The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Column: Gallacher on golf.
Rory McIlroy caused a stir by claiming the European Tour courses are too easy following his final round at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The world number two feels courses should be set up tougher for the players and claimed he was sick of shooting 15 under and finishing 30th.
He made reference to the Scottish Open, held at The Renaissance Club, as well as the Dunhill Links but unfortunately both events took place in very wet conditions, which made the courses play much easier than normal.
A soft links is always going to produce lots of birdies but when a course is firm and there is a bit of wind it suddenly becomes a completely different proposition.
This year’s Scottish Open was also a victim of the wet weather that occurred in the two days before the tournament started which rendered The Renaissance Club defenceless.
Had we gone into that tournament following some dry weather then it would have been a great challenge for the players ahead of The Open. We were just unfortunate but hopefully we have more luck when the event returns next summer.
A similar thing happened at the Open at Royal Portrush the following week with very low scoring in the third round as a result of favourable conditions.
If it hadn’t been so windy in the final round, the winning score could easily have been 20 under.
The elements are the defence of any links course and we all know when it is windy that level par can be a good score.
When there is no wind and conditions are soft it can be like throwing darts, which is why the cut at the Dunhill Links was incredibly low at nine under.
The Dunhill Links is also a special event because of the pro-am format and the tour make sure the courses aren’t too difficult for the amateurs.
The pace of play was brilliant last week and almost an hour quicker than usual.
“When a course is firm it becomes a completely different proposition”
But if the pins are tucked away it becomes a lot tougher and the groups take longer to get around the course.
With little rough, pure greens and soft conditions, scoring was always going to be low.
I understand where Rory is coming from because he hasn’t played many European Tour events this year and the ones he has played have been in soft conditions with low scoring.
It isn’t the norm on the tour for the winning score to be better than 20-under and there are plenty of weeks when the host courses present a tough challenge.