept the players on their toes. The R&A did a superb job of setting up the course.

GeoffShac:    Andy North and Nick Faldo hinted that some were a bit over the top, with many seemed to be designed to induce pars after the low scoring over the first 36. No?

MBamberger:    I didn't feel that--just progressively harder over the course of the week, which I think is appropriate.

MBamberger:    The greens were puttable--if that's a word--so that you could put the hole most anywhere.

MBamberger:    But to chip it and pitch it you needed big-time game.

GeoffShac:    Where does this performance of his rank among his best and others you've seen?

MBamberger:    It was a stirring performance because of his father's death, his year, the leaderboard. But hitting one driver, and playing links golf in little wind, it's not the complete test an Open sometimes is. Still, an inspiring thing to be around.

GeoffShac:    Do you view it as a weakness of Hoylake that it did not force him to hit driver?

MBamberger:    No, not Hoylake's fault. Damn ball goes too far.

GeoffShac:    Ah, good answer!

GeoffShac:    Did you play any golf over there, or was it all work?

MBamberger:    Usually I play, but this time I didn't.

GeoffShac:    Have you ever played or seen links golf in conditions like the players saw at Hoylake?

MBamberger:    I wans't there, but when I asked Tiger about his win at St. Andrews win 2000, when I was writing him up as Sportsman of the Year for the magazine, he kept going back to how still it was.  I couldn't get him off that.

GeoffShac:    And finally, I have to ask about your new book...

GeoffShac:    how did that come about?

MBamberger:    The Night book?

GeoffShac:    Yep

MBamberger:    I met him, was struck by him, asked if I could hang out with him. He said yes and I wrote it up as I saw it.

GeoffShac:    This is two non-golf books in a row (basically, not including your fine anthology from last year)...will you be getting back to golf or sports with your next?

MBamberger:    I appreciate the question, Geoff, but I'm looking forward to just working my day job for a while--no plans at all.

GeoffShac:    Cool. Keep up the great work and thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions

MBamberger:    A pleasure, Geoff, and thanks for all you're doing to help keep the game sane. You play Sebonack yet?

GeoffShac:    no, but I sure hope to see it soon...I'm sure it's interesting, though maybe not as interesting had Doak been able to do it by himself :)

Rubenstein: Don't Forget Nicklaus In '66

Lorne Rubenstein writes in his latest column (if the first link doesn't work, try this Google Canada search page) about a similar no-driver strategy employed by Jack Nicklaus in 1966.

Jack Nicklaus did something similar when he won the 1966 British Open at the Muirfield Golf Club in Gullane, Scotland, except that he used his driver 17 times out of 56 opportunities.

The ball didn't fly as far then, even for Nicklaus, so the strategies are comparable.

Nicklaus, then 26, and golf's powerhouse as Woods is today, used his driver on most holes during his first practice round. He used the driver fewer and fewer times in subsequent practice sessions, until, as he wrote in The Greatest Game of All, his early autobiography, he came to a conclusion.

"By the eve of the championship there was only one hole, the long fifth, where I planned to drive with my driver in any wind, and there were only a handful of other holes, all lengthy par-fours, where I planned to take my driver in certain kinds of wind," Nicklaus said. "Everything considered, this amounted to the best preparation I had ever given a tournament in terms of learning a specific course."

Rubenstein also shares some of his email exchanges with Donald Steel on the Hoylake and his design career. 

"You don't see shots like that in the U.S."

Gary Van Sickle in this week's SI Golf Plus, writing about Hoylake and helping to make up for the Monarrez debacle:

Yes, Royal Liverpool had issues: The traffic was terrible, with the worst backups at any major since the 1993 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, and daily crowds of 40,000-plus made spectating difficult. But the course itself was a winner. It was resistant to scoring, especially considering the weather and the lack of wind, the main defense of a links. Colin Montgomerie said the course was so fast that it must've been playing at "about 5,500 yards in real terms" rather than the 7,258 yards on the scorecard. Plus, with four par-5s reachable for everybody -- even short-hitting Fred Funk eagled the 18th -- par was really 70, if not 69. Knock two strokes off par and Woods's winning score of 270 is only 10 under. Not bad for a course that held its first Open in 1897 and was part of Bobby Jones's Grand Slam in 1930.

The bunkers are the thing at Royal Liverpool. There are 92 of them, and they're deep, have steep faces and are placed exactly where they can cause the most damage. The fairway bunkers especially are in essence one-stroke penalties. To avoid them Woods put the two-iron in his bag for the first time in eight months. "It's the best-bunkered course I've ever played," said Jerry Kelly, who finished 26th. "I'm one of the straightest players out here, and even I was hitting three-irons off the tee to stay short of them. They're no picnic."

During the third round Kelly did wind up in one. Short-sided at the par-4 7th, he blasted his ball as high as he could, then watched as it ran downhill and into the cup for an unlikely birdie. He raised his arms as if to say, Can you believe that?

You don't see shots like that in the U.S. With luck, we'll see them again at Royal Liverpool.

"The essential problem with the British Open is that it's always played on links courses"

Sounds to me like Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press has spent a few too many days under the hot sun studying the misunderstood genius of Warwick Hills. Or, he just needed to fill some column space.

I've made up my mind. I hate the British Open.

And don't give me this "cradle of golf" and "oldest championship" argument. I don't care. If you want antiquity, go visit pyramids.

This is golf. Or at least it's supposed to be golf. Instead, we have to watch the best golfers in the world strike balls that land and roll another 50 yards on courses so rock-hard and dried-out they make I-94 look soft and supple. And I'm getting tired of it.

I'm tired of seeing so many pot bunkers in play it makes the course look like the face of an acne-riddled teenager.

This is special:

The essential problem with the British Open is that it's always played on links courses. The U.S. Golf Association's definition of a links course is "tracts of low-lying, seaside land (that) are characteristically sandy, treeless and undulating, often with lines of dune ridges and covered by bent grass or gorse."

Basically, these courses were built on fallow ground that linked the sea to farmland. My bet is that golf was invented when two Scotsmen looked at the useless land and one said to the other, "Fancy a game of hitting a rock with a stick for four hours?" If only the other guy had said, "Nah, let's visit the pyramids," we all would have been a lot better off.

Bamberger: Once More, With Feeling

From Michael Bamberger's Sports Illustrated game story on the Open Championship:

But links golf has always been about iron play -- and wind. By Tiger's count, he missed only three iron shots all week. O.K., the wind was very meager, not a totally thorough test. Still, in an era when the long iron is practically dead, Woods showed his long-iron play is alive and well. He controlled his distances by controlling the trajectory. The excellence of his strikes was announced by the clouds of dirt and grass kicked up by his clubhead.

Will he get to 19 professional majors, one past Nicklaus's record total and Woods's holy grail? It'll be hard. One a year from 2007 through 2014, when he'll be 38, would do it, but that's a huge task. Yes, golfers these days are competitive beyond 40. Tom Watson and Fred Funk, combined age 106, made the cut last week. But Woods has been playing on the big stage for 15 years already. For any pro to play at the top of his game for a decade is substantial. With all that he has accomplished, it's daunting to think he has nearly a decade more to go (at one a year).

But we know more about him now, this golfer and man in transition, than we did when he stood on the 17th green on Saturday, when he could have gone either way in the championship's final 19 holes. We know now that Tiger Woods, playing for his mother and his wife and himself and his legacy and in his father's memory, is capable not only of stunning golf, but also of summoning his talent when he most wants it. It didn't happen at Augusta, it didn't happen at Winged Foot, but it happened at Royal Liverpool, and one for three in golf is outstanding. We know that he's evolving as a man in appealing ways. (Nicklaus did the same in his 30s.) We know now that his father's death did not rob him of emotion. If anything, it did the opposite.

Tiger's long, sobbing postvictory hug with Williams brought to mind another famous golf embrace. Not the hug Tiger shared with his father in '97, when he won the Masters for the first time, at age 21, by 12 shots. That was all about, "We did it." That was all about, "We showed 'em." The hug on Sunday brought to mind a scene at Augusta in '95, when the winner, Ben Crenshaw, was comforted by his caddie, Carl Jackson, days after Gentle Ben had buried his teacher and surrogate father, Harvey Penick. The SI cover line was, ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING. Still works.

Faldo-Azinger Pairing May Return For Future Opens

Richard Sandomir writing in the New York Times:

Faldo has already signed a new deal with the Golf Channel, but he said that he could work for ABC during the next three British Opens, while he expects Azinger to return to playing more regularly.

Norby Williamson, the senior vice president for production for ESPN and ABC Sports, said: “We’re interested in pursuing a course of action that keeps them together. We’re in discussions with Paul.”

Sandomir also has this on Sunday's rating:

Perhaps the thought of such an unsightly delicacy sent Sunday’s final-round overnight rating down 4 percent, to a 5.0.

Everywhere else it was reported as being up (4.9 to 5.0 generally seems like an increase, but maybe not to the paper of record?). Toni Fitzgerald in Media Life reports the rating was up 2%:

Ratings for this year’s two previous majors were down compared to last year, and the Tour, desperate to end its late-summer and fall declines, is one year away from instituting a first-ever season-ending playoff structure in hopes of goosing viewership.

Thus even a small boost for Sunday’s British Open ratings had to be considered good for the game. Woods’ victory, his first major championship of the year, averaged a 5.0 overnight household rating Sunday, up 2 percent over last year’s 4.9 when Woods also won the tournament.

If final ratings released later today hold, the final round could rank as the second-best final round in the past two decades, trailing only Woods’ record 6.4 for his 2000 victory...

Tell Me What You See

I promise, that's the last obscure Beatles reference in a post title.

Aerial View Of No. 17 (click image to enlarge)Anyway, the miracle that Google Earth is, the Hoylake aerial photo is not out of focus as I originally thought, but very much in tact and showing...yes, the old 17th green that was taken out by Donald Steel a few years ago.

Playing as the first hole in this year's Open Championship, the original 17th was an H.S. Colt-designed number perched on Stanley Road, where the occasional putt on the back portion of the green could conceivably roll out of bounds.

SI Golf Plus readers know that we featured it as the finisher on our recent Colt Dream 18, in part to highlight one of the great architectural crimes of the new century.
No. 17 and Stanley Road (click on image to enlarge)

No. 17 up close (click on image to enlarge)Imagine how fun it would be if they returned the original routing at Hoylake to not only put back the infamously difficult finish written about by Darwin and company, while also returning a genuine road hole that would give Hoylake the classic hole that it currently lacks.

Key word there, imagine. Because it probably won't happen. 

I Don't Want To Spoil The Party...

My initial jubilation at Hoylake's successful rewarding of strategic play was tempered a bit after talking to a trusted observer. This chap knows the course well and despised the R&A's juggling of the closing holes.

And, like Tiger hinted, this observer felt that the over-the-top weekend hole locations were designed for one purpose: to keep scoring in check so that we would not notice that technology has rendered Hoylake irrelevant.

Me, being the eternal optimist, insisted that too many positives remain. Namely, that brown, firm golf on a well-designed course created an ideal model for tournament golf, especially since it rewarded such intelligent and measured play from Tiger.

But what if the R&A had made the hole locations a bit more accessible Saturday and Sunday, and Tiger wins at 24 under, with two other players around 20 under?

Would Ron Whitten be considered a prophet for declaring the course outdated?

I'm starting to think so, especially after reading this heartburn inducer from Alistair Tait of Golfweek. 

All the talk about scores reaching 20-under-par proved to be hot air. Sure the winning score was 18-under-par, just one stroke short of Woods' Open Championship record set at St. Andrews in 2000.

So what? The fact Woods emerged with the Jug proves the course passed the test. Had it been Joe Bloggs from anywhere or everywhere, then it would have been a different story.

So much for all the worry about the quirky nature of the golf course – the internal out of bounds, the three undulating greens that stuck out like old range balls in a bucket full of new Titleists.

Hoylake proved this week that it has enough natural defences to withstand the talents of the game's greatest players.

Course playing too short? No problem. Just tuck the pins.

That's what the R&A did this week. They put pins on the front of greens, had holes cut close to the side of greens so that a boldly struck putt could run off the greens.

See why I'm not feeling so good about this now.