There’s nowhere like it andtiger loves it. So I wouldn’t write him off
Tees off our 150th Open Championship preview
The150thopenchampionship tees off at St Andrews on Thursday.
Bernard Gallacher knows from experience this significant date in the tournament’s history could not have been staged anywhere else.
He was fortunate to play in three Opens in the Auld Grey Toun, and he remembers that it stirred feelings not associated with anywhere else.
Setting off in front of the famous R& A clubhouse, it’s that sense of tradition that marks the Old Course out as different from the rest.
“When you stand on the first tee, you are aware of this imperious building behind you,” Gallacher told The Sunday Post.
“You can’t help but think of who has gone before you – Old Tom Morris, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods.
“There is a mystical, magical feeling about playing at the Home of Golf. It’s a feeling I never had anywhere else.
“Playing in an Open at St Andrews, I would be more nervous than for any other tournament.
“It’s the widest fairway in world, 200 yards with an iron in your hand. But you worry about hitting a bad tee shot. It’s the sense of occasion that hits you.
“What’s special is that little has really changed since the course was first laid out. The hotel has replaced the railway shed at the 17th, and a few of the holes have been lengthened, but essentially the test is still the same.
“It’s the way golf started, and pros want to measure their game against how it was set up.
“If you think of Augusta as the prime example of a pristine and
perfectly- manicured course, St Andrews is the complete opposite.
“But it’s the place that any golfer wants to play.”
Such is the particular draw of this year’s Open, around 1.2- million applied for tickets. Most were disappointed, but we can still expect record crowds across the week of 290,000.
“We have been waiting so long for this,” Gallacher, a three- time Ryder Cup captain, continued.
“Everyone wants to be there, which was epitomised by my old friend, Sandy Lyle, trying to come through qualifying aged 64.
“St Andrews always has a special appeal, but this Open even more so. There will be people from all over the world coming to Fife.”
There is no bigger fan of St Andrews than Tiger Woods. As he has battled back from the horrific injuries sustained in a car accident in February last year,
this week has always been on his mind.
He describes the Old Course as his favourite anywhere in the world, and he has twice been victorious – by eight shots in 2000 and five in 2005.
Woods managed four rounds at The Masters in April, but pulled out after three days at the US PGA before missing the US Open altogether.
However, the flat nature of St Andrews should suit him much better.
Logic tells you Woods should only be making up the numbers, but the 15-time Major Champion has defied the odds so many times before.
And although very lightly golfed, Gallacher wonders if returning to his favourite track will stir something inside the American.
“You just can’t write off Tiger Woods,” he says. “If there is
one course that suits Tiger, it’s St Andrews.
“He was exhausted after four rounds at Augusta, and Southern Hills was punishing on his body and probably why he pulled out of Brookline.
“The Old Course is none of that.
“It’s all about playing the occasion and course management.
“Well, there’s no one better at course management than Tiger Woods and he has never been scared to win, anywhere.
“He has n’t played any tournaments recently, but at least he went to JP Mcmanus’ pro-am in Ireland and competed with a card in his hand.
“When he’s done well in the past, it’s always when he has come across early and played in Ireland and Scotland.
“Anyone else, you would say no chance. But this istigerwoods, and everyone will be rooting for him.”