Young guns Ernie Els and Tiger Woodswill be battling each other, but the tough Royal Troon course might be the winner in the British Open
GOLF: Andrew Spencer
IT is nice to know that in a world dominated by the big buck and the superstars of the US PGA tour, a quietly deceptive layout on Scotland’s Ayrshire coast probably has the measure of both.
Royal Troon – the regal appendage was added on the centenary in 1978 – is an out-and- back par-71 links course that has proved both kind and critical to the hopes of Southern Africa’s golfers.
And it is here that Ernie Els will be taking on the elements and the figure of Tiger Woods in an attempt to claim his second major of the year in the British Open next week.
Bobby Locke won here in 1950, finishing with a 68 that was two shots better than Argentina’s Roberto de Viccenzo’s final round and proved the winning margin. For that, the portly South African in the plus fours and tie won the princely sum of 300, but he did get the chance to hold the venerable claret jug aloft.
For Nick Price, the chance to do just that disappeared as swiftly as the Scots haar (a cold sea fog) in 1982. Price, who admits to this day that the disappointment at Troon was a major setback in his now glittering career, was three shots up with six to play. His swing deserted him on the way home and he collapsed to a 73 as Tom Watson came through to shoot a one-under 70 and edge out Price and the lanky Englishman Peter Oosterhuis by a shot.
Price is back in the field this year, risking the recurrence of his nagging shoulder injuries in an attempt to expunge the memories of the day he will never forget, but will always want to.
Troon is a thinking man’s golf course, a links that takes few prisoners over a layout that offers the same kind of stinginess to par that the Scot of legend owns to.
Arnold Palmer has won here, leaving Australia’s Ken Nagle six shots adrift after closing rounds of 69-67-69 in 1962. The smooth-swinging Tom Weiskopff triumphed in 1973.
It would follow from the successes enjoyed by the two Americans that driving is often a deciding factor and, mixing the aggression and distance off the green of Palmer and the ability of Weiskopff at his best to make the ball come off the clubface like frozen rope, that Els and Woods will provide the focus of this Open championship.
Both come off wins on the US tour and are currently locked in battle over the ownership of the No 1 spot in the world rankings. Both are also looking for another major: Woods to add to his record-breaking victory in the US Masters and Els to add to his second US Open triumph.
Of the two, there is little really to pick. Both are long off the tee – although Woods verges on the prodigious – and both have a delicacy about the greens and the almost invincibility with the putter in their hands of which golfing greatness is made.
But Els must have something of an edge in Scottish conditions. He started his overseas career on the European Tour and has cemented that relationship by retaining his European card while making his home in the US.
It will be interesting to see how Woods adjusts if the weather gets up. It will also be equally intriguing to see how he handles the rough from a drive as wayward as the one he hit on the 17th in his final round at Augusta on his way to the Masters green jacket.
For though Troon may not be as long as the average American layout, it is, like all the links courses on the British Isles, infinitely less forgiving. No hole demonstrates this better than the eighth, rightly called the Postage Stamp, and at 115m the shortest hole on the British Open roster.
A tiny green nestles between a hilly swale on the left and a precipitous swoop into a bunker on the right. As Locke was on his way to victory in 1950, Germany’s Herman Tissies took 15 shots to get down on the minute par- three: five shots in one bunker, five from another before landing back in the sand he had started from.
No player, be he Els or Woods, can pre-claim mastery of Troon, and in this aspect alone the contest between the two is one that promises much but equally could deliver nothing much more than watching the world’s two top players battling to stay with the front of the field.
In this uncertainty lies both the charm and the agony of the British Open.
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