The Open beckons
Golf’s oldest major starts Thursday, and Billy Horschel is ready to match wits with Royal Birkdale,
Billy Horschel won’t be using chopsticks this week.
“Where are we going to find sushi over here? That’s not happening,” Horschel said during his first practice round at venerable Royal Birkdale, home this week to the British Open, the oldest championship in golf, which turns 146 on Thursday.
It’s but one of the many deviations from the accustomed existence he enjoys in the USA. Although he has played in four Opens, the experience of flying across the pond to play in this major championship remains fairly unique to the man who won the 2014 FedExCup and claimed his fourth PGA Tour title this year in the AT&T Byron Nelson.
From driving on the other side of the road to seeing the sun at 5 a.m. and watching it set at 10 p.m., to playing links golf, the trip is a 24/7 puzzle that challenges one’s balance.
Horschel isn’t alone. The Open is a different breed from the weekly bomb-and-gouge approach on pristine setups in the States that are usually bathed in sunshine and warm temperatures. From packing for all four seasons to altering one’s attitude on how to attack a golf course, those who seldom journey to this side of the Atlantic have a checklist of things that must be adhered to in order to prepare for the third major of the year.
“It can confuse some, but it’s great,” Horschel said.
He and his crew treat the journey as a buddies trip. Horschel is sharing a house — he made sure it had Sky TV and all the sports channels — with his coach, Todd Anderson; caddie, Josh Cassell; his dad; and Mark Horton, his stats guru. They laugh together, walk the course together, eat together — Indian and Italian are the favored choices — and dissect the course together.
“It’s a really cool guys’ week where we have fun,” said Horschel, whose British Open finishes — three missed cuts and a tie for 30th — have been anything but fun. “We go out for a nice dinner, maybe have a pint or two at a pub, and then go back home and go to sleep at 9 o’clock.”
There always is a potential spoiler hanging over the trip — the weather.
“The weather is so unpredictable,” said Horschel, who added 15 extra sweaters, rain jackets and heavy outerwear to his luggage. “In the States, when you look at a seven-day forecast, it holds pretty true. Yes, it can change slightly. But here, it could be a nice day, and then you’re out on the course, and a little swale comes through, and all of a sudden the sun is gone and it’s cold and windy and it’s raining sideways. And then where it’s raining all day and windy all day and you just have to get through it. We don’t play in 50-degree weather much in the States, but we could here.”
The weather is a physical and psychological confrontation.
“Trust me, everyone worries about the draw,” Horschel said. “Are you going to get the good side or the bad side? Half the day could be great, half the day could be miserable, and that weighs on you. You know the weather can come in, and you just have to try and put it out of your mind and get through it.”
What is on his mind is Birkdale, a massive piece of land featuring towering sand dunes. Hard by the Irish Sea and resting on the southeast edge of this seaside town, the course offers a supreme challenge and demands imagination. Each player draws up a blueprint on how to overcome the obstacles inherent in links golf — the wind, pot bunkers and deep rough among them. Grip it and rip it isn’t in play here.
“You can’t just say ‘Give me the driver’ and then you can’t just say, ‘ OK, I have 150 to the pin. Let’s hit 9-iron and it will stop by the hole.’ No way here,” Horschel said. “You have to think about a lot more things over here — what’s the wind direction, is the green bouncy, can you land it short and run it up, and where are the pot bunkers? There are so many different options over here. I don’t like that sort of mindless golf that we unfortunately play a lot now on the Tour right now. This type of golf requires a lot of thinking about the way you are going to work the ball into the hole. ...
“Too many guys become one dimensional on the PGA Tour. You have to hit so many different shots over here.”
Horschel, who replaced his 5-wood with a 2-iron this week so he can produce a lower, more penetrating flight, said players will be more aggressive with putts and chips because the greens are slower.
“And you’ll see a lot of guys putting from off the green,” Horschel said.
All in all, it’s just different, Horschel said, inside and outside the ropes. You always have to stay on your toes, he said, always have to have your wits about you because the conventional here is unconventional.
“But it is a blast,” Horschel said. “A once- or twice-a-year experience. I love it.”