DANGERS ON Most revered hole on the Old
3RD ROUND
BEN CRENSHAW expressed a view on St Andrews’ most iconic hole which anyone playing it yesterday would have agreed with. “The reason the Road Hole is the greatest par-four in the world is because it’s a par-five,” the American said.
While the rest of the Old Course might have looked like a soft touch with the scoreboard a sea of red, the 17th represented a malevolent counter-presence.
On a still, sunny, low-scoring day, when birdies were ten-a-penny and even eagles were commonplace, the Road Hole was having none of it.
It coughed up only one birdie all day – to this year’s US PGA winner Justin Thomas – and inflicted the only bogey of his round on Rory Mcilroy after he ran through the green, over the road and perilously close to the wall.
With a drive over the edge of the Old Course Hotel and an anorexic green guarded by its ogreish bunker, the feistiest 508 yards in golf is always a challenging proposition.
It ranked the hardest hole on the course over the first two rounds. But the degree of difficulty was increased yesterday by a treacherous pin position at the back left of the green.
Tommy Fleetwood was so spooked he was one of several players who chose to ignore the green completely with his approach shot and aim for the 18th tee box instead.
“The margin for error is so small,” he said. “I thought left was the way to go and I managed to get up and down from there.”
Those who went direct were asking for trouble and they certainly got it.
The view looking down on the Road Hole from the giant neighbouring grandstand is bewitching, with the sea in the distance and the town a bleached fairway away over the Swilcan Bridge. However, it felt like rubber-necking at a crash site at times.adriarnaus ran through the back of the green, across the road and found himself up against the wall.
Summoning his inner Miguel Angel Jimenez,arnaus faced away from the flag and hammered his third shot against the wall, just as his fellow Spaniard had done in 2010.
The rebound strategy enabled him to escape with a bogey five.
Mcilroy at least had a swing but could not get up and down, and surrendered his outright lead.
Bryson Dechambeau found tarmac too but somehow rescued a four with a creative wedge off the road to within tap-in range.
Dechambeau said: “I did practise off the road a couple of times growing up back at my home golf course, Belmont Country Club, a long time ago but I haven’t practised it recently.
“I hit it perfectly. It bounced up and rolled over beautifully. I was very lucky.”
The par was all the more remarkable after a drive which went so far to the left it could have had links with Jeremy Corbyn.
The view from the tee box of the hotel is disconcerting, even for someone like Dechambeau evidently.
“I don’t really notice it when I’m teeing it off because I’m hitting it so high off the tee but it still does play a bit on your mind,” he said.
The hotel garden is closed this week because of the danger from incoming golf balls, which is just as well since Ernie Els and Brooks Koepka both sliced drives in there over the first two days.
Guests have been warned that use of balconies is at their own risk.
The danger to the field from the 17th hole yesterday was pretty clear too.