Young Tom Morris Memorial thread ... The Open 2010

Here's the thing I like about the Open links courses: they force you to play different types of shots than are normally seen on North American courses. Pebble Beach is like that in many ways, too.

How often have we seen players like Tom Watson and Nick Faldo hit those bump and run shots to keep the ball down out of the wind, land short of the green and run it up? There's a certain skill level involved in that and it's one reason Watson could contend at Turnberry when he'd have no chance at all at Augusta National or most PGA Tour courses.

Playing courses like that periodically is a nice change from the week to week norm. However, I don't think Celtic Manor (site of the Ryder Cup) in Wales is really a links course. Anyone know much about it?

 

Celtic Manor looks like any one of 5,000 U.S. courses in somewhat hilly terrain. The first 14 holes are built on a lower, flat valley. The last four are positioned along a hillside that will make for fantastic viewing areas, but there's not shot you'd play there that you'd find at the great links courses. The U.S. players can hit their gap wedges all day long.

Probably the most intriguing hole is the dogleg-right 15th. You can play it conventionally with a fairway wood and 9-iron, but a gap in the trees allows the long-hitting gambler to try to drive the green. In matches where there are partners, you'll see a lot of instances where one player lays up safely and then his partner takes a crack at reaching the green. The 18th is a par-5 with the green built about 20 feet above a pond; it's a shaved bank, so every ball that's short of the putting surface will end up being wet.

The best course in the country is 40 minutes away at Royal Porthcawl.

 

Also something to note: Whistling Straits, the site of the 2010 PGA Championship, is a links course.

 

Here's the field. Oh, and the RCGA (Royal Canadian Golf Association) has changed its name to Golf Canada. Stupid

http://www.rcga.org/news_details.aspx?ID=2290

We live about ten minutes from St. George's but it's $70.00 daily Thursday to Sunday. Think I'll watch it on TV unless my neighbour has some freebees.

 

I think Junkie would prefer to play 18 holes on a golf course with a retractable roof.

 

And for the large fans to replicate St. Andrews.

 

It's an abomination.

 

I didn't know that, but I would bet it changed its name because "Golf Canada" would be considered bilingual.

Next up - the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will become "Police Canada."