They are some of the most famous landmarks in golf. From Thursday night we'll once more be familiar with the Principal's Nose, Hell Bunker, the Road Hole and the Valley of Sin.
There are others too. The Beardies, Cheape's and the Swilcan Burn are forever part of the Old Course
at St Andrews.
And so this week, the best players in the world assemble for the 27th time at the oldest and most famous golf course in the world to find, as the Royal and Ancient so quaintly puts it at their prize giving, "The Champion Golfer for the Year".
The British Open has produced low-profile winners each of the past two years - champions who failed to validate their surprise victories with subsequent success. But history says that won't be the case this year. Much of the Old Course's reputation is founded on the genuinely great players who have won Open Championships there.
It was Woods in 2000, Faldo in 1990, Ballesteros in 1984 and Nicklaus in 1978 and 1970.x In earlier years there was Bobby Jones in 1927, Sam Snead in 1946 and Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke in the 1950s.
So when the Claret Jug is presented a week from tomorrow, logic says the new holder will be one of the game's best.
Two of that elite have been offering different opinions on some changes made to the layout for this year's championship. Five holes have been lengthened for a total extra length of just 164 yards, or 148 metres. The changes have been made to bring some of the Old Course's famous fairway bunkers - like The Beardies (14th hole), Cheape's (2nd), and the Principals Nose (16th) - back into play.
Tiger Woods says the changes add nothing because he reckons the direction and strength of the wind dictate whether a bunker is in play or not. Phil Mickelson, though, takes the R&A's own line, that the new tees look as if they're in the natural position for the hole in the modern era. So Mickelson and Woods disagree. It's not the first time and it won't be the last.
The more significant changes to the Old Course are the bunkers. There's 112 of them and in 2000, Woods avoided every one in every round. It was the key to his eight-shot win.
For this year, every bunker has been rebuilt. None have been moved but some have been enlarged, some deepened, and all have new walls. Anybody who can stay out of them all is again sure to be a serious contender.
No matter what reconstruction has been done, the key to what transpires will be the wind. Two of the last three Opens at St Andrews have been played in benign conditions. Faldo shot 18 under in 1990 (Greg Turner still remembers with horror missing the cut at even par) and Woods went one better with 269, 19 under, in 2000.
When Michael Campbell made his run for glory in 1995, the wind blew and John Daly and Constantino Rocca tied at only six under. The long-range forecast has St Andrews with only light to moderate winds from the south around 15kph for the first three days. That suggests some low numbers are in prospect.
This Open shapes as really special. Nicklaus will bow out. Woods will try and dominate as he did in 2000 but with more three-putts already this year (23) than he had all of last year, he'll need to improve on the greens. And then there's our Michael.
Famously third on the Old Course in 1995, he missed the cut by one shot there in 2000. The chances of him winning two majors in succession are impossibly long but it would be great to see him as a factor in the fourth round.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
They are some of the most famous landmarks in golf. From Thursday night we'll once more be familiar with the Principal's Nose, Hell Bunker, the Road Hole and the Valley of Sin.
There are others too. The Beardies, Cheape's and the Swilcan Burn are forever part of the Old Course
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.