AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > July > 23 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCourse does not measure up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
The Old Course, otherwise known as St. Andrews, has now been joined in a state of Open obsolescence by Royal Liverpool Golf Club, otherwise known as Hoylake, with a bow to Tiger Woods. Harsh, you say, though not just one person’s opinion, but a verdict firmly delivered in the 135th British Open just concluded. Any time a tournament player can win a championship using irons as his major driving weapon, that course does not measure up to what the Royal & Ancient stands for in its Open, considered by a great many as the world championship of golf.
Oh, no, the Old Course will always be included. It cannot be otherwise. St. Andrews is generally embraced as the world capital of golf. The R&A lives there, and as it stands now, has decreed that the Open will be played there every five years, so they might as well line up the claret jugs and engrave Woods’ name on them. The two very old courses are cousins in layout and challenge, and disturbingly out of touch with golf with its latter-day technology and equipment.
“Looking backward is no way to move forward,” Ron Whitten, Golf Digest’s architecture editor, wrote before play began at Hoylake. The acreage has been sneerlingly referred to “as Royal O.B.” by many of Hoylake’s detractors. So the question was, why was the Open returned the course after a 39-year absence?
The property is so confined that the practice ground had to be moved across a street to a municipal course. Much of the inner course was out of bounds, though I saw only one shot actually struck out of bounds, that by Adam Scott on the l8th hole Sunday. I’m sure there were more hit by lesser players, but they were never considered television fare. Curious to me will be the post-mortem reviews of the UK media, printed and verbalized.
This is not to take away from Tiger Woods’ play, only to emphasize his brilliance. His finishing round was a display of near perfection. He hit only one errant shot that led to a bogey, though his train of thought was interrupted several times by distractions from the gallery. His winning score of 270 was the lowest since he won at St. Andrews at 269 in 2000. It was a work of art, though he managed only a par on the par-5 18th hole, an amazing feat of total concentration. It was over long before it was over, though oft times Ian Baker-Finch beseeched the television audience not to go away. He shouldn’t have fretted. Who would have thought of tuning out to auto racing and a world’s strongest man contest?
Sergio Garcia was never better poised to have his run at Tiger. One stroke off the lead as they left the first tee, but by the turn the Spaniard was out of it. He had played the front nine in 29 on Saturday. Sunday his score was a fat 39. He was a much more exciting challenger as a 19-year-old when he went down to the wire with Woods in the PGA Championship at Medinah. He, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen and Angel Cabrera all got off to dismal starts and were out of it early, and Goosen had been the pre-championship choice of several. Ernie Els lurked, and that’s about as close as he got. Only Chris DiMarco represented the American entourage with unfailing challenge, burdened as he was in grief for his late mother.
Phil Mickelson? If there was any game in him, it never surfaced. He stuck to a big club off most driving holes, was all over the course and missed as many putts as Delaware is wide. “The Americans played very poorly,” Peter Alliss said, and that pretty much summed it up for our side, DiMarco exempted.
Alliss also said that “they may be back here in six or seven years,” referring to the Open. That remains to be seen. It was amazing, if the estimate was accurate, that they were able to squeeze 150,000 spectators inside the boundaries. Safe to say, it was considerably more comfortable from where I sat.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Furman Bisher
Comments
By I think with a drawl
July 24, 2006 09:49 AM | Link to this
Tiger whipped that course and the other golfers exactly like he was expected too. The only way to “Tiger-proof” a course is to ban him from competition. I predict a Tiger Slam in 2007!
By Par Shooter
July 24, 2006 10:33 AM | Link to this
Hoylake will be hosting Open Championships long after you are gone, Furman. You sound like a 90 year old man complaining that your jello was not done right.
This week saw Hoylake under the most ideal weather conditions imaginable. Even with that, the course presented fair challenges and would have shown its teeth any other time with rain and wind. You make mention that the course is obsolete because the winner did not need driver. Tiger did not use driver because be is the best long iron player in the game today. No other player in the field could have made the cut having to hit as many 3 & 4 irons from the fairway as Tiger did. In addition, Tiger beat the best players in the World who were hitting their drivers while Tiger was teeing off with irons. Bottom line is that Tiger is the best in the World and developed a game plan geared to his strengths. The O.B. at Hoylake rarely came into play because the players feared it and took precautions in what and where they hit. Without the O.B., you would have seen players hitting driver with reckless abandon on those holes. Hoylake brought strategy back to golf for a week.
Finally, it does not surprise me one bit that a curmudgeon like yourself would miss the best part of this story. Chris Dimarco put up the best and only fight against Tiger yesterday. He made putts from everwhere to keep the tournament close and forced Tiger to win the Jug versus it being handed it to him. Dimarco has shown that he is the only one who stands up to the #1 player down the stretch at Majors.
Time for you to eat your pudding cup and take a nap.
By Par Shooter
July 24, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
Peter Alliss saying “The Americans played poorly” is foolhardy. Check the final standings to see that Americans placed 1st, 2nd, and 4th. Peter should be calling out the Europeans whose big guns did not even make it to the weekend and those that did- Sergio- melted away like a Spring snowshower when the pressure came.
By bill
July 24, 2006 11:16 AM | Link to this
Where is the “obsolescence” you mention regarding Hoylake? It can’t be that the winner did not use his driver. It can’t be that the scores were near record low. Can it be that your preference would have been to have someone other than Tiger win the event? Some who used driver were, in your own words, “all over the place”. In my opinion, this course was an excellent test of the very essence of the game of golf; course managemment, precision shotmaking and exceptional execution. Those who failed in these key areas failed to win, period. Keep it in the fairway, hit the greens and make some putts. All of us who play the game attempt to do this everytime we tee it up. Tiger did this to near perfection this week. That didn’t make the course obsolete, it just showed that near perfect golf is really possible. A source of inspiration for all us weekend duffers.
Bill S
By Blue Mist Stebe
July 24, 2006 12:29 PM | Link to this
I have struggled to maintain interest in the British Open, with its second-class camera placement, worn-out looking sheep pastures for rough, and dead-looking grass in the fairways and “greens.” I like how they fill the place up with fans - can you see 150K patrons at Augusta? - but it continues to be a snoozer on TV. Only Tiger could save it for Americans.
Why can’t they move the Open to good-looking, well-maintained new courses, assuming there are some tracks there that aren’t “goat holes.”
By plez...
July 24, 2006 12:56 PM | Link to this
Bisher writes: “Only Chris DiMarco represented the American entourage with unfailing challenge, burdened as he was in grief for his late mother.”
Aren’t Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk Americans?!?
By hilton s.
July 24, 2006 02:10 PM | Link to this
Please do not take anything away from Hoylake. For a change the wind conditions did not play a major role. I take my hat off to Tiger. He knew his driver would cause him problems and he came up with a strategy and stayed with it and won. Seem to me if the long irons was working for Tiger, someone else would at least tried the same strategy too!
Hilton
By Tommy
July 24, 2006 02:57 PM | Link to this
I thought the camera work by ABC was very second rate. Other than that, my main complaint would be the brown, dry, and dusty patches of dirt they referred to as fairways. Why don’t they at least use enough watering to make the course visually appealing?
By Par Shooter
July 24, 2006 03:34 PM | Link to this
All the camerawork was from the BBC not ABC. ABC got the raw feed from the BBC and televised what they thought best for the USA audience. That said, it was annoying when time and time again the cameramen lost the ball and panned the entire hole looking for it. Azinger said the BBC cameramen could not see what clubs the players were teeing off with and subsequently panned too far down the fairway for the ball.
Hoylake was brown because the area is in a rare drought and old links courses have limited irrigation systems. If you watch highlights of past Open championships, you will rarely see a course as brown as what we saw at Hoylake. I visited Scotland this Summer and they have not had the drought that England has experienced. Most of the courses I played were green. Contrary to what some have posted here, I am completely against moving the Open to green, parkland, manicured courses. If they do that, it will be no different from the PGA. There is a newer course near St. Andrews called Kingsbarns that would be great for an Open. It is a seaside course but it is green and well taken care of. Lack of history will keep the Open away however.
By Malted Falcon
July 24, 2006 05:42 PM | Link to this
Right on, Mr. Bisher, you nailed it again. Those of you out there talking about what great strategy Tiger used by using irons are missing the point. If this is the “championship” of golf (which I dispute) then a player should be tested completely. SOME holes should require a player to hit the club that travels the farthest for a real chance to score. Par fives that you can reach (easily) in two after hitting iron off the tee are second rate. Try getting around a US Open course hitting 2-iron or even Augusta and let’s see how low he goes. The point is THIS WAS NOT A GREAT TEST OF GOLF FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP. And anyone suggesting Mr. Bisher has some kind of Tiger bias is a moron.
By Par Shooter
July 24, 2006 11:33 PM | Link to this
Malted Falcon- The beauty of this Open is that Tiger was the only one to hit irons and the occasional 3 wood off the tee yet he beat the best players in the world using their drivers. No other player could have accomplished this or they would have employed the same strategy. You forget that it took some serious precision for Tiger to pull this off. On most holes he was left with 3&4 irons into very tricky greens guarded by mine fields. Tiger was able to put his 3 iron approaches closer to the hole than his competitors could place their wedges. If Hoylake had any wind or rain, I can assure you that Tiger would have been forced to pull his driver out at least 2-4 times per round. The weather is always the equalizer in the Open and this year Hoylake had none. Next time the Open shows up there could be an entirely different experience.