Mikes British Open Preview
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:53:06
In North America, it's easy to forget just how big this tournament is, but for most of the world, this is the grand championship. This is the 132nd time it's been played, so on history alone, it's quite something.
I came over last week to help prepare for the Open as well as to have some fun with a few friends. We stayed in London and played a number of the courses around the area, and that helped me adjust to the time change. I also got myself into the feel of playing some of the shots I know will be necessary here this week, shots that we don't normally play in North America such as the bump and run.
The weather here has been fantastic, although quite unusual for Britain. Before I left to come over, I went out and bought some new turtlenecks and warm weather stuff - but if the rules had allowed me to play in shorts this week, I would have done it. It's actually quite hot, in the 30s. You needed some sunscreen to be sure.
That means that the course is also playing fast and hard, which I'm sure the R&A loves. For the players, it can be a bit scary when you see how deep some of those bunkers are. You'd hate to see a good tee shot run an extra 30 yards and end up in one of those things because unless you get really lucky, you're pitching out backwards. Or it might end up in the rough or fescue and even though the dry conditions have made it sort of wispy, it's still nasty. I hit a couple of shots in the long stuff during my practice round on Tuesday and it just grabbed my club when I tried to hit it out.
Overall, Royal St. George's is a wonderful course. There are a lot of shots where you're not exactly sure where you're going, but that's part of what the Open Championship is all about. It's definitely a shotmaker's golf course - you don't necessarily have to hit it a mile off the tee to compete here - it's more a case of getting it into the fairway and the right position off the tee. I probably won't play more than a handful off drivers each day. Then you have to manage the greens, which have some tricky breaks on them. I've been spending a lot of time analyzing the greens and trying to see how they run. I think putting will be the key this week; the course is a bit quirky so you're not going to hit every fairway and not going to hit every green so you are going to have to rely on putting to get through those holes.
One thing that happens at every Open is that you get some crazy bounces. A couple of times I've hit a shot that I thought was perfect only to see it deflect off a hump and bounce 10 or 15 yards off line. There's no real way you can prepare for that - in North America, we might consider it unfair; here, it's just part of the game. So patience will also be a key here for the players in the field; you can't get upset over things you can't control, and this is just that sort of thing.
But heading into Thursday's first round, I'm feeling confident with my game. My putting has been coming around; I was especially pleased with it at the Western Open, my last start so I'm hoping it's going to continue here. We'll find out come Thursday.
Thanks for your support.
Mike
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