British Open all about controlling your ball

The British Open is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. For many of us in North America, it’s a small glimpse into the world of linksstyle golf, which can be described as a different game entirely than the one we play over here across the pond.

Links directly translated from Old English means “rising ground, ridge” which is typically characterized by open parkland, sand dunes and undulating surfaces.

The reason for these types of golf courses and why so many of them originate in the birth place of golf (Scotland) is because in the early days of golf’s conception, course architects had very little resources available for construction and any dirt being moved had to be done by hand.

This resulted in courses being characterized by uneven fairways, thick fescue rough, and small, deep bunkers know as “pot bunkers.”

Due to their often coastal location and lack of trees, the wind often blows aggressively — acting as a solid sound defence against the field.

These conditions drastically affect the style of play needed to compete for the Claret Jug.

Players who can control their ball flight, while hitting low, accurate shots with minimal spin tend to do best in The Open Championship.

Links-style golf is often designed with an outward nine holes going one direction and an inward nine coming back in the other direction towards the clubhouse, so players typically have to battle the wind in two separate directions.

For all these reasons on the design, landscape and playing conditions, I personally love watching The Open.

The amount of imagination a player needs to have in order to judge the contours and wind while playing this tournament is irregular for us to see and just so fun to watch. For me, it’s the golfer who can best control their variable speed with each club in their bag. In Lehman’s terms — being able to hit a 9 iron 100 yards or 150.

If you control your variable speed, you undoubtedly control your spin rate on the golf ball, which means you own your swing.

Tom Watson, one of golf’s greatest controllers of the golf ball, won The Open five times. I wonder if growing up playing golf in Kansas (the second windiest state in the U.S.) had anything to do with that?!

If I had to bet on a couple of horses this week to have a chance come Sunday, keep your eyes on Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter (my long shot) — both just had great past weeks at the Scottish Open, and are also both in the top 10 on the PGA Tours scrambling stat.

Casey Johnson is the head professional at Two Eagles Golf Course and Academy in West Kelowna.