3rd Round: Low British Open Scores

[Brad Klein]

Early indications are that we're going to see an unprecedented assault on par at St. Andrews during today's 3rd round. With the first groups now on the 11th hole, the front nine is playing to an average score beow par of -4.76 (i.e. 31.24). 11 of the first 15 players on the par-5 fifth hole birdied it. 6 of the first 8 on the par-4 9th did the same. Obviously, the projection can't hold up, but it does suggest docile conditions and a birdie/eagle fest like we're never seen before. Let's hope for a nasty wind to come up soon. At this rate, the average field score will be under 70.

[tonyt]

Set perhaps for Tiger to go low?

Or then again, for someone else to catch him if he doesn't.

If the scores are low, it will be fascinating to watch the best advances from those 6-8 shots back.

[Pat K]

The old course was lenthened for the Open, is this another indication that it's not about lenth?

[Dan Kelly]

Call me a heretic (or should that be apostate?), but low scores on the Old Course in extremely benign conditions don't bother me one little bit.

What DOES bother me, excessively (self-knowledge is the greatest?), is the stubborn unwillingness of both the TNT and ABC announcers to call the course "The Old Course."

They keep saying stuff like: "There are only two par-5s at St. Andrews." And if I weren't concerned about waking up my wife, I'd have been yelling back, for hours now: "At the Old Course, you pinheads!"

[JLahrman]

Good.  I'd rather see them play holes where the average score is 3.5 and 4.5 rather than 3, 4, and 5.  All this talk about how par is irrelevant and then we get panicked by low scores at TOC?  When the wind doesn't blow, the course gives up a lot of birdies but is still interesting to watch in my book.  When the wind does blow, the course is a monster but is still interesting to watch.  I'm not really concerned if the winning score is level or 22 under.

[Kyle Harris]

A bit windy now lads.

[Brad Klein]

Wind the great equalizer. Average field score: 35.25/36.75 = 72.

[Jeff_Mingay]

What's very interesting to me is, no matter how low a score they card, most golfers described how interesting, unique and challenging the Old Course is. And they talk about how well you have to strike the ball, and how creative you have to be at the Old Course to shoot a low number.  

That's saying something.  

[A_Clay_Man]

Can someone please opine on how the rough cut looks?

I don't ever recall seeing bunkers in the rough before, but I'm often mistaken.

[Sean_A]

Not sure what all the fuss is about.  The viewing is fantastic.  Anything can happen out there.  We are seeing every shot in the bag.  I think the course is shining very brightly.  TOC is a wonderful venue for The Open.  Consider that four par 4s are driveable and both par 5s are reachable.  The scoring isn't all that great and this is without any serious wind.  

Ciao

Sean

[Brent Hutto]

I guess this is a rhetorical question but...

Is playing those links courses as much fun as it looks like today on TV?

Like that shot Montgomery had to play from almost in the gorse bushes (was it 13?), a wedge that landed on that lower tier in front of the green and had to climb across an oblique ridge. That shot looked more fun to try than any shot I'm ever faced with on my home course.

Or a couple of holes where it makes sense to let the ball scamper off the back of the green (like maybe 14?) to chip back into the breeze.

Or that little 3/4 three-wood shot that Mickelson and some others played off the first tee.

Heck, even putting around the Road hole bunker if you miss pin high and left looks fun. Or having to play backward to the seventeenth green from the eighteenth fairway like Vijay.

I'll say one thing, though. That course looks soooo green and manicured compared to the Golf Channel retrospectives they've been playing this week from the 1970's and whatnot.

[Philip Gawith]

Quite amusing to come to this thread late - essentially the lead score has not really moved from round two, with Tiger having come back to the field a bit. Once the wind was up it was pretty difficult to get the ball anywhere near the hole.

I agree with Sean that the viewing was fantastic - such a pleasure watching the shots they have to conjure up, such as punched approaches to 17 and the approach shot to 18 on Day Two when they weren't driving the green.

BTW Sean - nice to see your man Bickerton got through the cut and is alive and well. Must be a real thrill to have such a regular guy, "normal" club member doing well.

Not sure about the comments on the lushness of the course - true re parts of the rough, but the fairways are really motoring, which is as it should be.

I wish I had put money on Monty after Round Two when he was 25 to 1. I am not sure that it wasn't Butch Harmon, but somebody well known said as recently as a week ago that it was clear that nobody with a swing like him could win a Major. That is when you start to feel the karma with him. And you do have to think that, pyschologically frail creature that he is, the massive crowd support he is enjoying, and will enjoy today, will be a huge boost. I can't  recall him ever being right at the back of Day 4 Open field, in Scotland, so I think it will be unprecedented.

If he is in contention come late afternoon, it is going to make for amazing viewing as the crowd will go demented.

All that said - I don't think I have ever seen Tiger swing the club better; his rhythm looks wonderful. But I am a great believer in reversion to the mean (even the great's, surely, are not totally beyond these patterns), and Tiger is overdue losing a Major which people thought he should win.

[Bruceski]

I am a great believer in reversion to the mean (even the great's, surely, are not totally beyond these patterns), and Tiger is overdue losing a Major which people thought he should win.

Does today's outcome mean you're not a believer in Reversion To The Mean-ism anymore?

In truth, Woods reverts to his own mean (as do all other golfers). The issue is that his mean is at least 2 standard deviations better than the rest of the Tour's mean.

[Voytek Wilczak]

I guess this is a rhetorical question but...

Is playing those links courses as much fun as it looks like today on TV?

More.

I'll give you a wacky example - even my wife, who's a total non-golfer, but a perfect golf widow (she spent 5-6 hours/round waiting in various clubhouses around Scotland and Ireland while I was hacking away) says "wow, what a great place" every time she sees TOC or Ballybunion again on TV. She could not care less about golf, but the mystique of these places is not lost on her at all.

Being able to play there is a privilege, at least to me.