Posted on 07/14/2010 7:38:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The golf course created by nature and little changed by man, where the game has been played continuously for more than 600 years, is ready to face the latest challenge to its integrity by the game’s leading players armed with the very finest technological advances. The Old Course at St Andrews is about to host its 28th Open exactly 150 years since the Championship was first played at Prestwick in 1860 and it poses just as stern a test now as it did when hickory shafts and balls of solid gutta percha were the latest must-buy golf gear.
No lesser an authority on the subject than Tiger Woods, winner of the last two Opens at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005, endorses that view. “Players have gotten longer, equipment has changed but this golf course is still relevant and it can be very difficult,” he said after an early practice round. “It is because of the angles and the wind. There is so much movement out there on the fairways and greens that you have really got to hit the ball well and lag putt well. That’s where its brilliance lies.”
And if wind is the catalyst that awakes the ancient links there is likely to be no shortage of drama this week. As players headed out in final practice the north-easterly wind was gusting off the grey waters of the North Sea to 30 miles and hour. If the forecasts are to be believed, it will continue to blow from the same direction until the conclusion of the Championship, slowly reducing in strength by Sunday afternoon.
Despite his absence from the game in the early part of the year and his uncertain form since, Tiger Woods remains favourite to become the first player to win three in a row over the Old Course. But a highly motivated field of international players from more than 20 countries will be pressing their own claims to golfing nirvana by winning the game’s oldest Championship at the Home of Golf.
The nine-strong Japanese group in The Open starting field is led by 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa who startled the golfing world when he won a Japan Golf Tour event while still a 15-year-old amateur. The other Japanese contenders are Hiroyuki Fujita; Yuta Ikeda; Katsumasa Miyamoto; Hirofumi Miyasi; Ryuici Oda; Koumei Oda; Toru Taniguchi; and Shunsuke Sonada, the high-scool golf team-mate and close friend of Ishikawa.
He missed the memo.
Line of the week from Zinger, “that red dot might as well be an easy button.” FREAKING CLASSIC.
It may not have been the most memorable major Sunday but still just as cool....
Player, Els, Goosen, Immelman and now Louie Oosthuizen. All major champs full of class and humility. South Africa should be proud, sans the vuvuzelas....
new tag
For all of you golf enthusiasts...I welcome you Wild and Wonderful West Virginia this weekend! Hopefully, we’ll see you at The Greenbrier Classic! Official list of players to come out later today! :o)
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