Did Anybody Watch the Scottish Open This Afternoon?

[Tom_Doak]

I was not watching on TV, but am looking at the results now on the PGA Tour web site.  Based on their diagrams, it looks like many of the players in the afternoon session were not able to reach the start of the fairway at the par-5 16th, playing into a pretty good wind.  Their drives are all listed as "242 yards to primary rough" or the like.  That must have been a pretty strong wind!


* They all made par anyway.

[Niall C]

Tom


I've had one eye on the coverage and can't recall any chat from the commentators on players not being able to reach the fairway on any hole. I'm sure they would have made a thing about it if that was the case.


Generally they were waxing lyrical about the course with Sam Torrance describing the short par 3 adjacent to the clubhouse (6th ? - you know the one, the hole where you need to blow up the green. I have my pick and shovel ready so just give me a shout) as one of the best short par 3's in the world !


Niall

[V. Kmetz]

I was not watching on TV, but am looking at the results now on the PGA Tour web site.  Based on their diagrams, it looks like many of the players in the afternoon session were not able to reach the start of the fairway at the par-5 16th, playing into a pretty good wind.  Their drives are all listed as "242 yards to primary rough" or the like.  That must have been a pretty strong wind!


* They all made par anyway.

I am flipping between Seniors at Firestone and the SOpen currently...I hadn't yet seen 16, but 18 they can't reach the fairway bunkers with full on driver and its 3 or 4 irons to hybrids for approaches there

[John Kirk]

I don't currently have television service, but i just looked at the leaderboard and it appears the course is playing considerably over par.  Without adding it up, I estimate the average score as between 72 and 73.

[Mark Smolens]

I don't currently have television service, but i just looked at the leaderboard and it appears the course is playing considerably over par.  Without adding it up, I estimate the average score as between 72 and 73.

And yet, Cameron Tringale, at best described as a journeyman on the PGA Tour, birdied 10-15 on his way to a 61... those guys are indeed quite good!

[Sean_A]

Huge difference between AM and PM the times.

It was great watching play on 8 & 9...normal routing.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

This of Day 1 available on YouTube - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3dmQhyqpQ


A question - was any consideration given to making the hole they are playing as the 13th, the ‘new’ par-4 along the coastline, play as a risk/reward driveable par-4? Just curious especially as the walk from the par-3 12th tee back to the 13th tee looks to be a pretty long walk?
Atb

[Sean_A]

This of Day 1 available on YouTube - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3dmQhyqpQ


A question - was any consideration given to making the hole they are playing as the 13th, the ‘new’ par-4 along the coastline, play as a risk/reward driveable par-4? Just curious especially as the walk from the par-3 12th tee back to the 13th tee looks to be a pretty long walk?
Atb

I think it would be a better hole as a much shorter 4. I played it again recently and it hardened my belief. I think the back tees are really about the view. Of course, that matters not for a tournament setting. And the course could use a drivable par 4 for the pros.

I miss some of the trees that were removed. I know, blasphemy.

Ciao

[JESII]

Tom,


I had it on but was in and out of the room and can't recall a tee shot on 16.


I noticed the rough, both maintained and tall, all seemed quite thin and playable. unless there was some nasty rough in that area, I wouldn't think a complaint is in order.


On the flip side, I noticed Justin Thomas teeing off on an early 600 yard par 5 with an iron. 15 minutes later I saw him putting for eagle from the left apron pin high.

[JohnVDB]

Huge difference between AM and PM the times.

It was great watching play on 8 & 9...normal routing.

Ciao

From Doug Ferguson:
Scoring average for the morning at Scottish Open was 70.4. For the afternoon it was 73.6. Might have been the 30 mph wind, I'm thinking. Cantlay hit driver, 3-wood to the 483-yard 18th, just short of the green.

[Marty Bonnar]

Huge difference between AM and PM the times.

It was great watching play on 8 & 9...normal routing.

Ciao

From Doug Ferguson:
Scoring average for the morning at Scottish Open was 70.4. For the afternoon it was 73.6. Might have been the 30 mph wind, I'm thinking. Cantlay hit driver, 3-wood to the 483-yard 18th, just short of the green.

Yup.
It was REALLY windy here this afternoon. Forecast for the weekend is much lighter winds, sunny and dry. Could be some even lower scores… Courses are dry, hard and running fast. If it stays like this, the Open could get interesting (but I’m not holding my breath).
F.

[Niall C]

This of Day 1 available on YouTube - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3dmQhyqpQ


A question - was any consideration given to making the hole they are playing as the 13th, the ‘new’ par-4 along the coastline, play as a risk/reward driveable par-4? Just curious especially as the walk from the par-3 12th tee back to the 13th tee looks to be a pretty long walk?
Atb

I think it would be a better hole as a much shorter 4. I played it again recently and it hardened my belief. I think the back tees are really about the view. Of course, that matters not for a tournament setting. And the course could use a drivable par 4 for the pros.

I miss some of the trees that were removed. I know, blasphemy.

Ciao

Interesting. I personally think the drive is the best thing about that hole. It's heroic and very discomforting because you can't really see the landing area. Liking it kind of goes against what I've been arguing on the Longleaf thread ie. forced carries and relatively long walk green to tee, but in small doses it works.


Niall

[Tom_Doak]

 the course could use a drivable par 4 for the pros.

The fifth hole is very short, but it's into the prevailing wind.  If it's calm they will try it to certain hole locations.


I have suggested that the 15th hole [tournament order; actual 12th] would be better with a new green to the left, and a 350- to 380-yard length.  But trying to build a new green starting in July and have it play just like the other seventeen greens by the next July is pretty much impossible in Scotland.

[Peter Pallotta]

reading this thread, and thinking back over the years since the course first started hosting the tournament, it struck me that we are watching, in real time and in present day, something of a parallel to the early history of Augusta National playing itself out (with differences, of course)

Which is to say: the process that Tom's been engaged in for several years now, and the changes to the course that have been made, might prove a useful historical lens through which to explore/understand the dynamics involved the evolution of a course like Augusta

Peter

[Sean_A]

This of Day 1 available on YouTube - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3dmQhyqpQ


A question - was any consideration given to making the hole they are playing as the 13th, the ‘new’ par-4 along the coastline, play as a risk/reward driveable par-4? Just curious especially as the walk from the par-3 12th tee back to the 13th tee looks to be a pretty long walk?
Atb

I think it would be a better hole as a much shorter 4. I played it again recently and it hardened my belief. I think the back tees are really about the view. Of course, that matters not for a tournament setting. And the course could use a drivable par 4 for the pros.

I miss some of the trees that were removed. I know, blasphemy.

Ciao

Interesting. I personally think the drive is the best thing about that hole. It's heroic and very discomforting because you can't really see the landing area. Liking it kind of goes against what I've been arguing on the Longleaf thread ie. forced carries and relatively long walk green to tee, but in small doses it works.


Niall

But it's not a difficult tee shot for pros. In today's conditions It would be at least as nteresting a tee shot with a tee near the 9th green. They could comfortably go for the green, but need to shape a shot into the slope.

Ciao

[Mark_Fine]

I thought the course looked great on TV.  I did have to laugh at the one commentator’s comments about Harrington’s consultation on the changes 😊


Yes several of the pros were hitting irons off the tee on the 600 yard par five on the front and then reaching the green with another iron in two.  Fitzgerald hit driver/7I 

[Ronald Montesano]

Tringale putted very well. His words.

Sixteenth hole did seem to play quite difficult, into the wind. Commentators indicated that the DP World Tour officials were in charge of back-nine tee selections, and that they had considered moving 16 up, but stayed with the back tee deck. In the afternoon, players suffered.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Here is a tweet with a scatter chart of drives today on #16.


https://twitter.com/Sean_Zak/status/1545149246818717696?s=20&t=aOVpYWMgvfr1qvzX6RrxqA

[Brian_Ewen]

Fridays forecast.

[JJShanley]

I was marshalling on 15 yesterday (located parallel and north of 16) with others from my club. I did notice about 10am-noon, as I was ball spotting on the right of that hole, that there were several players during that time playing a second shot from the right rough on 15-16 40 yards back from where their playing partners had landed.


I can't tell whether they had landed short of the range where the fairway begins, but a quick look on google earth suggests that that was the case.


The wind certainly got up over the morning. Drives seemed to go further on 15 (straight down wind) in the final 90 minutes of my shift (by which time I was at the green.)

[James Reader]

Entirely anecdotal, but it does seem to have been consistently windy on the east coast of Scotland so far this year.  I’ve played c.30 rounds up there over the past 6 months and I can’t recall even one where there wasn’t at least a reasonable 2-club+ breeze; often much more than that.  Even the locals I played with in St Andrews last weekend we’re moaning about it!


Sod’s law it’ll drop right down for four days from next Thursday.

[Bill Shamleffer]

I did hear (on GolfChannel), a commentator say for one shot that Justin Thomas had just hit a 175 yd 4 iron, and that limited distance appeared to be all due to wind.

[jeffwarne]

Entirely anecdotal, but it does seem to have been consistently windy on the east coast of Scotland so far this year.  I’ve played c.30 rounds up there over the past 6 months and I can’t recall even one where there wasn’t at least a reasonable 2-club+ breeze; often much more than that.  Even the locals I played with in St Andrews last weekend we’re moaning about it!


Sod’s law it’ll drop right down for four days from next Thursday.

Isn't that the truth, OR, turf speeds will be so fast they'll delay it-nah that never happens...


Edit- "the greens will run 10 Thursday-Friday, slower if the wind is forecast" per Gordon Moir
per Geoff Shackelford.


That said, if the really want to challenge modern players, run the greens at 6-7 and cut the holes into some very slopey areas, of which they have so many potential great ones.Especially with the course running so firm.

[Thomas Dai]

Wind on golf course?
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Atb

[Thomas Dai]

Day 2 should be visible here - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UXCLRfqYrxQ
Atb