Young Tom Morris Memorial thread ... The Open 2010

The wind was blowing balls around the greens. If a player grounds his putter behind the ball, and the ball blows away before he strikes it, it's a 1-stroke penalty.

And from what I heard, play was halted at the behest of the tournament officials, who no doubt recognized the situation.

Apropos of nothing, John Daly's wardrobe kicks ass.

 

And let me add to this destruction of ignorance by pointing out the average green size at St. Andrews is 22,000 square feet. That's THOUSAND.

Let's compare that to Pebble Beach, shall we? At Pebble, the average green size is 3,500 square feet. In fact, you could fit the short 7th hole on one of the double greens at St. Andrews. The entire hole.

Trifecta, you ever try two-putting from 100 feet? Land on the wrong side of these undulating greens and that's what you're looking at -- wind or no wind.

And the 18th hole features one of those ginormous greens. There's nothing wrong with having a driveable par-4 as your closing hole. In fact, there should be more of those. Makes golfers think, which is what you want when you're designing a course or contemplating the set-up of one for a tournament.

Links golf is a different beast. Period. You couldn't design St. Andrews today and be taken seriously, but there are architects out there -- the criminally underrated Gil Hanse comes immediately to mind -- who are into natural design. Trifecta, I suggest you take another look at what you're criticizing.

 

Tiger's too young to go into his Ben Hogan Late 50s/Early 60s phase, i.e. great ball-striking, lousy putting.

And damn, I'm not usually into blind tee shots, but I LOVE the Road Hole.

 

I step away from the TV...did Tiger just about ace the 18th???

 

That would cure a lot of his putting woes.

 

Junkie, my point to Trifecta was an education in why links golf is different, why there's nothing wrong with it and that "SinAndrews" (isn't that the name of a horse?) doesn't need tricking up or jacking with.

And I saw plenty of monster putts on those greens -- or just off of them. There was a lot of misclubbing, both during Thursday's birdiefest and today's carnage. A lot of these younger guys aren't used to dealing with SinAndrews and ginormous greens. They got an education today.

 

Sticking with pre-tournament pick of Lee Westwood. He's 6-under, six shots back. But I'm betting Oostenhuizen comes back to the field on Saturday. Westwood's been in contention before and is due to win a major and seems to like the links courses.

 

The wind is supposed to be strong again today, so I'll take an early-round golfer to take the lead over a late-rounder. Looks like a good day at St. Andrews weather-wise, so wind is the only issue they'll have to deal with.