British Open 2018: A cooked carnoustie makes an unpredictable tournament even more unpredictable

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – There was something missing at Carnoustie Golf Links when players arrived this week: the color. While the R & A officials were taking the St. Andrews road time before the 147th Open, it was like they were forgetting to unpack something other than the beige of their pencil box, their burned fairways and their roughness as far as the eye can see. ] Notice, it's more of Mother Nature doing everything that the people of the Golf House have concocted. Even so, the locals have spent the past few days apologizing for the unusual drought wave of the previous month and the unique ride he created as the championship approached: a journey of non only firm and fast, but lively and arid.

How to cook-out is Carnoustie? Even the USGA officials would try to slow things down, if it was not that it was a bonding course and you did not slow down these things during a bonding course . You kiss them. So why is there not a discussion of any potential "line" crossed with the setting up of the course at the Shinnebad Hills? While everything is dried from the tee-to-green, the putting surfaces remain soft and receptive. Apparently, these things can be slowed down. (And probably should be.)

All this is a preamble to the fact that for the first time since 2006 in Hoylake, where Tiger Woods lifted the Claret jug without lifting a driver, players preparing to participate in the oldest championship golf courses face a different kind of challenge. In recent days, under a continuous sunny sky, they have been left to determine how they will color in the rest of the scene and play what is traditionally considered the most difficult test on the Open Rota. course race

For this reason, the mood before the first round of Thursday was a little more frenetic than in recent years, or recent major. The practice rounds before the four major golf events have become a dull business. Many high-level golfers discover the course days and only make a few holes during the week of the tournament to check their initial calculations. This time, there is real work, golfers and cadets pile up the game before the game officially begins in what many believe to be the most unpredictable.

doing? Tiger Woods alluded to his practice rounds saying "try to get a feel for the speed of this golf course". Where does your driver go (or can he go)? Besides, what about your 5-iron?

Justin Thomas said that one of his 18 holes had rolled 305 yards over his usual distance of 230. "If you're coming downwind and you're hitting a bit," The default reaction is that the players will recover their aggression from the tee, at least they will see their barrel pbad through. fairways in unknown parts. But this presents its own problems. Even if you use an iron rather than a metal wood, as Thomas noted, the ball will roll forever, bringing into play all the mess outside the fairways that you are trying to avoid.

Damned if you do, damned if you

For long hitters such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, the key to swing might be to let him tear despite everything. If you feel good about the way you hit the longest club in your bag, why not fight until you bring in previously inaccessible bunkers?

"If I can hit the pilot and take the bunkers out of the game, absolutely to do that," Johnson said. "You know, this week the bunkers, if you hit, it's a penalty shot … … If I can carry all the bunkers and keep them out of them, I'm going to hit a driver. "

Time will certainly dictate how golfers play when things start seriously. The forecasts, however, call for relatively mild conditions: Occasional rain but nothing in the order of open monsoons, and wind in the range of 15 miles per hour. Of course, the course could take a bath and it would not be sweet yet. If anything, it will slow down more greens.

LINK: Golf Digest Podcast-What kind of player enjoys a crisp carnoustie?

Come the actual tournament, then, the spectators outside the ropes and those at home their sofas back in the United States are likely to see everything and no matter what. Which is pretty cool. Variety is something that is sometimes lacking in modern golf. That should not be the case this week

"I think that's the beauty of [the Open]", said Justin Rose, who is consider among the favorites this week. "It will certainly favor a patient [player] because, you know, even if you play aggressively on this golf course, you will have ups and downs during the week. You are going to have bad lies. You are going to have shots that end up in bunkers. You will have breaks and bounces going against you. So, I think that accepting this is probably the widest and widest statement that the winning player will have to be patient with all of this. "

Rose admitted Tuesday that he had not yet finalized the game plan he will take with him on the first tee on Thursday.It is not unusual, he said, to devote as much time to understanding things over a significant week, but the importance of having an A plan and a plan B in place is even more important. [19659022Thiswillhelpyoutocopewiththeworkplansthatareeasytomakeitasdifficultaspossibletopracticewhenyouputintheinkcasesthatcount

"I think you can really have problems here," said Thomas. "You know, I could see, for example, like me, I'll probably hit a lot of irons here. If I get two, three above normal, nine before, anything, potentially trying to change my game plan and start hitting the drivers, and then you'll hit them in bunkers, gorse, what that he is. And you start making more bogeys and double bogeys, and the next thing you know, you turn one or two out of five or six more. "

Indeed, the anxiety of playing a major championship is the variable that, regardless of the conditions of the course, will have its traditional impact on the result of this week.

So, that makes mega-firmer and mega-faster mega-favor? A bomber? A bumbler? A man with three wins open to his credit may not necessarily say so.

"I mean, the sensation has a lot to do with the # "Open," said Woods, "and I think the guys did we were wonderful players and we also have wonderful lag putters because it's often hard to close the ball and get the ball rolling. have a number of putts from 40 to 50 feet.

Despite so much uncertainty about what is the best way to play the course in its current state, there is probably one thing that we can still count on from Carnoustie: the last hole is going to have an impact on the championship. The story makes this very clear. Whether Johnny Miller in 1975 (bogey on the last), Jean van de Velde in 1999 (triple on the last) or Padraig Harrington in 2007 (double on the last, but still winner of the playoffs), Carnoustie did not no advance. No matter the color of the course,

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