2011 Presidents Cup: Familiarity with Royal Melbourne Will Not Be an Issue

There has been a lot of talk this week about how the American side will be at a some kind of marked disadvantage due to their lack of knowledge about all of the “subtle nuances” at Royal Melbourne.

According to the Herald Sun, former Australian pro and renowned course designer Mike Clayton has called the American Presidents Cup team “incredibly naive” to think that they can learn how to play Royal Melbourne in a matter of days.

“Most weeks in America, if you hit a proper six-iron it will go close to the hole,” Clayton said.

“To get it close at Royal Melbourne, you’ve got to play it from the right part of the fairway, you have to hit the right shot and more often than not, you have to judge the wind, then you’ve got to land it in the right place to bounce the ball to the hole,” he continued.

Umm, sounds pretty similar to every single Open Championship, of which Americans have managed to win 11 of the last 17.

That also sounds very similar to each U.S. Open, of which Americans have won all but 12 since 1926.

Royal Melbourne was also designed by Dr. Alister McKenzie just two years before he completed work on Augusta National, which coincidentally is a course that no Australian golfer in history has won the Masters on.

In addition, when it comes to the Presidents Cup, there really is no home course advantage for the International side.

Just have a look at the 12 players that comprise this year’s International team.

Charl Schwartzel, K.J. Choi, Kyung-tae Kim, Retief Goosen, Y.E. Yang and Ryo Ishikawa would all be just as unfamiliar with Royal Melbourne as anyone on the American side.

Ernie Els set the course record at Royal Melbourne with a 60 at the 2004 Heineken Classic but has returned to the course few times in the last seven years.

In terms of the Australian players, well, you’ve got Jason Day, who lives in Dallas and up until last week, hadn’t played competitively in Australia in more than five years.

You’ve got Adam Scott, who is from Queensland and has been playing the PGA and European Tours for most of his career.

Then you’ve got Robert Allenby, Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley, who may have grown up playing Royal Melbourne but who have each lived in America for the past decade.

So, this “big advantage” everyone seems to be bestowing upon the International side due to its “familiarity” with the golf course really only applies to three out of the 12 players on the International team, and even those three players would not have played Royal Melbourne very often in recent years.

Heck, Tiger Woods may have played more sandbelt golf over the past few years than many of the Australian players on Greg Norman’s International side.

The International team is extremely strong this year, and may very well send the American side home with their tails between their legs.

However, it will not be due to the American side’s lack of preparation or course knowledge.

These are professional golfers who play in every corner of the world and manage to conquer major championship layouts with a form of preparation that often includes nothing more than two practice rounds.

Patrick Cantlay (an amateur) set the course record at the 2011 Travellers Championship in just his second competitive round at TPC River Highlands.

Rickie Fowler recently tied the course record at the Korean Open in just his third ever round at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club.

Rory McIlroy set the course record at Quail Hollow in 2010 during his fourth ever round on a golf course that many believe to be as, if not more difficult than most major championship venues.

And these are young, relatively inexperienced pros (or an amateur in Cantlay’s case) we’re talking about here.

Royal Melbourne, although a very difficult golf course, is not some kind of mythical, magical layout.

It’s a golf course, and members of both teams have had very successful careers learning how to play new courses in a matter of hours, whether they’re in Scotland, England, America, Dubai, China, Wales, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia or anywhere else.

And Royal Melbourne will be no different.

Now, let the best team win.

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