Road Hole Strategy

[Kevin Stark]

I'm watching the 1990 Open Championship right now and I just watched Faldo and Baker-Finch play the road hole. Faldo played short and right, taking three to get down for a five (he was way ahead). Baker-Finch played long and left toward 18 tee and had a relatively straightforward putt (as much as they can be there).


I haven't seen the original road hole yet, but I have seen several replicas. The strategy employed by those two made me think of my playing of the road hole at Old Mac. After a couple of rounds, I found that my best play was to go long and left toward 12 tee, especially if the pin was over the road bunker. How prudent is that strategy at the original? It seems less common than maybe it should be.

[Will Lozier]

I think this strategy has been talked about before here and much has been written about it. The only version I have played is Old Mac and I've caddied it as well. The play left for a left pin is a good play depending on the presentation of the particular greensite. I would only say that you are inherently taking greater risk with regards to the bunker by going left, the actual amount of risk dependent upon where you are playing your second.


Cheers

[Tom_Doak]

Bobby Jones famously played left of the Road bunker in his match against Cyril Tolley in the 1930 Amateur championship.  He was concerned about doing so, because he didn't want to be accused of using the large gallery to keep him from possibly going too far with his second and winding up in the burn -- he tried in vain to get the marshals to move the crowd back, for that reason.


That's the main reason you don't see that play tried a bit more often -- the burn is actually in play if you are trying to make sure you're clearly past the Road bunker.  I am not surprised that IBF tried it, though -- he was taught how to play The Old Course by Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle, and he understood it very well.




I did think about it at Old Macdonald . . . obviously, we weren't going to build a burn to nowhere to prevent it.  But I figured that the lack of a real road to the right of the green made the hole much more forgiving, so it wasn't necessary to beef up the left side defenses.