2009 British Open Preview

(Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Temperamental Turnberry Will Be a Factor

The 138^th British Open will be played at Turnberry Club in Scotland; home to three previous Open Championships all won by players renowned for their excellent ball striking ability.  The landscape and seaside views surrounding Turnberry’s Aisla course are considered by many as the Holy Grail of Royal and Ancient’s Open Championship venue rotation.

Standing on Turnberry’s hallowed grounds, there are remnants of Robert the Bruce’s castle foundation at your feet.  The mountains of Arran rest to the north, the Kintyre peninsula is due west, and the Aisla Craig is just South.  Turnberry overlooks the Irish Sea, which likes to insert its will with unpredictable gusts and temperamental deluges, seemingly spawned purposely to douse the chances of a would-be champion. 

A famous Scottish saying goes, “Nae wind, nae rain, nae golf.”  The weather is unpredictable hour to hour.  Depending on a player’s morning-afternoon or afternoon-morning rotation, some players can get lucky, while others may feel like the Irish Sea is out to get them. 

Part of the charm of The Open is watching the world’s best golfers playing in treacherous conditions.  Turnberry has a history of some of the harshest tournament conditions to date.

The first Open Championship staged at Turnberry in 1977 was the only Turnberry British Open Championship where bad weather did not play a part in the tournament. 

Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus were tied heading into the weekend, having left the field behind.  The two top players in the world at the time staged an epic battle over the weekend, still today referred to as the “Duel Under the Sun.”  Without the usual adverse weather conditions, Watson shot weekend scores of 65-65 to finish just one stroke better than Nicklaus’s weekend, 65-66.  Watson won the coveted Claret Jug by one stroke.

Two-Time Defending Champion Not in Form

Padraig Harrington has won the last two Open Championships, but swing changes have the two-time defending champ mired in a slump.  Harrington won three of six major championships in a 13-month span; he then, inexplicably, decided his swing needed an overhaul.

His modest goal was to improve the position of his club head at impact.  It sounded simple enough, but the rest of his game has suffered in the process. 

“Through that,” Harrington explained, “a combination of other things turned up. Golf is always, for me, a juggling act of keeping all the balls in the air and keeping everything working together. I've obviously concentrated on one ball a lot, and a few of the others have fallen on the ground, and it's a question of picking them up and getting them all together again.”

Or instead of juggling multiple balls, you can go back to focusing on putting your one golf ball in the hole with as few shots as possible and get back to winning major championships. 

Normally, you would never count out a defending champ in a major, especially someone who has won the last two of a given event.  But Harrington’s form has been atrocious leading up to this weekend, and he has relegated himself to also-ran.

Harrington is ranked 137^th in putting (1.793 putts per green), 182^nd in driving accuracy (52.8 percent of fairways hit), and 182^nd in greens in regulation (60.06 percent).  He has no top 10s on the PGA tour this year and has missed the cut in his last four events.

British odds makers are so unimpressed with Harrington’s form, they have listed him at 25-1 odds to win with just 9-4 odds he will even make the cut.

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