139th Open Championship – St Andrews

July 16th, 2010

It’s a truly special week in the golfing calendar as the best players from all four corners of the globe assemble at golf’s most historic and revered venue for the 139th playing of The Open Championship. The oldest championship in world golf celebrates the 150th anniversary of its first playing by returning to the home of golf – The Old Course at St Andrews.

Since the very first Open Championship was held with just eight participants in 1860 the event has become established as one of golf’s four major championships and the list of past winners reads like a who’s who of golfing greats. Among others, names like Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros are all indelibly engraved on the famous Claret Jug. As this year’s Championship gets underway at St Andrews the field has increased somewhat since the first event in 1860 and 156 competitors will take to the links for their shot at golf’s oldest prize. The beauty of the Open Championship is the cosmopolitan nature of the field; proven major champions and tour winners play alongside qualifiers from all over the world, for whom this may be their one any only Open Championship experience. In addition, the field is also sprinkled with a number of amateur talents who have gained entry to the championship courtesy of their succes in the amateur game and will be hungry to write their name into The Open history books by claiming the coveted silver medal.

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A truly great championship deserves a truly great course and there can be no doubt that The Old Course at St Andrews provides just that. As always, the course is in immaculate condition for the event with the vast putting surfaces, undulating fairways and all 112 bunkers all prepared to absolute perfection. Since the championship last visited St Andrews in 2005 the course has seen some subtle changes; but there is certainly nothing subtle about the change made at the famous Road Hole which has been lengthened by some 40 yards and now measures a fearsome 495 yards from the championship tee. A player stepping onto the 17th tee must hit an accurate drive to set-up the second shot but, with the carry over the replica railway sheds now a minimum of 265 yards, accuracy must also be married to distance for the perfect tee shot. Should the player safely dispatch their tee shot down the fairway at the 17th they must still execute an approach to one of the most infamous greens in golf, where they face the wrath of the treacherous Road Hole Bunker and also contend with the road that gives this hole its name. Four pars on the 17th hole will be a valuable commodity and the Road Hole promises to serve up more than its fair share of agony and ecstasy moments throughout the week.

From a Titleist perspective Open Championship week is always exciting and this year it is no different. The Titleist Tour Team arrived at St Andrews knowing that 31 Titleist Ambassadors were in the field and a busy week aboard the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle (TTSV) was assured.

Here is a full list of the Titleist Ambassadors in Open Championship action this week:

Jason Bohn
Ben Crane
Ben Curtis
Jason Dufner
Ross Fisher
Rickie Fowler
Tano Goya
Bill Haas
Mark Haastrup
Sören Hansen
Jean Hugo
Zach Johnson
Robert Karlsson
Kyung-Tae Kim
Marc Leishman
Rory McIlroy
Kevin Na
Seung-Yul Noh
Geoff Ogilvy
Mark O’Meara
Tom Pernice Jr
Adam Scott
Peter Senior
Michael Sim
Steve Stricker
Bo Van Pelt
Nick Watney
Davis Love III

The Titleist Team are continuing with the seeding of the new Titleist 910 drivers and, following on from a successful first week at Loch Lomond where 10 Titleist Ambassadors put a 910 in tournament play, the buzz surrounding the new product continues to grow with more and more players wanting to test the 910. As you would imagine, with such an important championship on the line, most of the players are sticking with their current set-ups for Open week, but there was still plenty of 910 testing happening on the range and two further Titleist Ambassadors, Mark O’Meara and Ross Fisher, have made the transition to 910 for The Open Championship – quite a testimant to the performance of 910.

Ross Fisher had taken away a 910 from last week’s Barclays Scottish Open and came back to the Team in St Andrews to do some more work on his set-up. By changing the set-up of the 910 to 7.5°, Titleist Tour Technician Phil Dimmock was able to provide Ross the high launch, low spin flight he was looking for and the reigning Accenture World Match Play champion just couldn’t wait to see how the driver performed in tournament conditions. Ross and the 910 seemed to be a perfect synergy on day one as the Englishman carded a four under par 68, hitting 75% of his fairways with an average driving distance of 316 yards. Ross is in good position going into day two and will have realistic designs on claiming a first major championship crown.

One player to get his first look at the new 910 at The Old Course was Titleist Ambassador Rory McIlroy. Rory stepped aboard the TTSV during Wednesday practice and was immediately taken by the overall look of the product, paying particular compliment to the darkened club face. Understandably, Rory preferred to stick with his current 909 product for The Open Championship itself but a 910 is currently en route to Rory’s residence and the Team have scheduled in some driver work at the upcoming 3 Irish Open.

We couldn’t mention Rory McIlroy without offering our congratulations on a stunning opening round of 63 (-9). His opening round performance was the lowest first round score in the 150 year history of The Open Championship but, to anyone who has studied Rory’s competitive record at St Andrews, the performance should come as no surprise. In his previous eight competitive rounds at The Old Course Rory has never carded a score higher than 69 (-3) and, with yesterday’s round included, has an Old Course stroke average of 67.2 – simply flabbergasting!!! The Team asked him about his record at St Andrews prior to yesterdays round to which Rory, in typically modest fashion, responded “The course just suits my eye.” One thing is for sure, if Rory can maintain his record over the next three days he will be a very hard man to beat.

Away from 910 a number of the players were also taking the opportunity to consult “The Voke” as Bob Vokey made his usual appearance at The Open Championship. Links golf is played on turf conditions that are very different to your typical week on the PGA or European Tour and this requires a variety of shot types to be played from tight, often hard pan lies. To cope with the unusual conditions the players come to “The Voke” for guidance. And with good reason; the master of the wedge has something up his sleeve in the form of a special grind which he uses for Open Championships. A number of players took new wedges away from the TTSV which matched their current specification in every way with the exception of this special grind. Essentially the trick is to create a 45° angle grind on the leading edge. The sharper edge makes is easier to pick the ball from the tight lies that the players will face around the old course. All hail the “The Voke”!!!

We’re all set-up for an enthralling and dramatic Open Championship weekend. The leaderboard is packed with a number of golf’s biggest names and, with so many players in red figures and playing well, the oldest and arguably most prestigious prize in golf will be hotly contested. Don’t forget that you can post comments on the Blog directly using the space below and you can also interact with the Titleist Tour Team directly via the TitleistEurope Twitter page. Until next week, enjoy watching history in the making as the 139th Open Championship reaches its conclusion.

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