Unsolvable puzzle?
Carnoustie playing different than before but remains toughest test in links golf
CARNOUSTIE, SCOT
LAND— The eve of the British Open felt like cramming for a final exam, a multiple choice one with no obvious answers.
The wind that blows off the North Sea across the exposed links of Carnoustie has not been the primary concern during practice rounds. Players have a reasonable idea how far the ball travels in the air. They just don’t know how far it goes on the ground.
“If you get it downwind and you hit that little flat draw and it gets running, it will go pretty much until it runs into some- thing,” Justin Thomas said. That’s not entirely true. Thomas hit a tee shot on the third hole Wednesday afternoon that rolled across the humps in the fairway and kept right on rolling. It looked as though it would run into a bunker, or maybe even the handle of a rake leaning on the left edge of the bunker. It missed both and eventually came to a stop 232 yards away.
His club off the tee was an 8iron.
Tiger Woods doesn’t see many occasions to hit driver because of how far the ball is rolling across tight links grass that looks dead. It hasn’t been this dry since Hoylake in 2006, when Woods hit only one driver all week and captured the Openfor the third time. This might not be much different.
“It’s just hard to keep the ball in play,” he said. “It’s going to be an interesting test to see which clubs we’re going to be using off the tees, and a lot of it is dependent on which way the wind blows. So the whole idea of these practice rounds is just to get a good feel for what I’m going to do, and then adjust accordingly.”
Others are coming to a different conclusion. Because while the links are as fast as ever, the rough is too thin, too wispy to wreak havoc. Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, figures he’ll hit driver about half the time on the 15 holes that are not par 3s. Two-time US Open champion Brooks Koepka also is bullish on the big stick, saying the driver will come out on about eight or nine holes.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth was considering his options on the final day of practice. On the 415-yard fourth hole, with a bunker on the right side of a dogleg left and another bunker farther out on the left side, he hit a fade over the right bunker. The other option is a long iron that splits the bunker.