haha! Those bunkers are pretty scary. Just watching a few trying to get out without success first time. Do ya try for a second towards the pin if turn and hit it backwards like a few of the players did. Risky stuff!
Some of the bunkers at my course are like some of those at Royal Troon. Never good when the bunker has steps in/out of it
@JK some of the bunkers you see on the Scottish links courses are scary AF.
I played in a big tournament at St Andrews in Hamilton one time, the par 3 18th there has a large bunker in front, no where as intimidating as some of the links bunkers, but I was up against the 6ft face and try a miracle to go for the green or go sideways to get out of the bunker into the 4 inch lush rough they had for the tournament....I chose the sideways option and got out of the bunker easily enough, but the rough saw me double hit the ball..I finished with a 6!
Fortunately the TV cameras that were there for the event, were not there for me, only one of the marshal's saw what I did!
@Chris-B Could be the postage stamp but its only 120 yards or so but one of the players said he was hitting 8iron from 120 today!
Postage stamp is epic. About 105m but watched plenty of bogeys and doubles there, including Rory and Morikawa.
Great evening of golf viewing. Not sure what the weather is like for the second round but have a feeling that anyone better than +3 is well in the tournament.
Most of the leaders are out on the course now.
Lowry and Brown leading by 2. It could be anyone of about 30-40 golfers who wins this.
Three golfers from the British and Irish Isles at the top of the leader board.
Lowry - 7 Clubhouse
Brown -5 14
Rose -4 10
Scheffler, Horschel and Burmester on -2 in the clubhouse.
Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open Champion, must be the favourite if he can hold it all together. Justin Rose, who tied for 2nd in 2013 and finished 4th way back in 1997, has been here before too.
Few players went around in less than par today.
Clubhouse scores
Lowry -7
Brown -5
Rose -5
Scheffler, Herschel and Burmester -2
Schauffe, Day, Conners, Cantlay -1
Jordan Evens
Best player still out there is Niemann on Evens past 15.
Spare a thought for Aguri Iwasaki. Hovering around the cut line with 7 holes to play - goes double bogey, quintuple bogey, sextuple bogey (13 shots gone in 3 holes) and finishes with a triple bogey to shoot 91 and be officially last.
Shane Lowry drops two shots in heavy rain on the iconic Postage Stamp hole. Opens it all up.
Horshal, Brown and Lowry tied for the lead on 6 under, Schauffle on 5 under, Rose on 4 under, Lawrence and Burns who posted 65 today in the club house on 3 under, Henley, Scheffler and Burmster are also on 3 under.
Dan Brown has a shocker on the 18th after a tough round in rough conditions.
Horshal leads by one on 4 under. Anyone of 24 golfers within 6 of a lead will fancy this tomorrow.
Weather doesn't look too smart tomorrow. Paris will feel like birdies on the back 9 late tomorrow afternoon.
Schauffele really showed his class on that back 9 where most of the week players were trying to hang to the score they made on the front 9. Nobody really threw it away, they just couldn't go as low as he did
He looked very confident when he strolled in to Royal Troon a couple of hours pre tee off. They showed him basically strutting in and his demeanour made it clear he was on for it. Was only paying $4.50 but I took it!
Hillier and Fox finished pretty well over all. Gee Foxy's 3rd round cost him. He tried to play some very attacking golf that just didnt pay off. Kept at it yesterday and it did, possibly due to the more favourable conditions.
Quite enjoyed watching Lawrence play. -7 after 9 holes but couldn't find a birdie coming home. Still kept going for it - at the 18th, he drives into a steep fairway bunker, he stupidly still tries to reach the green, hits the bank and the ball pops behind him onto the fairway. But he then hits a great shot and makes his par.
Anyway quiz question, no cheating. When was the last year that all 4 majors were won by Americans?
I heard the stat so won't answer the year but it was a bit longer than I thought (early 2000s when Tiger was dominating - lots of 3 US player years in there but no 4s)
My guess is 04? Todd Hamilton, Micheel, Woods at Augusta, but maybe that was a year Retief won the US? Long time ago though.
Great win by Xander. So in control in that back 9, looked every bit the champion.
Love the pace of this major, testing players in all conditions. Can you survive in the wet? Can you beat the wind? Great now go out and get it on Sunday. Xander had all the gears.
@barbarian a solid top 20 placing for Daniel Hillier aswell which was awesome to see.
@barbarian said in The Open:
My guess is 04? Todd Hamilton, Micheel, Woods at Augusta, but maybe that was a year Retief won the US? Long time ago though.
I'll post the answer as this thread will go quiet soon. 1982 amazingly enough. And in 1994, no American won a major (Price x 2, Els & Olazabal)
