The fear coming in to the 150th Open was that the Old Course at St Andrews may be obsolete in today’s game. There’s no chance of that really, despite all the hysterical hype.
But that doesn’t mean there are not real issues playing an Open Championship here.
For all the talk of 59s, the course played to a 72.7 scoring average in the first round – a touch tougher than Royal St George’s played last year. It’s also a higher average than the first round in the 2010 Open at St Andrews.
The firmness and speed of the course were the protection
Good morning from St Andrews 👋 Shall we do this again?
Conditions are a bit drizzly on the links this morning 🌧 Who's going low today? #The150thOpen pic.twitter.com/8mAgG0i9GO
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 15, 2022
The pins were tucked, yes, but not extreme. The firmness and speed of the course protected it. 59s are possible at the Old Course in the soft, damper conditions of October with easy pins for the amateurs at the Dunhill. It’s just not happening at an Open in July.
But the issue at the Old Course is pace of play. The first group of Paul Lawrie, Webb Simpson and Min Woo Lee got round in 4 hours 24 minutes. The last group were well over six hours, and daylight was failing.
We can shout all we like about modern players’ habits and their inability to even prepare for their shot when another golfer is hitting in the same postcode. It’s all true, and dreadful.
But that culture is so ingrained now it’s hard to shift. And the Old Course, on that narrow slip of land with shared fairways, greens and tees all crunched into it, makes things much worse.
When the course is playing as fast as this week, and the pins are in fruity positions, it sometimes helps to be hitting into the opposite fairway – into the faces of players coming the other way.
On any of the vast double greens, as many as 12 people are at work most of the time. Even if they went about their business with earplugs, it naturally takes longer.
‘The Loop’ makes things even worse
The course conditions @TheOpen on Thursday had Scottie Scheffler in disbelief. pic.twitter.com/TwkuTbbJZV
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 15, 2022
Then there’s the loop, where the 7th and 11th actually cross over each other. At times on that section there’s 12 groups – 36 golfers and their caddies, rules officials, scorers, TV people, scoreboard carriers, milling around on that section.
What can they do? Smaller fields would certainly help. Not LIV Golf’s 48, but something less than the standard 156.
Some genius needs to work on a better flowing traffic system for the loop. Waiting is inevitable, but it could be controlled a lot better.
Players need to get their backsides in higher gear, of course. But, in some form, the dreadful pace of play at St Andrews might be something that we just have to live with.
Westwood’s words carry no weight compared to Woods’
Lee Westwood on those Tiger Woods comments: 'He's got a vested interest hasn't he? The LIV players will talk the LIV tour up, the PGA players that aren't on the LIV tour will talk the PGA Tour up and put down the LIV tour. I don't pay too much attention to people's opinions.'
— Nick Metcalfe (@Nick_Metcalfe) July 14, 2022
Lee Westwood was often a spirited interview even before he signed to LIV Golf. But the amount of claptrap coming from him in defence of his position these days is overwhelming.
Westwood’s been in the forefront of the disingenuous “growing the game”, “I’m not a politician”, “feeding my family” BS that LIV Central has clearly schooled signed players to say.
He was at it again yesterday, when asked about Tiger Woods’ scathing comments on LIV prior to the championship.
Woods had “a vested interest”, he said, suggesting that Tiger’s comments in support of the PGA equated with his own about LIV.
The difference in stature between the two players immediately threw up a red flag. But he’s actually completely wrong.
Woods is finished as a PGA Tour player. Due to his injuries, he’ll never be able to play a schedule again. He can only manage the majors and maybe the odd start in a legacy tournament, probably his own, the Genesis Invitational in LA every February.
Woods’ comments about LIV carry huge weight both because of who he is and as he really has no axe left to grind, no dog in this fight anymore.
But he chose to strongly voice his opposition to LIV, having so often declined to make any stand on a political issue in the sport.
What does that tell you?