Khaleej Times

Invisible white line and impact of Tiger’s absence

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southport — Jason Day’s caddie presented British Open officials with an interestin­g option on the par-4 ninth hole at Royal Birkdale. Colin Swatton wondered about hitting a tee shot onto the adjacent 10th fairway for a shorter, clearer shot into the green.

The R&A responded with an invisible white line in the turf.

In a decision aimed primarily at spectator safety, R&A chief rules director David Rickman issued a notice of a local rule for the week: “When playing the ninth hole only, a ball on or beyond the 10th fairway (defined by the edge of the closely-mown area) is out of bounds.”

Out-of-bounds stakes typically are on the boundary of a golf course. It is rare a links course to have internal out-of-bounds, especially when it involves the golf ball landing in short grass.

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said officials were concerned because the only way to drive from the ninth tee onto the 10th fairway is to hit a drive over the top of the grandstand, and then hit over the gallery to the green.

“And we felt that was just dangerous,” Slumbers said. “So that’s been put in there to protect the fans and the players.”

The ninth hole, with the wind at the players’ back, requires a blind tee shot to a fairway and bends sharply to the right toward the green. A shot onto the 10th fairway also would be a blind shot.

It was reminiscen­t of the 1979 U.S. Open at Inverness, when the USGA planted a tree overnight after Lon Hinkle found a way to shorten the first hole by going down an adjacent fairway. The R&A opted for a local rule instead of going to the trouble of planting dozens of trees.

Day thought it was an overreacti­on, especially with no one even attempting such a shot. What troubled him was someone blasting one far to the right on accident and getting penalized two shots for being O.B. “I don’t think anyone was going to go down there, anyway. We just asked,” Day said.

No Tiger, no problem

British Open organizers say they are expecting big crowds this week at Royal Birkdale that will rival the attendance records set at the Open when Tiger Woods was in his dominant prime.

More than 220,000 people are expected on the course set on the northwest England coast by the time play ends on Sunday. That ranks high among recent Opens, some of which was blamed on Woods not being in the field.

“I think the sport should be eternally grateful for the transforma­tion he drove in golf,” said Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A. I hope he tees it up at The Open. He’d be extremely welcomed. But the game moves on.”

Slumbers said the crowd this week should rank No. 4 among biggest crowds since the R&A started keeping attendance figures in 1960.

The two biggest crowds were 239,000 at St. Andrews in 2000 and 237,000 on the same course in 2010.

Woods won the Open in both 2000 and 2006.

“I think there are some wonderful players out there now that people want to come and watch, and the game is moving forward,” Slumbers said. —

 ?? AFP ?? Head covers of US golfer J.B. Holmes during opening round. —
AFP Head covers of US golfer J.B. Holmes during opening round. —

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