Wind will Stamp all over us
Graeme McDowell expects Troon’s small but deadly Postage Stamp to cause carnage if the forecasters are right and wind batters The Open this week.
The former US Open champion visited Troon last weekend for an early glimpse of one of the most famous and fearsome par threes in world golf.
Measuring just 125 yards, its narrow little platform green is guarded on all sides by fiendish bunkers and thick rough.
Perfect judgement and nerves of steel are paramount on the exposed tee where anything from a wedge to a five iron will be needed – depending on wind strength and direction.
And with unsettled weather forecast, G-Mac reckons sadistic fans hell-bent on seeing the pros brought to their knees should hunker down for the week beside this dreaded eighth hole.
McDowell said: “It’s going to be carnage.
“If the wind blows at the direction I was playing it in last weekend, which was a west, you’ll see all kind of numbers there.
“I hit a six iron from 125 yards. The tee was hanging off the back and it was very hard. I tried to hit a couple seven irons and it just shot up into the air on me, so I had to go with the six iron.
“But then the next day I hit eight. That just shows you it’s a very changeable golf hole.
“With that right bunker and the pin placed high right just off the middle of the green, the Postage Stamp is unplayable.
“The Coffin Bunker is all right compared to the right bunker. It’s unbelievable. Very difficult.
“Troon is a good golf course. I enjoyed it. I played The Open there in 2004 and remember not being able to cut the ball very well.
“So for the first few holes in that right-to-left breeze I just didn’t have that shot.
“It’s good to be going back because it’s a course that I like.
“It’s not long, it’s a real shaper’s course where you have to move the ball the right way to really hold it in the wind.
“You have to be in complete control of your golf ball so for the first two rounds next week you could see anything getting shot there. It is a tough golf course to play loose on.”