Doug Sack
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130th British Open preview
By Doug Sack
The 130th edition of the British Open which goes all this week and weekend
will be played on a course rich with history and character, if not scenic
beauty. Royal Lytham and St. Annes, located in Lancashire, a bedroom
community of industrial Manchester, is sort of the ugly duckling of The Open
rota. Penned in by railroad tracks on one side and what one British writer
describes as "unfortunate architecture" on the other, Lytham has never
inspired the awe you often hear about some of the other Open courses in the
British isles such as Turnberry, Troon and Muirfield yet it’s clear the
course has earned the historical respect of golfers as the nine previous
Opens played there produced a stirling list of former champions:
Bobby Jones, USA (1926)
Thomson, the greatest golfer ever produced by Australia who won five Opens,
tied with Tom Watson and one behind Harry Vardon’s record of six, had this
to say about it: "The course was born in 1886, and naturally went through a
succession of upgrades and modernizations. Its character was stamped upon it
in the early 1900s when the master, Harry Colt, put his mind to it, giving
the place its routing, its basic bunkers, and its small greens, most of
which were the natural landform.
"Yet as it stands today, Lytham is, for my money, the strictest test of a
golfer's ability on the Open-championship roster. It is a veritable torture
route from start to finish."
Of course, that is almost exactly what everyone else said about Scotland’s
Carnoustie in 1999 when Jean Van de Velde pulled off the most famous French
collapse since Napoleon at Waterloo but that’s just all the more reason to
respect Lytham: Any course mentioned by a talent like Thomson as being
tougher than Carnoustie must be a wicked test of golf.
It’s quirky for sure. The outward nine begins and ends with par threes and
is played with the prevailing winds. There are back-to-back par fives, #’s
6-7, and only four par fours on the 3,340 yards, par 35. Nick Price, who
finished second to Ballesteros in 1988, said: "The secret to Lytham is to
make some birdies on the way out then hang onto them on the way back."
After the turn to the inward nine is when Lytham shows her teeth. Now the
players will be going into a strong headwind all the way back to the
clubhouse and the last six holes are all par fours, three of them lengthy:
#14 is 445 yards, #15 465 yards and #17 467 yards. Indeed, the par fours
coming in will play longer than the par fives going out.
Lytham is not a course which can be over-powered by golfers with nicknames
of ferocious jungle animals, like St. Andrews was last year. When Gary
Player won it, he hit one-irons off every tee all four days reasoning the
keys to the course were accuracy off the tees and keeping the ball low to
reduce the influence of the wind. The greens are very small by modern
standards so you won’t see a lot of Norman-like moonshots landing on them
and backing up to the hole. However, you will see a lot of punch and run
shots like most Opens, wild whacks out of the gorse for those who miss the
fairways and some superb sand play as Lytham has walled bunkers everywhere.
On paper, you would have to think Lytham is the last place where Tiger Woods
would dominate a major but golf is played on grass and the British bookies
have made him the 3-1 favourite.
Perhaps but I don’t think so, not this time.
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