The 144th edition of the British Open Golf Championship tees it up next Thursday at the Old Course at St. Andrews on the eastern coast of Scotland. The Open Championship will visit the home of golf for the 29th time and the course has been somewhat altered since Louis Oosthuizen won the tournament there in 2010. Amazingly, while nine of the holes have been tweaked or minimally altered, the Old Course will play to a par of 72 and a length of 7,297 yards, a full eight yards shorter than it was five years ago.
The British Open is the game’s longest running major golf tournament. During the first 12 years of its existence, from 1859 through 1870, the Open Championship was contested on Scotland’s western coast at the Prestwick Golf Club. The winner received a gold championship belt with a condition that a three time champion would get to keep the belt. Young Tom Morris won three Open titles from 1868 through 1870. Morris took the belt home and Prestwick had a difficult decision to make. It could either replace the belt, one way or the other, or it could simply cease hosting the championship. In a cost cutting gesture, Prestwick decided to save the money and cancelled the 1871 version of the Open Championship.
There was an enormous interest to bring back the Open Championship among golfing circles in Scotland. St. Andrews and Muirfield put up a combined 30 pounds ($50) and purchased a claret jug for the champion golfer. The involvement of the two golf courses suddenly meant that there would be a rotation of the British Open between St. Andrews, Muirfield, and Prestwick. Nowadays, nine courses are part of the modern era rota with St. Andrews hosting the Open every fifth year while the other courses receive an Open bid every 10 years or so.
Golf on some level has been played on the links at St. Andrews since 1100. For the first 300 years, the game grew in popularity throughout Great Britain. In 1457 King James II of Scotland attempted to outlaw the game throughout the Kingdom of Scotland. The Scots were at war with England and James II feared that the overemphasis upon golf by an active male population got in the way of archery practice and national security. James II decree was largely ignored and short lived, and some 100 years later, Queen Mary of Scotland took to the links at St. Andrews, playing the game while having one of her military cadets carry her golf clubs. Queen Mary’s use of cadets started the trend of bag carriers or loopers, hence the name caddie.
For the first 500 years of its existence, the Old Course at St. Andrews was a 22 hole golf course. However, as golfers became more proficient at the game and as equipment improved, it was felt that some of the holes at St. Andrews were too easy. The first and second holes were combined into one as were the third and fourth, the 19th and 20th, and the 21st and 22nd holes. When the architectural dust had settled, the Old Course was an 18 hole experience and the design of the course was pretty much laid out in the way that it stands today.
The early days of the British Open were a scattershot affair, and it wasn’t until 1891 that teeing grounds were set (prior to that, golfers teed off on the just completed green) and the diameter of the cup was uniformly determined at 4.25 inches diameter. The golf ball was more uniform and certainly a lot more lively. Throughout the centuries, the Old Course has been lengthened, greens have been altered, and bunkers have been relocated.
In 2012, the house architect of the British Open, Martin Hawtree, made some seemingly minor changes to St. Andrews in preparation for the 2015 Open Championship. Nine of the 18 holes were altered including holes number 2,3,4,6,7,9,11,15, and 17. Prior to the 2010 Open, the 17th hole had been lengthened from 460 yards to 490 yards. This time around, there are no holes that have been as radically altered as the 17th hole had been previously. Nonetheless, American architect Tom Doak has called the alterations “horrifying” while Golf journalist Darius Oliver calls it “a desecration of this golfing monument.” All this whining, especially from Doak, is probably much to do about nothing. After all, the Road Hole Bunker is now two yards wider.
There will be a handful of good-byes this time around at St. Andrews. We have seen Arnold Palmer take his final walk up the 18th hole at St. Andrews in 1995 and Jack Nicklaus did the same in 2005. Five time British Open champion Tom Watson will be playing in his final Open Championship next week as will the three time owner of the Claret Jug, namely Sir Nick Faldo. Watson is 65 years old and as he showed several weeks ago at Del Paso in the U.S. Senior Open, he is still very competitive. Faldo is 58 years old and has spent the last few years of his career in the announcer’s booth. This will also be the 40th and final Open for Ivor Robson. Robson is the dapperly dressed English gentleman who stands on the first tee all day long for all four rounds and introduces the golfers in his decidedly distinguished way. Peter Dawson, the head of the Royal and Ancient Golfing Society, the organization that runs the British Open, is stepping down from the leadership post that he has held since 1999.
The Opens at St. Andrews have historically identified power players as their champion. Tiger Woods (2000 and 2005) and Jack Nicklaus (1970 and 1978) have won a pair of Open Championships at the Old Course. Other power winners at the home of golf in the modern era have included Sam Snead and John Daly. However, on the other end of the spectrum, past St. Andrews’ champions have included control players Peter Thomson, Tony Lema, Nick Faldo, and Louis Oosthuizen and short game wizards, Bobby Locke and Seve Ballesteros.
While the pressure will be enormous, Jordan Spieth does have the skills, the short game, and the demeanor to prevail at St. Andrews. Then again, at the other end of the spectrum, Dustin Johnson has the John Daly type skills to come through and finally capture his first major title. Yet both Jordan and Dustin may have very little left in the tank after last month’s Chambers Bay episode. Rory McIlroy and his ankle make him a non-factor. Expect veteran European golfers such as Henrik Stenson, Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose, and Ian Poulter, alongside Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott to make a showing on the Old Course leader board. You need to be a great iron player above all else to avoid those 120 foot putts that can be a definite reality on the Old Course’s double greens. You need to avoid hitting booming tee shots to the right and you need to avoid all those bunkers. It should all make for a fascinating Open Championship.
