The Pin Sheet – Volume 46 – July 10, 2014 WHAT's
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The Pin Sheet – Volume 46 – July 10, 2014 WHAT’S HAPPENING IN GOLF British Open Preview: McIlroy Seeks First Claret Jug, Woods Fourth The last time the Open Championship was played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2006, the conditions looked more like West Texas in July than the northwest coast of England. Temperatures soared into the 90s, the lush green grassed links replaced by brown fescue and hard, baked-out fairways. During a practice round the week before the championship, Tiger Woods reportedly hit his first two tee shots into some fairway pot bunkers. Forced to play each out sideways, he adopted a much more conservative strategy off the tee for the actual tournament, hitting his patented 2-iron “stinger” (see below’s “TOURAcademy Tip of the Week” for how to play) off the tee to take the bunkers out of play. Woods hit his driver only once—in the first round—a strategy that paid off handsomely with his second Open Championship in as many years and third overall. Woods, often hitting his approach shots from 50 or more yards behind his playing partners, still shot a blazing 18-under-par (67-65-71-67--270) for a two- stroke victory over Chris DiMarco. The enduring image of that championship, however, was not so much the heat or dry, firm conditions, but rather an emotional Woods burying his head in the shoulder of his caddie Steve Williams after the final putt. It was Woods’ first major triumph since his beloved father Earl passed away just two months earlier. The early scouting report on Hoylake this summer is that it’s playing much differently than it did eight years ago. Rory McIlroy played the course over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and described it as “green and very lush.” In comments he made to Golf Digest’s John Huggan and other reporters in Scotland, McIlroy added: “The ball isn’t running that much on the fairways and they were stopping quickly on the greens. So it will be a lot different from the course Tiger played in ’06. I think they’re trying to protect the course a little at this stage, so I’m sure—weather permitting over the next 10 days—it will be a bit firmer and faster by next week.” McIlroy also noted that the rough bordering the fairways was up and appeared to be playing much more penal than it did in ’06. Still, he sounded as if the winner could go double-digits under par. “Generally, though, Hoylake is a very ‘scoreable’ course,” he said. “All four of the par 5s are reachable in two shots. So we’ll see guys quite a bit under par in decent weather.” Ladbrokes, the UK’s leading online sports betting website, has installed McIlroy and Woods as the early co-favorites at Hoylake at 10/1--this, despite the fact that Woods has played just two competitive rounds of golf since early March. VegasINSIDER.com has McIlroy, Woods, and World No. 1 Adam Scott the co-favorites at 15/1. U.S. Open runaway winner Martin Kaymer is at 20/1 while 2013 British Open champ Phil Mickelson is at 25/1. Woods made a surprising early return to action at the Quicken Loans National (June 26-29) at Congressional Country Club a few weeks back, but failed to make the 36-hole cut for only the tenth time in 300 career TOUR starts, and first time in two years. Despite falling four shots off the cut line (74-75- +7), Woods deemed his return a success, especially from a physical standpoint. The 14-time major champion had microdiscectomy surgery to repair a pinched nerve in his back on March 31st, after struggling with back spasms as early as last August. He was able to hit driver “full out” at Congressional, and shape the ball with ease. About the only thing he couldn’t do was get the ball up-and-down—he missed 16 greens over two rounds and saved par just three times--something he attributed to rust and missing his approach shots on the wrong sides of the holes. “I hate to say it but I'm really encouraged by what happened this week,” said Woods following the second round at the Quicken Loans. “I missed the cut by four shots. That's a lot. But the fact that what I was able to do physically and the speed I had and distance that I was hitting the golf ball again, I had not done that in a very long time.” McIlroy and defending champion Mickelson are among 10 former major champions who will be prepping their games for Hoylake at this week’s Scottish Open on the European Tour. McIlroy, coming off a missed cut at the Irish Open, last played the Scottish Open in 2009 but has no doubt been lured back to Royal Aberdeen by the fact that the last four Open champions (Mickelson, Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, and Louis Oosthuizen) all played the week before the British Open. McIlroy won the BMW PGA Championship back in late May and has enjoyed a fairly decent year to date, rallying from the cut line to place in the top 10 at both The Masters (T-8th) and THE PLAYERS Championship (T-6th). The Open Championship hasn’t been too kind to McIlroy, however, as his only top-10 finish came at St. Andrews in 2010 (T-3rd). He’s overdue for a strong major showing. As for some of the other contenders at Hoylake besides Woods and McIlroy, here are a few that bear watching: Martin Kaymer: He overwhelmed the field by eight shots at Pinehurst No. 2 and likely would’ve done the same at THE PLAYERS Championship if not for an untimely weather delay late in Round 4. His best finish in six previous Open appearances was a tie for 7th in 2010 at St. Andrews. Lee Westwood: The 54-hole leader in last year’s Open Championship at Muirfield, Westwood has finished in the top 3 in three of his last five Open starts. But what he really has going for him is the fact he’s 41 years of age—the last three winners of the Claret Jug (Mickelson, Els, Clarke) were all over the age of 40. Angel Cabrera: “El Pato” is also in his 40s, and is playing better than Westwood of late, as evidenced by his back-to-back 64s on the weekend at the Greenbrier Classic. That was the former Masters and U.S. Open champion’s first non-major win on the PGA TOUR. Can he add the third leg of the career Grand Slam at Hoylake? If he drives the ball as accurately as he did at the Greenbrier (82.1% of fairways hit), you bet. Miguel Angel Jimenez: Why not? He may be 50, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing at the Open Championship (see Greg Norman in 2008, Tom Watson in ‘09). The Mechanic has been lighting it up this season, too, winning on the Champions Tour, the Asian Tour, and the European Tour. Justin Rose: The Englishman’s last two victories came at the 2013 U.S. Open and the recent Quicken Loans National, which played like a U.S. Open. The harder the venue, the better Rose plays. Assuming Royal Liverpool doesn’t roll over like it did in 2006, Rose should be right there. Phil Mickelson: Forget that he hasn’t played well since last year’s stunning British Open victory at Muirfield, Lefty appears to have not only figured out links golf, but mastered it, with a runner-up finish and win in two of his last three starts. Dustin Johnson: With the rough replaced by waste bunkers and native grasses, Pinehurst No. 2 looked a whole lot like a British Open venue, and Johnson played well there—finishing T-4th. He also has a good history at the Open Championship, having finished runner-up with Mickelson in 2011. THE PICK: Justin Rose. After a nightmare showing in the World Cup, England could use a bit of a pick- me-up right about now. Rose accomplishes that, becoming the first Englishman to win the Open Championship since Sir Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield. .