The
British Open presents the world's best golfers with unique challenges, and this year's event, held at Carnoustie, Scotland, will be no exception.
The changeable swirling winds, thick rough, and dry greens at Carnoustie encapsulate why the
Open Championship is such a stiff test. Nine courses from both England and Scotland are on the rotation for hosting the
Open, and none of them will have professional golfers expecting an easy few days. This is not a well-manicured parkland course.
One of the charms of the
Open in general and Carnoustie in particular is that it defies the relentless march of technology. While the golf ball has developed to a point where it has more in common with a space shuttle than the balls of twine used by "Old" Tom Morris back in the 1860s, and clubs now make a 350-yard drive look like little more than a casual flick of the wrists, the challenge of links golf is more mental than physical.
The winds sweeping in from the sea make sound judgement absolutely crucial. They keep the greens bone dry, ensuring that once players get to one of the narrow greens, they've still got a lot to do. Erratic tee shots will be punished by savage swathes of remorseless rough. The ability to crush the ball long distances is considered a huge advantage on other courses, but for links golf, it's clever thinking and good positioning that are essential.
Woods Delivers the Goods
En route to winning last year's
Open at Royal Liverpool, Tiger Woods showed just why he has a great golfing brain. Woods is a prodigious striker of the ball, but he chose to leave the driver in his bag for 71 of his 72 tee shots, emphasising the importance of control over raw power. He won comfortably, and showed the opposition that positioning and brains are the keys to successful links golf.
If anything, these rules apply more to Carnoustie than anywhere else. This is illustrated by the roll call of winners. The event has been held at the course six times, and greats such as Tommy Armour, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Tom Watson are among the winners. Although all of these players were immensely talented golfers, they all were also extremely clever players. Even the rather limited Paul Lawrie, the winner in 1999, can boast a certain canniness as one of his strengths.
Based on the controlled brilliance of Woods 12 months ago and his form this year, it's hard to oppose him winning a fourth
Open title. He seems to have links golf worked out, and although his driving can be wayward at times, he showed last year that he can be just as effective using irons off the tee. Despite the emotion of playing in his first major since the death of his father, Woods gave an awesome display of mental fortitude at Hoylake, and without the baggage to carry this year, he is rightly strongly fancied.
How to make money on the British Open Golf Championship
Making money on Tiger Woods is fraught with danger. He will be a very short price by the time the event gets under way, and there's always the chance that a Mickelson, Singh, or Els will get it together enough to deny him. One strategy, perhaps, is to wait for a couple of rounds before backing him. Tiger rarely makes explosive starts in tournaments, but he generally finishes them strongly. If a couple of players streak into an early lead and Tiger just looks to be trudging along, keep an eye on his price in the in-running market.
Playing four solid rounds of links golf is a tall order, and the early pacesetters frequently fall away by Saturday or Sunday. Tiger can put together four good rounds of golf, and even if he is seven or eight shots off the lead at the halfway point, don't rule him out. Woods tops the overall scoring averages at 68, despite not topping the scoring averages in terms of any of the four rounds individually. It's his consistent low scoring that has him at the top of the pile.
On the subject of early pacesetters falling away, Justin Rose is one to be wary off. The Englishman is a talented golfer and is enjoying a fine season, but he has failed to convert strong positions into wins. He tends to start strongly in tournaments but fade badly by the weekend. He is one to support in the first- and second-round three-ball markets, but one to lay toward the end of the tournament. Back in March, he was as short as 1/3 to win at a one stage of the
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, but contrived to throw it away. Unless he's going down the last hole with a two-shot lead, he probably won't reach that price again, but if he does make a good start and his price comes in to low single figures, he is worth laying.
To illustrate this point, so far this season, Rose ranks number one on tour for scoring average prior to the cut, at 69.58; however, in terms of final-round average, he falls to a tie for 150th place, at 73. His performance at the
BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth confirmed this. After making a great start, he carded distinctly average weekend rounds of 73 and 71, allowing his rivals back into the frame before losing to Anders Hansen in a playoff.
With the less than illustrious names of Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, and Paul Lawrie on the list of recent winners, the
Open can throw up a surprise. It's a bit of a needle in a haystack, but you could probably do worse than looking at Mikko Ilonen for a small outside bet.
The Finn did well at Hoylake last year to finish tied for 16th, and won the 2000
Amateur Championship, which is another tournament that's frequently played on links courses. He finished ninth in the
Open of 2001 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and has a
European Tour victory at the
Indonesia Open this season. While the
Open is a huge step up in class, Ilonen seems to have a game that is well-suited to links play. He's a big price and could offer a bit of value with an each-way bet.
Bookmakers reacted to Zach Johnson's winning of the
Masters as if it was a fluke. He is available at about three times the odds of Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, and Adam Scott, who between them have precisely zero major titles to their credit. Johnson may not be the most fashionable or charismatic of golfers, but surely he deserves more respect. His win at the
Masters was the culmination of gradual improvement, and it's entirely possible that, as he put it in his
Masters speech, "I just kept getting better every year."
Missing the cut in 2004, 2005, and 2006 may not be the most encouraging form figures for the links event, but there are other stats that might arouse some interest. Johnson ranks a lowly 150th on the
PGA Tour in terms of driving distance, but is in the top four in terms of driving accuracy. With Carnoustie being the type of course that rewards precision rather than booming drives, Johnson could turn a good year into a career-defining year.
A Glimpse at the Key Holes
The features of narrow fairways fiercely guarded by bunkers and rough are consistent around Carnoustie. The landing areas on the fairways are littered with bunkers and thick gorse rough that severely punish wayward tee shots. Likewise, when making approach shots to each of the greens, there are multiple sand traps to negotiate.
Hole No. 3
Par 4
On the face of it, the third hole is a short par 4. In reality, it is a test that encapsulates Carnoustie to perfection. Power means little whilst strategy and positioning are essential. There are a number of ways a player can choose to take on this challenge, and redevelopments for the 2007 Open mean that the rough is more of a factor than it has been in the past.
Hole No. 6
Par 5
Whilst golf in Scotland is frequently doused in unhealthy doses of nostalgia, the toughening of Hogan's Alley shows an awareness of the capabilities of the modern player. The bunkers located around the landing area about 280 yards down the fairway have become defunct due to big hitting, but the addition of a large bunker to the right of the fairway is a new addition that should entrap its fair share of longer drives.
Hole No. 9
Par 4
This is another hole that typifies the course. There is nothing overly complex about this 413-yard hole, but the combination of swirling winds, well-placed bunkers, and a long, narrow green meant that statistically, this hole played the toughest of them all when the Open was last held at Carnoustie in 1999.
Hole No. 17
Par 4
The stream running through Carnoustie, the Barry Burn, first comes into play on the 10th hole, but its effect is most pronounced on the penultimate hole. The river meanders through the hole at a couple of points, creating an island effect. More changes mean that the rough on this island is far more of an issue than it has been in the past. Again, the green is narrow and protected by a series on bunkers.
Hole No. 18
Par 4
Again, the Barry Burn features heavily on this hole, but its position should be less troublesome on this hole than the previous one … should be. Jean Van Der Velde famously brought it into play during his meltdown, and many other players have struggled to make their way "home."
Van Der Velde's Collapse
It's a song celebrating the indomitable spirit of humankind - a tribute to those who will not tolerate oppression and hypocrisy and are willing to fight to the death for democracy. For centuries, its rousing melodies have inspired people to fantastic deeds in the name of their country. To this day, it is instantly recognisable as the ultimate in rallying cries. So, why in 1999 was La Marseillaise used to mock a man who was on the verge of winning one of the world's most coveted sporting events?
The commentator was Peter Alliss and the victim was Jean Van Der Velde - a French golfer whose dogged persistence in difficult conditions had him in the lead going down the 72nd hole of the
Open Championship. Needing just a double bogey 6 on "home," the 18th hole of Carnoustie's unique challenge, to get his hands on the famous Claret Jug, Van Der Velde suffered the kind of collapse that still must haunt his dreams.
From the tee, Van Der Velde missed the fairway to the right. It was a bad start, but with shots in hand, he was still in control. His attempted recovery shot only added to his problems, as it veered far from its intended target and toward the grandstand. This left him with a third shot from the deep rough. Again, it wasn't ideal, but with room to play with, the
Open was still his to lose. His fourth shot landed in the Barry Burn, a stream that runs in front of the green. What followed were arguably the most insane scenes that golf has ever seen.
Taking off his spiked shoes and socks, Van Der Velde rolled up his trousers as he contemplated playing his ball, which was submerged by a few inches of matter. Alliss piped in, "I don't believe he's doing this" - his voice conveying the fact that his jaw had in fact dropped. Moments of stunned silence followed as the Frenchman tried to defy physics and logic by getting into the river to play his shot. Then came the Marseillaise. Alliss hummed the opening bars in such a manner that all dignity was stripped from Van Der Velde. What was normally associated with heroism became inseparable from madness and embarrassment.
Van Der Velde scrambled for a triple-bogey 7 to secure his place in a three-way playoff, but the damage was done. The Claret Jug had slipped through his fingers and his chance to join golf's elite was gone. He has never reached anything approaching the standards he achieved for 71 holes in eastern Scotland. To say that he hasn't reached the same levels of insanity is a bit unfair; not so long ago, he announced his intention to enter a ladies-tour event as a response to women being allowed to take part in events on the men's tour.
The stunning manner of Van Der Velde's disintegration may be unique, but it wasn't the first time that victory had been squandered over the course of Carnoustie's closing holes. In 1931, the first time that the course hosted the
Open, Jose Jurado needed a relatively straightforward closing round of 75 to take the Claret Jug. Having shot a 36 on the front nine, he was well on track as he started off down the home stretch. A series of mistakes from the Argentine, although nothing as spectacular as Van Der Velde's, squelched his chances of victory, and it was Tommy Armour who took the prize.
