CAN ANY EUROPEAN TAME THE RAMPANT AMERICANS?
DEREK LAWRENSON THE OPEN PREVIEW
In the past 20 years, every venue bar one on the Open rota has witnessed an American victory, with the exception just happening to be Carnoustie. Over the same period, the only thing left for the US to achieve in team golf is a Ryder Cup victory on european soil.
For all the wonderful storylines this summer may conjure up, therefore, there’s no disguising the fact that the over-riding one is that the formidable Angus links this week and Le Golf national in Paris in September represent the final frontier separating America’s golfers from completing their domination of the sport.
It is rare for the players to link majors to the Ryder Cup but the europeans can see the danger for the team competition in France if they don’t break the American stranglehold of five Grand Slam victories in a row.
Listen to in-form Italian Frankie Molinari, who is certainly one of the prime contenders this week. ‘All the european players would love to break that American streak and win one,’ he said. ‘there’s no doubt the Americans have a really gifted group, but we need to get a european win on the board to halt their momentum before Paris.’
home territory may prove critical in keeping the young and hungry American corps from completing their dual mission. the greens at Carnoustie this week will be painfully slow by American standards, and the vast majority of US golfers never like such things. the five- strong advance party who travelled to Versailles last weekend found a course so tight they barely used a driver, and that didn’t sit well with them, either. Still, with three of the four majors staged each year taking place on US soil, they can hardly complain.
there is no great secret as to why the Americans are enjoying a gilded spell. Just as Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and nick Faldo inspired each other in europe’s golden era in the 1980s, we’re now seeing a similar scenario play out. Jordan Spieth, Justin thomas, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed are all bringing out the best in one another, and there is no sign of them slowing down.
‘I want to win the Claret Jug and have my own trophy to lord over them for a time,’ says Rickie Fowler, thereby underlining the value of a friendly rivalry. Fowler will surely join their company soon. Of the leading quintet, the four who are the current owners of the majors are all aged under 30, and 34- year- old Johnson is the proud occupant of the world no 1 spot. Carnoustie, though, is a puzzle that proved beyond their brethren in the two Opens to be staged there since its return to the rota in 1999. that year the tournament was dominated by the eventual winner Paul Lawrie and the luckless runner-up, Jean van de Velde. eight years later, the roles were assumed by Padraig harrington and Sergio Garcia. the only American to finish in the top five in either instance was Justin Leonard, very much the third man in the play-off in 1999. Will the luck of the Open draw play a part, as so often in the past? the forecast is for the wind to pick up significantly this afternoon, which would spell bad news for the likes of Rory McIlroy, tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia from europe, and Americans thomas, Johnson and a certain tiger Woods. Judging how far the ball will roll on these tarmac fairways is difficult enough without wind, let alone a considerable one. Among the more fascinating aspects of this championship will be observing the different strategies on view. Do you have a go from the tee and put your heart in your mouth or favour caution over adventure? Irishman Shane Lowry turned a shade of green when told big hitters like Johnson and McIlroy planned to use their drivers a lot.
‘ I just can’t see that option myself, but I’ll happily eat my words if I’m wrong,’ he said.
Could anyone with a ‘smash it and find it’ philosophy really prosper on a course as daunting as this one?
As ever, the men who mix judiciousness with risk are the ones likely to prosper.
It would certainly be no surprise to see Matt Kuchar go well again, following his runner-up showing at Royal Birkdale last year, or another fairways and greens man in Molinari. In what might prove to be a happy omen for europeans, it will be the veteran Lyle, playing in his 42nd consecutive Open and his last, who will have the considerable honour of getting play under way today.
Lyle is the man who ended 16 years of waiting for a British winner at the Open in 1985, and became the first from these shores to win the Masters in 1988.
the quest over the next four days is for someone cast in the Lyle mould to emerge. the venue is decidedly favourable to the european cause. now it’s up to someone to show that not only have they the skill but also the heart.