Suppose for some bizarre reason Tiger decides to set a Nicklausian record for course records in Scotland and Ireland by playing in regular, open to you and me (but still big deal!) ONE DAY tournaments across the summer. Or whichever ones you have to play in to set “official” course records – if that’s the Open Championship, then let’s just pretend it’s another tournament held there that’s truly open and not some type of Euro Tour event. Arrgh! I'm already anticipating nit-picky questions -- look, the point is: it's a one-day, stroke-play deal. Just go with me on that...
(Yes, assume his knee is full strength and he’s not playing any majors. He cleared his entire calendar for this noble endeavor!) He plots out a schedule that enables him to play in tournaments for the courses grouped into the three lists below. The course records come from Donald Steel’s book and yes I know they’re probably out of date. But that’s simpler!
To do:
1. Rank the groups from most to least course records he racks up.
2. Supply the number of course records he earns in each group.
3. Explain your reasoning!
Assume both Scotland and Ireland have “typical” summers, with Scotland’s falling on July 15th of this year and Ireland’s on the 7th July.
And now, the groups:
Scotland Low (the 10 lowest course records listed in Steel’s book among Scottish courses)
Elie (62)
Luffness New (62)
Panmure (62)
TOC (62 -- Yes, I know they keep changing the “record” as they lengthen the course and that 64 by David Frost in 2005 is now the “official” record but let’s keep it at 62 to remain consistent to Steel. Also, if we go with 62 it enables us to get an extra Rota course into the discussion.)
Lundin (63)
Leven (63)
Turnberry (63)
Cruden Bay (63)
Crail (63)
North Berwick (63)
Scotland High (the ten highest in Scotland that appear in Steel's book)*
Muirfield (64)
Troon (64)
Southerness (65)
Western Gailes (65)
Machrie (66)
Dornoch (66)
Nairn (65)
Carnoustie (65)
Moray (66)
Prestwick (68)
Ireland
Portmarnock (64)
Royal Dublin (64)
County Louth (65)
Waterville (65)
County Down (66)
County Sligo (66)
Portrush (66)
Tralee (66)
Ballybunion (67)
Lahinch (68)
*Actually, seven courses in the Scotland High group with course records of 64 qualify for the list – I just picked the two Rota courses figuring those would be the toughest to break – and thereby, ahem, strengthen my hypothesis. Feel free to pick any two from this list:
Aberdeen (64)
Dunbar (64)
Gullane (64)
Macrihanish (64)
Montrose (64)
Muirfield (64)
Troon (64)
My first thought was to go with the group with the highest records, but then I figured it could be tougher actually to go low. He only gets ONE shot at each! So I say:
Ireland (5 – some of these courses are tournament tested but some are not; Sligo, Tralee, Ballybunion and Lahinch all have to be strong possibilities unless he gets freaky-by-Ireland-standards weather, yes?)
Scotland High (4 – Richie’s home course takes a pounding)
Scotland Low (3 – I think he’ll destroy these courses as a lot, but the math looks really hard to beat. There are two Rota courses in here and I figure he doesn’t get any Rota courses on his little swing through the Isles.)
What do you say?
Mark