Muirfield ‘as we want it’
R&A chief executive Peter Dawson spent much of his annual State of the Union news conference Wednesday parrying questions about Muirfield’s exclusionary policy toward females, defending the right of free association, but he did manage to get in a couple of words about the 142nd Open Championship and the golf course.
“I think it’s no exaggeration to say that in my time at the R&A with direct involvement in the Open Championship, which goes back to 2000, factors have combined this year to make this the best course setup we’ve ever had in that period,” he said. “The course is just as we want it. It’s hard. It’s fast. The rough is just right. So factors have come together on top of Muirfield, which is a wonderful golf course in its own right, to make this the best setup I’ve seen in my time.”
NOT SO FAST, LEFTY: Coming into the Open fresh from a victory at last week’s Scottish Open, Phil Mickelson was asked about the difficulty of winning back-to-back, let alone when the second tournament is a major. “It’s difficult to win the week before a major and then follow it up winning the major,” he said. “But then again the last person to do it, you’re looking at him.”
Um, actually, Phil, the last player to do that particular double was Tiger Woods.
Mickelson won the PGA Tour event in Atlanta and followed it up with the Masters in 2006. Woods won the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone the week before taking the PGA Championship in 2007.
MATTER OF TIME: Howwould Mickelson describe his relationship with links golf?
“Hate/love,” he said. “I used to hate it, and now I love it.
“It really changed for me back in 2004 when (short-game guru) Dave Pelz and I spent some time over here and developed a shot that feels easy to get the ball on the ground and in play off the tee; getting rid of these big misses when the ball gets up in the crosswinds and it takes it 50 yards off the edge of the fairway and into the deep heather.
“I call it kind of a chip, a kind of a chip 4-wood, a chip hybrid, a chip 4-iron, where I’m just swinging it almost half pace trying to take spin and speed off of it and just get it on the ground. And it’s this low, little scooting shot that feels very easy to get it in play. And the miss is not anywhere near as drastic, because it’s not ever up in the wind.”
When it’s breezy, swing easy. That adage has been around since time began. Guess he hadn’t heard of it.
THEORY NO. 8,037: Mickelson has decided not to carry a driver this week.
“I feel like the 64-degree wedge on this firm ground can save me some shots, and I just don’t see how a driver is going to help me in any areas. Distance on any tee shot is not even in my mind. It’s avoiding bunkers, avoiding rough, getting the ball in the fairway. And I can do it a lot easier with clubs other than driver.”
LINKS LOVE: After a third-place finish a year ago at Royal Lytham, Brandt Snedeker is developing his taste for links golf. “I loved growing up watching the Open on TV. I liked how different it was from what I was used to seeing,” he said. “Playing in a few of them now, I realize the nuances, the different shots you need to hit and how un-cookie-cutter this kind of golf is. There’s not one way to hit any shot. I love that.”
NOT NATURAL: Snedeker plays quickly, and always looks eager to get going. That’s often not a winning formula in majors, where the pace of play is rarely fast.
“The hardest thing to do in a major championship is be patient for 72 holes and never push the panic button. The guy that wins this week will not do that,” he said.
“I play a quick pace, but there’s a difference between playing a quick pace and being impatient. I’m talking about shooting away from pins, taking less club off tees, being more conservative when you want to be aggressive because you made a bogey, not trying to go after pins that you shouldn’t go after, not trying to make an incredible up-and-down when you might not be able to get it out of the bunker. That’s being patient. It has nothing to do with how fast you hit the ball or whatever. It has to do with not letting your previous shot affect you and not letting your position in the field affect what you need to do.”
SWING-SPOTTING: Graeme McDowell said he can’t wait to get out on the course with his playing partners for the first two rounds, Tiger Woods and Louis Oosthuizen.
“I’ve played enough golf with Tiger Woods to know what to expect on Thursday and Friday. He’s always a great guy to play with, very complimentary. He’s the best player in the world and maybe the best player ever. So he’s the kind of guy you want to play with, especially on a week like this week, which I think will appeal to his tactical side,” said the 2010 U.S. Open champion. “And Louis Oosthuizen is one of my very good friends, and Tiger’s and Louis’s golf swings are two of my favourite swings in the world. So that’s never bad to play beside two guys with the rhythm and golf swings like they have.”
CANADA BOUND: McDowell, who’s a Royal Bank of Canada-sponsored player, is committed to the RBC Canadian Open next week at Glen Abbey, even in the midst of a frenetic portion of the golf schedule. That will be three Opens in a row — Scottish, British, and Canadian — in consecutive weeks.
“It’s a busy schedule. And with the FedEx playoffs right afterwards. It kind of is what it is. I’m looking forward to getting across to the Canadian next week. Schedules are tough. We set those out a long time in advance.”
RBC hasn’t done a bad job of picking its golf ambassadors. Its team of sponsored players includes five of the top 13 players in the world golf rankings: Matt Kuchar (6), McDowell (7), Snedeker (8), Luke Donald (9) and Ernie Els (13).
KIDS THESE DAYS: Gary Player, the 77-year-old South African legend, said it was a pity so many players won’t be hitting drivers at Muirfield this week. McDowell disagrees.
“He’s an athletic, fit guy. Loves the dynamic kind of nature of the game of golf. And I’m sure he just wants to see guys out there ripping it and using their athletic ability. I like a bit of variety on a golf course,” McDowell said.
“If I ever design a course, it will be a lot of different clubs off tees, and irons and woods, and something that kind of gets the brain working a little bit. This is certainly a game of chess this week, where you have to position your pieces and keep them in play. It’s a great tactician golf course.”
BY THE WAY: Ernie Els’ double distinction of coming into the week as the defending Open champion as well as the winner (2002) the last time it was played at this venue hasn’t happened since 1906. That was also at Muirfield and the golfer was James Braid, who’d won here five years earlier and in 1905 at St. Andrews.