Muirfield, the East Lothian golf club with origins dating back to 1744, plays host to this year’s Open Championship. For the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, this, the 142nd running of the event, will mark the sixteenth occasion they have done so.
The Open Championship is played only on links courses, of which there are nine in the current rota – five in Scotland and four in England. Linksland is typically characterized by dunes, an undulating surface, and a sandy soil unsuitable for arable farming. Here thrive the indigenous browntop bents and red fescue grasses needed to provide the firm turf associated with links courses and the bump and run game.
The style of play suited to a links course is considerably different from that appropriate to other courses. The challenge of links golf falls mainly into two categories: firstly, the nature of the courses themselves, which tend to be characterised by uneven fairways, thick rough and penal chasms known as “pot bunkers”; and secondly, due to their coastal location and low-lying tree-less terrain, wind.
And what about Muirfield – will the same apply to a course some describe as the least links-like of the Open venues?
Two-time Open Champion, Padraig Harrington, offers his view. “It’s startling the way the ball reacts in links golf versus parkland. The ball flies lower. The weather affects the ball so much more. A 10 mph wind on a parkland course is not a big deal, but 10 mph on a links can affect the flight of your ball by 20, 30 yards. The air is heavier. There’s nothing protecting the course from the wind. Everything is magnified.”
Harrington, whose Open Championship wins came in 2007 at Carnoustie and 2008 at Royal Birkdale, has a liking for Muirfield. “It’s one of the players’ favourite venues,” he said, “because it’s a strong but fair test. There are fewer bad bounces. The fairways are flatter. It’s a solid, what-you-see-is-what-you-get course. It’s not like Royal St George’s, which gets so hard that tee shots can run 80 yards. It’s the least links-like Open course because it’s the most just.”
Harrington finished just one stroke out of the playoff won by Ernie Els when Muirfield last held the Open, in 2002. Els’s second Open victory, at Royal Lytham & St Annes, was just 12 months back, making him the defending champion in more ways than one.
The key to Els’s win back in 2002 was his performance in the third round – a round played under the most horrendous weather imaginable. What made it worse was it had not been forecast – players hadn’t packed for it. The resulting storm combined wind and rain in a tempest few players will ever forget. Els shot a 1-over 72 that day which may rank as one of the rounds of his life.
Compare that with Woods’s 10-over 81 – still his worst score as a professional. In his words, “I tried on every shot. I didn’t bag it.”
Colin Montgomerie followed up his second-round 64 with a third-round 84 to match the biggest day-to-day scoring differential in Open history.
Players, including Els, hit drivers into par 3s. Balls landing in long rough were swallowed up, never to be seen again. Ian Poulter recalls the day well. “I was just trying to survive. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was 35 mph wind with driving rain. It’s a 5-iron going 110. It’s an eight-club wind – I don’t know what it is. It’s s—, is what it is. It was awful. I mean, call it what you want – it was a 9-iron flying 210 and a 5-iron going 110. It was shocking.”
The R&A, which determines how the course is set up, has always stated that the winning score in any Open is primarily a product of the weather leading up to and during the event. Well, yes, but every player (except Els?) will hope it’s not like it was during the third round when last the Open was played here.
So, what about a spread-bet on this year’s contenders? The 18 majors played since April 2009 has yielded 17 champions. This is what makes golf betting so hard, but we will give it a go.
Realise that by the time this column is published, round one will be completed. The odds quoted here are courtesy of William Hill as at the time of writing – Monday 15 July.
- Woods: 8/1 – Makes list on grinding skills alone.
- Mickelson: 18/1 – Scottish Open winner. T2 in 2011.
- Scott: 20/1 – Last year’s melt-down still owes him.
- Westwood: 25/1 – Improved chipping skills just may win it.
- Els: 28/1 – A must have on anyone’s Open list.
- Garcia: 28/1 – Ball-striker in good form. Likes links.
- Snedeker: 33/1 – T3 last year. Recent top form returning.
- Stenson: 33/1 – Two recent T3. Now back in form.
- Harrington: 45/1 – Two-time Open winner. Loves links.
- Wood: 125/1 – Dark horse who performs well at Opens.
Happy golfing,
Golfnutter
