The 151st Open Championship

[Splatt]

G’day Golfers,

We’re finally here! The 151st Open!!

The last major of the year, and to a lot of people, the last golf event they’ll watch this year. I know that for you guys reading this on the forum and myself that’s not the case, we’re built different, but for most, this is the end of the annual professional golfing calendar (including some of the pro’s).

The Open has the honour of being the oldest gold tournament in history with the first event being held in 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.
While we’re talking about the history let’s get into a couple of facts about the very early days of the tournament:
 

·         The first Open Championship was held at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland and was a 3-round 12-hole tournament.

·         The original ‘trophy’ wasn’t a trophy at all, but a belt of red leather and a silver buckle worth £25 (a lot of money back in those days).

·         One of the first rules of the tournament was, and I’m paraphrasing here, you get to keep the belt for the year as long as it’s safe, however, if you win the tournament 3 times in a row then you can keep it forever.

·         A few years into the event a prize pool was introduced of £10 (I told you £25 was a lot of money), however, it was only paid between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. It was deemed that first place didn’t need a cash prize as they had an expensive belt to look after for the year.

·         Between 1868 and 1870, Young Tom Morris won the event 3 times, and going back to the rule above meant he kept the expensive belt in perpetuity. This actually meant that no Open Championship was held in 1871 as they had no prize to give.

·         In 1872, an agreement was met between Prestwick, The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club for a new trophy. They each agreed to contribute £10 towards a new trophy, which would become the now sought-after Claret Jug.
 

 

This year The Open is held at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), a par-71, 7,313-yard course. This will be the 13th time that Royal Liverpool has held The Open Championship, and with the last one being held in 2014, that means this course has been on the roster for this event for a very long time.
Although, this will not be the same Hoylake as they played back in 2014. There have been at least a dozen significant changes made for the 151st Open, the most notable being the creation of a new par-3 17th (which replaced a par 4) and No. 10 now playing as a par 4 over 500 yards, versus a 532-yard par 5.

Last year, Cam Smith took out The Open Championship firing an 8 under round, which included 5 back-to-back birdies on the back 9. Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland started the last round as co-leaders, but Hovland show a final round 2-over-par finishing T-14 for the week, and McIlroy shot 2-under-par and finished in solo-3rd.



 

The R&A are excellent in the build up to The Open, and there’s already a good amount of content out there, but a recent favourite mine is this:

 

Field Highlights

·         Rory McIlroy – I’ll be upfront straight away and let you guys know I’m a Rory fan. But, dammit, my boy Rory is winning The Open this year (feel free to chastise me in the comments if he doesn’t make the cut). For those only following Major Championships, let me fill you in on Rory’s recent performance: for the past 6 tournaments, he hasn’t finished outside of the top 10 including a solo-2nd at the last Major and a win last week at The Scottish Open (a links course). Rory is trending to do some damage this week.
 

·         Cameron Smith – The Defecting Defender himself. Cam won in spectacular fashion last year, beating the field with pure skill; his putt on the road hole around the bunker will go down in history as one of the greatest putts on that hole off the green. Like Rory, he’s also coming into this tournament hot, winning the last LIV event in London. Is winning a limited field 54-hole event the same as winning a national non-major 72-hole event? I guess we’ll soon find out.
 

·         Scottie Scheffler – The current world number 1. I’m fairly sure this is the first time Scottie has been this far down my field highlights list, but that just goes to show the quality of his competition this week. A lot has been made of his putting and it trended downward again last week losing 0.48 shots against the field, but he still finished 3rd…… Let that sink in.
Scottie, if he’s putting well, WILL win this week, but that’s gotta be the biggest uncertainty in golf right now.
 

·         Jon Rahm – The current world number 3 (former number 1, earlier in the year). Rahm exploded earlier in the year with 4 wins in 9 tournaments (one of which he withdrew due to injury). Rahm can win any tournament he enters, he’s proven that, but his recent form is something to look at. In his last outing he missed the cut (which is rare, it’s his first missed cut of the season), and in the 3 previous he finished T-10, T-16, and T-50. If Rahm comes with his A-game then he’ll dominate, anything other than that and it’s anyone’s guess.
 

·         Patrick Cantlay – The current world number 4, and if social media is anything to go by, the slowest player to have ever existed (I’m joking of course). Cantlay has had a good enough year that if he doesn’t end up with a win at some point I’m literally going to eat my hat. He’s played well in the previous majors with a T-14 at The US Open, T-9 at The PGA Championship, and a T-14 at The Masters. He’s also played quite well in-between these events with a solo-3rd at the RBC Heritage, a T-4 at the Zurich Classic, and a T-4 at The Travellers Championship. My main concern with Cantlay is that he missed the cut last week at The Scottish Open.

The rest of the field can be found here.

 

 

Golfers, that’s it from me. I hope you enjoy The Open and it’s in a good time-zone to watch. For me, apart from local Australian Golf, it’s perfect viewing.
 

Also, if you’re US based there’s a Major picking tournament. The link is here.
Get picking!!

 

SPLATT

Edited July 18, 2023 by Splatt

[poprocksncoke]

Cantlay, Koepka and Hideki paired together should be fun 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Poor Brooks.... I can only imagine what he said when he saw he was paired with one of the players more well known for slow play. 

[Kenny B]

19 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Poor Brooks.... I can only imagine what he said when he saw he was paired with one of the players more well known for slow play. 

Coincidence?  I think not.  

[Fongle]

I am absolutely loving the background coverage The Open has, the live stuff they've done at the range, the chatting with players, and just the fly-on-the-wall coverage has been amazing

[cnosil]

15 hours ago, Fongle said:

I am absolutely loving the background coverage The Open has, the live stuff they've done at the range, the chatting with players, and just the fly-on-the-wall coverage has been amazing

I just realized that they are showing the range and practice rounds live on YouTube.   I just turned on the coverage; great to be able to watch some golf on before the tourney starts.   

[Mulligan09]

Watching Live @ The Open, had to turn off as they still B Chambel on.  Not saying any more but will not watch anything when he is on

[Splatt]

The par-3, 17th hole already has its first victim.

Lucas Herbert went into that hole tied for 1st place and was 16th afterwards.

Im tempted to have my tablet on as well as the TV so I can just stream hole 17 and watch the carnage.

[Kenny B]

Well, JT is not in last place after his 9 on #18.  

[BallsLeon]

5 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Well, JT is not in last place after his 9 on #18.  

The bunker to bunker and then chip out to rough was brutal

[Kenny B]

2 minutes ago, BallsLeon said:

The bunker to bunker and then chip out to rough was brutal

Nothing seemed to go well for him all day.

Rory had a great par save after two shots from that bunker.

[fixyurdivot]

It's the abject bias in media that continues to make professional golf, particularly PGA, circle the drain for me.  Just listened to TGC highlights for today's round and not one mention, highlight, or interview of Brian Harman in all of the McIlroy ad nauseum blathering.  I'm purposely using Harman as an example.  A journeyman player who is having one of his best years on tour... but he's short, wears baggy pants, and played for Georgia.  Week in and week out he plays solid and never gets a mention.  Fleetwood, thankfully, got a little air time but the rest of the leaders barely a mention.  Spread it around for Pete's sake... there are lots of well deserving players who have fans that follow them, and would like to see some air time when they are at the top of the leaderboard.

Rant over, enjoy the Rory Open .

 

[berkeleybob]

ACE for Travis Smyth!

• Smyth’s Open debut
• First hole in one at The Open since 1981
• First hole in one at Royal Liverpool’s new 17th
• First time I’ve ever seen a hole in one live.

 

[BallsLeon]

@fixyurdivot hard to ignore Harman today 

[Hobert]

What a 2nd Round for Harman! En fuego 

[fixyurdivot]

1 hour ago, BallsLeon said:

@fixyurdivot hard to ignore Harman today 

CBS headlines still doing a pretty admirable snub job.  Switching gears, what in the heck is going on with Justin Thomas.  It's as if he and Speith have swapped game persona's over the past year.  I really thought the switch to Bones on the bag was going to be magic... it has been anything but magic.

[Stuka44]

I have to throw this out there.  I just saw an article where the players at the Open were complaining that the bunkers were raked wrong, and they "were to penal"!   Boooo Hooooo!

Here come the RANT! and some may not like my take!!  So apparently some or maybe all of the bunkers were raked with the grooves of the sand going toward the face of the bunker.  And if a pro's ball went into the bunker with some speed the grooves would serve to have the ball  run  along  a groove and  up against the lip, and the ball wasn't going across the grooves, which would serve to slow the ball down.  AGAIN BOOOOO, FREAKING HOOOOO!  (THEY ARE GOING TO CHANGE IT, CAN'T UPSET THE ELITE OF THE GAME)

Now I know some will come to the defense of this, but my God!  Now these professionals have the "UNMITIGATED GALL",  to complain about hitting balls, into a hazard, and the hazard is, SAY IT ISN'T SO ACTUALLY A HAZARD THAT COSTS YOU A STROKE, and doesn't allow you to AUTOMATICALLY GET, OUT AND UP AND DOWN AND SAVE PAR.  Holy Crap what was the course set up guy thinking.  Actually setting up a course, and setting up bunkers, so that when the pro, tried to drive the green, or reach in two, that if he went into a greenside bunker, that hitting it into that bunker, may cost him  a stroke to get out of.  (ABSOLUTELY ELITIST SNOBBERY, ZERO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT HITTING IT IN THERE WAS A MISTAKE, AND ONLY THE SELF ENTITLED BELIEF THAT, I MUST BE ABLE TO GET THIS ON THE GREEN FROM HERE, AND HAVE A CHANCE AT BIRDIE STILL ON A DRIVEABLE PAR 4 OR REACHABLE PAR 5!!!)

SOMEBODY CALL GOD! (who some believe gave us the rules to this game), and let him know that the Elite of the Elite players, were for once in their life actually being penalized for going into a bunker, and its NOT FAIR!!  This course which is in the top 1 percentile in terms of maintenance, and care, and has nothing but near perfect lies EVERYWHERE, just isn't good enough for us.    "The bunkers are TOO HARD",   c'mon all you weekend hacks out there feel sorry for us. 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by Stuka44

[fixyurdivot]

10 minutes ago, Stuka44 said:

I have to throw this out there.  I just saw an article where the players at the Open were complaining that the bunkers were raked wrong, and they "were to penal"!   Boooo Hooooo!

Here come the RANT! and some may not like my take!!  So apparently some or maybe all of the bunkers were raked with the grooves of the sand going toward the face of the bunker.  And if a pro's ball went into the bunker with some speed the grooves would serve to have the ball  run  along  a groove and  up against the lip, and the ball wasn't going across the grooves, which would serve to slow the ball down.  AGAIN BOOOOO, FREAKING HOOOOO!

Now I know some will come to the defense of this, but my God!  Now these professionals have the "UNMITIGATED GALL",  to complain about hitting balls, into a hazard, and the hazard is, SAY IT ISN'T SO ACTUALLY A HAZARD THAT COSTS YOU A STROKE, and doesn't allow you to AUTOMATICALLY GET, OUT AND UP AND DOWN AND SAVE PAR.  Holy Crap what was the course set up guy thinking.  Actually setting up a course, and setting up bunkers, so that when the pro, tried to drive the green, or reach in two, that if he went into a greenside bunker, that hitting it into that bunker, may cost him  a stroke to get out of.

SOMEBODY CALL GOD!, and let him know that the Elite of the Elite players, were for once in their life actually being penalized for going into a bunker, and its NOT FAIR!!  This course which is in the top 1 percentile in terms of maintenance, and care, and has nothing but near perfect lies EVERYWHERE, just isn't good enough for us.    "The bunkers are TOO HARD",   c'mon all you weekend hacks out there feel sorry for us. 

 

 

Good rant.  First I've heard about "Bunker-gate" and I completely agree with the argument that bunkers are supposed to be penal.  How many times have we heard that players prefer their approach misses end up in bunkers.  They have simply become used to easy-peasy escapes on virtually all tour stop courses.  Challenged with a different format, which truly penalizes them more often than not, and the whining ensues.  Worse is that the R&A immediately rushes out to remedy the complaints by McIlroy and Rahm.  Anyone want to bet that had the complaint come from mid-pack no-names, no action is taken?  The longer I follow PGA Tour golf, the more popular the LPGA, and other tours become for me.

 

[Shankster]

Ok, Brian Harman.

[Stuka44]

31 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Worse is that the R&A immediately rushes out to remedy the complaints by McIlroy and Rahm.  Anyone want to bet that had the complaint come from mid-pack no-names, no action is taken?  The longer I follow PGA Tour golf, the more popular the LPGA, and other tours become for me.

100%  I just can't take the PGA, cry baby, pampered feel sorry for me, "I make 5 million a year for using a certain brand of club, but I have it so bad I must complain about how the bunkers are raked attitude.  I just can't watch anymore.  .

Edited July 21, 2023 by Stuka44

[Vfesenmeier]

What do you thinks going on with JT

[StrokerAce]

Thomas with an 82 on Thursday (a 9 on 18, par 5; he pars that and it's a 78 and we're not saying much, also had 2 doubles)

DJ with an 81 on Friday (2 doubles, no birdies, truly DGAF mode and ready to go make that $ on LIV)

 

...are these guys drinking the same Kook Aid ??? they might not even be on the Ryder Cup team.

 

Fitzpatrick brothers both +2 and make the cut - would be neat if they paired them up for the 3rd round.

 

I know Harman has a big lead but weather is coming and it can make a huge difference if you're not used to playing in it.

Should be an exciting finish.

 

[StrokerAce]

meanwhile, what is this guy doing ???

a 360y par 4 and he's using a driver? twice?

Driver into the bushes, had to drop on the cart path, blind shot over the green... 

Just grab a 5 iron and hit it 240 and flip a wedge in and call it a day. WTH?

That's what the clubhouse leader did...

[Jway]

1 hour ago, Vfesenmeier said:

What do you thinks going on with JT

I think he needs to fire his father.  Not sure how easy that is going to be but he needs a change.  He is as lost as Rickie was maybe more so.

[Jway]

Zack Fischer made the cut! 

[fixyurdivot]

1 hour ago, StrokerAce said:

Thomas with an 82 on Thursday (a 9 on 18, par 5; he pars that and it's a 78 and we're not saying much, also had 2 doubles)

DJ with an 81 on Friday (2 doubles, no birdies, truly DGAF mode and ready to go make that $ on LIV)

 

...are these guys drinking the same Kook Aid ??? they might not even be on the Ryder Cup team.

 

Fitzpatrick brothers both +2 and make the cut - would be neat if they paired them up for the 3rd round.

 

I know Harman has a big lead but weather is coming and it can make a huge difference if you're not used to playing in it.

Should be an exciting finish.

 

 

56 minutes ago, StrokerAce said:

meanwhile, what is this guy doing ???

a 360y par 4 and he's using a driver? twice?

Driver into the bushes, had to drop on the cart path, blind shot over the green... 

Just grab a 5 iron and hit it 240 and flip a wedge in and call it a day. WTH?

That's what the clubhouse leader did...

A perfect synopisis of links style golf.  Add major event set-up and the always crazy weather, and we spectators are, more often than not, in for a wild ride. Speaking of Christo, have you seen some of the slow-mo clips of his swing ?  It's as close to an assault on a golf ball as I've ever seen at the professional level.

32 minutes ago, Jway said:

I think he needs to fire his father.  Not sure how easy that is going to be but he needs a change.  He is as lost as Rickie was maybe more so.

Interesting thought about his Dad and whether that needs to change.  If it does, I suspect it would be his Dad who brings up the possibility as I just don't think JT could do it.

[GolfSpy_APH]

Should be a fun weekend and see if anyone can make a charge, Harman falls back to the field or if we just have a boring race for second?

[David George]

I complained to our greens staff about some of the lies you can get in our bunkers.

They asked me if I liked sex and travel. Actually, more a statement than a question .

I find myself pretty much disinterested in watching the pro game now. So much entitlement on display. Oh well, it's probably "good for the game".

[Splatt]

My boy Min Woo Lee is tied for 4th. Gunna be cheering him on the rest of the weekend

[cnosil]

Rahm played one heck of a round today.   Looks like Harman is coming back to the field and the weather is taking a turn.  

Nice that we have a lot more golf to watch today.