The Open 2008 Blog

Hello all,

Thought I'd try and stay awake by doing a blog on my day spent at Royal Birkdale!

The reason it's a case of staying awake is that I got up early yesterday at 05:15 in order to play a county competition, only to withdraw due to injury after 18 holes.

I then drove with my friend up to Warrington and stayed there. We got there at 11:30. We got 4 hours kip by the time we checked in and had a drink, then up again at 05:30, at the course by 07:15 and didn't get back home until 21:00 tonight.

And now?

I'm on a night shift until 07:00.

Nice.

If there are any people reading this who have never been to an Open, I can highly recommend it. Today was my first time at one. Getting there early is definately the way to go. Less of a gallery means much better viewing. This is backed up by our experience at 15:00 when we left. Thousands of people lining every hole with a good view becoming a rarity.

I have seen professionals play before twice at the World Matchplay at Wentworth, but seeing an extra bunch of relatively unknown names was very enlightening.

A huge wake up call hit me like a truck during my time watching the worlds elite. Their long game is pretty much the complete reverse of us amateurs. They hit smoothly all the time with the odd lash that normally goes astray, whereas (in my experience) us lot tend to do exactly the opposite!

Without a word of a lie, 80% of the shots I saw struck today were ranging from good to excellent. When the ball was struck true even a 20mph crosswind gust had little effect on its' flight.

The swings varied in style, but all of them were pretty much a carbon copy of each other through impact. The vast quantity of good shots hit were done with a compact action. Very purposeful. They'd picked the shot and actually executed it; something us amateurs know very little about, it would seem. Even the poorer shots saw the players complete the swing fully before deciding whether it was a good or bad one.

The things that struck me most were the rythm with which these guys swing the club, the distances they hit and the accuracy with which they hit them.

I was standing by the par 3 4th tee whilst a few groups went through. The wind was blowing hard off the left and the green surrounded by pot bunkers. Two of the three players I saw first hit the green. Those two had swings that were very slow and deliberate. The strike was pure and the wind hardly touched either of them. The swing that was off was obviously quicker and snappy and the strike sounded very different. The ball started right, went further right in the wind and finished short.

This pattern continued for all the good and bad shots I saw. It is incredible how slowly and smoothly the top guys swing the club. TV doesn't do it justice. Due to the inevitable missing frames on telly, the swings appear a lot quicker than they are in real life.

As for the accuracy, the top 50 players playing there were obvioulsy more accurate than the others. It showed when all 6 balls of Rose, Harrington, Goosen, et al landed within the same small portion of green below the flag.

The distance, however, was a slight mystery.

I know conditions were tough, but the illusion of the swings made it seem as though the ball wasn't going huuuuuuuuge distances. The longest hits were the straight ones that found the fairway. A 190 yard 4 iron ain't THAT far. A 215 yard 3 wood into the wind certainly isn't far, Mr Calcaveccia, and nor is a 230 yard drive Mr Norman!

It appears that despite what the media will have us all believe, it is still a sport of accuracy and positioning first and foremost.

Food for thought.

As for the course, the fairways are narrow but perfect, the greens are equally as perfect and fairly small in relation to what I was expecting. And you don't wanna be within 6 feet of a bunker otherwise it's in it!

Great place, great golf............. just great!

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Great write-up! Thanks for sharing (you lucky B'stard!) ;-)

Great Report Neil, thanks ...

I have been on the couch watching the coverage on the TV here.

Given the time difference, the coverage starts at 12.00am and runs to about 4.30am - 5am.

So, again (following the Wimbledon fortnight) I've had precious little sleep over the past 3 days.

I've managed to get to a number of the tourney's the pro's play down here (The Oz Masters at Huntingdale, The President's Cup the last time it was here at Royal Melbourne) and yes, the one thing that strikes you as you watch is the seemingly effortless swings all these top guys have and the freakish distances they all seem to hit it, despite the lack of effort.

Seems we have a couple of Aussies in contention this time, and again, I'll be up tonight watching the final round coverage.

Can the Great White Shark rekindle his love of links golf and snare a third Open....

I for one hope so...

Cheers

__________________
Look at the Target, Look at the Ball, Swing... Dr Bob Rotella...