2009 Senior British Open - Sunningdale

[Paul_Turner]

What happened to the original centre line bunker on the 16th?  It looks like it has gone? 

[Tom Birkert]

What happened to the original centre line bunker on the 16th?  It looks like it has gone? 

It was removed over the winter, with the bunkers on the right at driving distance deepened and new bunkers added to the left of the fairway at driving distance. It's now a much harder drive.

A necklace of bunkers was added about 50 yards short of the green, bunkers left of the green were deepened and the area to the right of the green was contoured to give some very tricky recovery shots.

It's a very hard hole now.

[Paul_Turner]

That's a really poor decision to remove the center bunker.  It was there since practically year dot and was even more relevant with today's long driving.

There are loads of cool features that could be restored/returned to Sunningdale Old but that's not the route being taken.

Sunningdale is every bit as historic as Merion...imagine the furore  if bunkers were removed and repositioned at Merion!

[Niall C]

I have to admit to being suprised to see the Senior Open played over an inland course, but its nice to see Sunningdale on the TV. However, lets hope they go back to links courses from now on...

Not wishing to dig up the earlier OT issues on this thread but the R&A do confuse matters over it being the British Open, and the Ireland connection. They play Local Qualifiers over courses in the Republic of Ireland. I seem to recall they used Royal Dublin this year.

Cheers,

James

James

Firstly its the Open, not the British Open. The R&A also hold qualifiers in other countries such as US and in countries in Asia (I believe). I'm sure its on their website if you want to have a look. I don't see how that makes it confusing at all. Its clearly a means of entry to the Open, where ever it is being played.

Niall

[David_Tepper]

Interesting, but not terribly surprising, to see Roberts, McNulty and Funk in a playoff for the title. None are very long and all, especially Roberts & McNulty, are VERY good putters. They are exactly the kind of players you would expect to do well at a course like Sunningdale.

[James Boon]

I have to admit to being suprised to see the Senior Open played over an inland course, but its nice to see Sunningdale on the TV. However, lets hope they go back to links courses from now on...

Not wishing to dig up the earlier OT issues on this thread but the R&A do confuse matters over it being the British Open, and the Ireland connection. They play Local Qualifiers over courses in the Republic of Ireland. I seem to recall they used Royal Dublin this year.

Cheers,

James

James

Firstly its the Open, not the British Open. The R&A also hold qualifiers in other countries such as US and in countries in Asia (I believe). I'm sure its on their website if you want to have a look. I don't see how that makes it confusing at all. Its clearly a means of entry to the Open, where ever it is being played.

Niall

Niall,

I've obviously been reading too many posts by Americans to find myself calling it the British Open  I was pointing out that though the Open itself has never been played in Eire, one of the LOCAL qualifiers is played there. 

Cheers,

James

[Brian_Ewen]

Not sure if someone already mentioned this , but next years Senior Open is at Carnoustie , which is the week after The Open at TOC .

East Coast is the place to be next July