The Best Demonstration of Ball Striking and Strategy

[Tom_Doak]

I don't care whether the winning score is -24.  This week's Open has been the best examination of ball striking and strategy I've seen in years.  It's never been more obvious how being able to move the ball a certain way helps you get close to certain holes, and how a slight pull can be magnified by the wind and the ground.
[Of course it helps tremendously to have Faldo and Azinger and Finchy explaining it all.]

The more I watch the more I think I am starting to understand Tiger's strategy.  It's not just that he doesn't want to hit driver; it's that he wants to leave himself hitting full shots to the greens where he can use his command of trajectory.  If you're hitting half wedges to these greens it's very difficult to predict how much the ball is going to release.

[Just as I finished this I heard Mr. Alliss decry the "inky-fisted peasants" who have pooh-poohed the course and the setup.  I could not agree more.]

[John_Conley]

Thanks for posting this.  I hadn't been able to follow his rant and it made Azinger's comment about how a lot of experts don't know squat.  Well then, Paul, then they aren't experts.

[Tim Bert]

Just as I finished this I heard Mr. Alliss decry the "inky-fisted peasants" who have pooh-poohed the course and the setup.  I could not agree more.

He actually said the golf course architects AND inky-fisted peasants.

This is fun to watch.

[Tom_Doak]

Tim:

I heard that, but I didn't repeat it because I wondered to whom he was referring.  What golf course architects have commented on the course in public?

[ForkaB]

I fully agree with your inial post Tom.  And....Hoylake is a very "simple" and modest course architecturally.  Shows what fast and firm can do to really make the pros think and make a championship interesting.

Also, thank god it didn't rain and turn the rough into Carnasty '99 sort of stuff.  One of the best things about this Open is the fractional penalties which arise from a mishit or a mistake.

[Adam Clayman]

If Faldo did call the grass "dead" wasn't Alliss taliking about him? That's why Nick made the hosing comment.

I think Shinnecock's rough lines, effectively removing the strategy, were the reasons people had to wait for Hoylake to appreciate the use of strategy and ball striking, combined.

Even though, the tenth in 04', also illustrated just how fallable the pro's floging can be.

I especially loved the fact that the comments came after one of those Plaid suited John Cleese ads.

Speaking of which, I just noticed the bunker color and shapes in the latest one. Where is that place? Orange Co? Also i'm convinced the entire NXTcampaign was created to thwart the efforts to curtail technology, specifically the ball, through psychology.

[JWL]

TD

  The ground is the driest that I have ever seen in any championship , and your comments are "right on", from what I was able to view.
Because of all the preview comments by the prognosticators, I was expecting something much less than what I saw in person when I was there on Friday.

I am disappointed that my friend, David Toms, hurt his back and couldn't play in this Open, because I think this would have been a perfect setup for his game.

See ya in about a month.   Looking forward to it.

[rboyce]

my immediate thought was that Alliss was reacting to the negative comments about this year's Open venue in Golf Digest.

Alliss also commented about how score relative to par doesn't matter. Apparently, he is indifferent to a winning score of 20 under or par. This opinion echoed comments of the same nature made by Monty at the US Open this year. I wonder if they are both subtly suggesting that the USGA needs to stop worrying about defending par.

[Tim Bert]

Maybe both were directed at Whitten.  Didn't he try his hand at gca as of late?

[Brian Phillips]

Tom,

One of the most frustrating things about this last day is the total lack of course management from the players chasing Tiger.  He is laying up of fairway bunkers while you have players like Sergio spraying it with driver off the tee.

The rest of the field just does not seem to have the intelligence to beat Tiger.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

In my opinion I think it was a backhanded slap at Ron Whitten.

Adam, The NXT commercials are at Dump National-Los Angeles #12. (Trump)

It's refreshing to see the strategy of hitting mid-irons into the greens instead of the week to week flogging. But that is what has happened to American golf. I just wish the tour was weekly at courses conditioned like Hoylake. I would be glued to the box.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Alliss also commented about how score relative to par doesn't matter. Apparently, he is indifferent to a winning score of 20 under or par. This opinion echoed comments of the same nature made by Monty at the US Open this year. I wonder if they are both subtly suggesting that the USGA needs to stop worrying about defending par.

Don't forget that if this was the US Open then two of the par 5s would be called par 4s and the course would play to a par of 70.  Therefore Tiger would have started today's round at -7 instead of -13.

[Wayne_Kozun]

The more I watch the more I think I am starting to understand Tiger's strategy.  It's not just that he doesn't want to hit driver; it's that he wants to leave himself hitting full shots to the greens where he can use his command of trajectory.  If you're hitting half wedges to these greens it's very difficult to predict how much the ball is going to release.

I am just reading Shackelford's book  Grounds for Golf.  Geoff talks a lot about temptation - Tiger is resisting the temptation to play aggressively as he is playing for the fairway, short of the bunkers and then, in almost all instances, for the centre of the green.  If he can do this and two-putt on every hole then he can play each round at -4 as he can hit all of the par 5s in 2.  He may make the odd bogey but then he will make the odd birdie by sinking one of his putts on a par 3 or 4.

It is hard to fault this strategy, and he is executing almost flawlessly with club twirls after almost every shot, but it is kind of ho-hum.

Majors are more exciting when they are close and you have the 72nd hole meltdown.

[Jon Wiggett]

Tommy,
if we played at a course like Hoylake every week that would be boring too. What the televised game needs is more variety in the type of courses that are played.

[Tim Taylor]

Tom, you stole my topic. I just logged in to post the topic "Did we just witness the best combination of strategy and execution in major championship history"?

I think so.

Tim

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Jon,
Re-read what I'm saying, courses conditioned like Hoylake....

But then re-reading your post, I can see where I just misread it....

But, I'm not interested in seeing TPC-like courses. I like seeing these guys play the good stuff, and that's why the Open Championship is the Championship for me.

It is THE championship.

[Mark_Fine]

I said on another thread that I love Hoylake.  I was thrilled to see it present such an interesting test for the greatest players in the world.  One thing I that I think should be made clear - this course did NOT take the driver out of Tiger Woods hands.  Tiger took it out on his own electing to take a more conservative route of play.  The beauty of Hoylake is that the driver option was there if you wanted it even for a player as long as Tiger.  

Tommy,
I know what you are implying about you wanting U.S. courses to be conditioned like Hoylake.  But few U.S. courses have bunkers as penal (if you get in them) as those over there.  That is the one big difference.  If you get in a fairway bunker here, the depth of it often leaves an easy shot for the pros.  

[Tom_Doak]

Most American courses, if conditioned like Hoylake this week, would be unplayable.  Too many hazards too close to the greens, not enough chance to run it on.  What do you think guys would have shot at Winged Foot if they'd had to run half their approaches through those 15-yard entrances?

[Mark_Fine]

Tom,
I was thinking more about the fairway bunkers as if you land in one at Hoylake it is a lost shot.  That is not usually the case on most U.S. courses.  

[Adam_F_Collins]

I found myself wondering:

How could people watch this open and not 'get it'? I mean, the variety of approaches to each hole and the variations of strategy - if it's this fun to watch, how much fun would it be to play?

I like the sandy-coloured turf. SAVE THE WATER!!! LONG LIVE THE 'DEAD' GRASS!

[BCrosby]

I don't care whether the winning score is -24.  This week's Open has been the best examination of ball striking and strategy I've seen in years.  It's never been more obvious how being able to move the ball a certain way helps you get close to certain holes, and how a slight pull can be magnified by the wind and the ground.

The more I watch the more I think I am starting to understand Tiger's strategy.  It's not just that he doesn't want to hit driver; it's that he wants to leave himself hitting full shots to the greens where he can use his command of trajectory.  If you're hitting half wedges to these greens it's very difficult to predict how much the ball is going to release.

Tiger must have read TD's post before his press conference last night.

Most interesting was that Tiger said bombing it to leave himself PW approaches was no advantage because he couldn't get to pins with PW's. Putting surfaces were too hard and fast. He figured he needed to roll it up to pins from the correct angles. So he elected to trade off distance to get those angles.

To paraphrase JFK's comment about Thomas Jefferson - the greatest minds ever gathered to play a golf course are when Tiger plays alone.

Bob

[ForkaB]

redanman must be loving this thread!

[Voytek Wilczak]

How would Hoylake play if it were not bone dry?

If it were quite green, as they showed on TV from years past?

The fescue rough would be much more penal, there would be less roll on the fairways - would Tiger still play irons off the tee?

Is the Holyoke 2006 just an aberration?

[Paul_Turner]

If the prevailing wind was up and fully blowing, Tiger would have been tempted to use driver more often.

[Kevin Pallier]

Some other recent examples ?

I thought Mickelson's ball striking & strategy was pretty good at The Masters earlier this year (re: the 2 drivers) ?

Similarly, Hamilton's ball striking may not have been as good as Tigers at RL but his strategy was pretty darn impressive at Royal Troon in 2004 ?