LUCK, PATIENCE NEEDED TO CLAIM THE CLARET JUG
Links golf presents challenges that will test mettle of world’s best golfers at 149th Open
For those who grew up playing links golf, the word `links' is unnecessarily descriptive. It's simply golf.
Almost like how it's not the British Open, but simply The Open. Don't worry though, this isn't a column about that.
For anyone who learned the game in North America, links golf needs a unique name because it sure seems to have little in common with the game we watch and play on weekends.
The differences are stark and begin as soon as you arrive in the parking lot. On this side of the pond, the most prestigious courses generally do everything they can to let you know how lucky you are to step foot on their perfectly manicured grass. On the other side of the pond, as you approach the course, you often find yourself wondering whether you've made a wrong turn as the road narrows to half a lane to make room for Old Mrs. Kirkpatrick's rose bushes, until you see a modest gate suddenly welcoming you to Royal Something-or-another.
Once on the course, the first thing you notice is the lack of trees. Growing up playing North American parkland courses, trees are as much a part of golf as fairways and greens (perhaps more, depending on how you're hitting it that day). In contrast, this week at Royal St. George's, site of the 149th Open Championship beginning Thursday, there is exactly one tree on the course. It's on the par-3 fourth hole and it's there simply to remind you that trees exist.
Once you're actually playing links golf you quickly realize that, unlike over here, the hole is not a target but rather a destination, and an unlikely one at that. Perhaps that's why tee shots are called drives, because your ball will make plenty of turns, right and left, lucky and unlucky, as it skips across the lively sandbased turf.
For all the differences between the two games, the biggest one occurs in your mind when you willingly or unwillingly realize that, as much as you prepare and as well as you execute, some things are out of your hands.
That's not easy for anyone, let alone the Type A perfectionists who are teeing it up this week. Rory Mcilroy grew up playing links golf and won the 2014 Open Championship, but he's still coming to terms.
“Over the years I've just become more and more comfortable with this style of golf, and I think more than anything else, there's a lot more variables in the Open Championship and on links courses,” he said on Tuesday. “Once you learn that you can't control those variables, then you just have to go out and accept whatever is given to you. I think as I've gotten a little more experience and matured, I've been able to play this championship a little bit better, and hopefully I can continue that record this week.”
Accepting that luck (or the rub of the green as it's called in links land) can play a large role in deciding who wins the Claret Jug isn't easy, but the great ones almost always figure it out.
A century ago, Bobby Jones famously tore up his scorecard and was disqualified at St. Andrews in his first trip to The Open after a front-nine 46 and losing a battle in a bunker on the 11th hole. As with any story from 100 years ago, there are differing accounts of how it went down, but Jones returned five years later and won at Royal Lytham before exorcising his St. Andrews demons a year after that, winning by six strokes. He would eventually call the Old Course his favourite place in the world to play a match.
Tom Watson won five Open Championships, but he didn't always embrace links golf. His come-to-tom Morris moment came over a few pints with a friend after he'd already captured two Claret Jugs.
“In '79 I was on my pity pot thinking about Lytham St. Annes and I wasn't playing very well and I was whining, I don't like this type of golf, it's terrible golf and it doesn't reward a good shot, and you have to guess too much, there's too much uncertainty,” Watson said in 2015 at his final Open Championship. Two years later, then-usga president Sandy Tatum asked Watson to join him to play some links golf on courses he hadn't played.
They played Ballybunion the first day, then both Royal Troon and Prestwick the second, separated by what Watson described as a “very unsobering lunch.” On the third day, they played Royal Dornoch on a sunny morning before the skies opened up as they, again, enjoyed a few pints with lunch.
“I look at Tatum, and I said, `Tatum, what do you think?' He said, `I'll organize the caddies.'” Watson recalled.
“We went out and we played another 18 holes in the wind and the rain. That's when I fell in love with links golf. That was quite a struggle, struggle, struggle. You occasionally hit the shot that really makes you proud, but it's always a struggle. That's the element.”
For some, links golf is love at first sight. Tiger Woods instantly saw it as an opportunity to use his entire repertoire of awesome skills to create new shots in real time as the course dictated.
For other greats, it takes time before their links awakening.
Will we see one this week?
Who will it be?
Maybe Bryson Dechambeau's analytical mind will crash trying to compute all the variables and his golfing mind will be forced to take over. Or perhaps the golf gods will shine on Tiger's buddy Justin Thomas, who might have more golf shots than anyone in the world, but has had a tough go of it this year personally after losing his grandfather — and then some sponsors after an unfortunate slip of the tongue.
We'll have to wait until Sunday to find out, because more than any other major, you never know what might happen.
That's the beauty of the Open Championship. That's the beauty of links golf.