Tuesday notes from the Open Championship..

There is a light rain falling on Royal St Georges this morning with a little breeze at 18mph from the NE, high of 18.

Masters champion Charl Schwartzel has just been in the press room..
"Best links greens"
Charl Schwartzel, the man who stormed to Masters victory in April with four closing birdies, said after just nine holes of practice: “These are probably the best links greens I’ve seen for a very long time. I thought they putted really well and the ball rolled beautifully.”


His preparation for The Open was done at home in South Africa. “I decided not to play in the Scottish Open because I guessed that the weather was going to be bad. That was my prediction and I wasn’t far off. It’s pretty cold at home right now, but we get clear days with a bit of wind and I figured it would be pretty good practice, which it was. The courses are dry so I could really prepare for the way this course would play. We’ll see how that works out. I did a lot of practising and when I played yesterday it felt pretty good.”

Vijay out, Bjorn in
Thomas Bjorn has been given another chance to revisit the scene of his greatest chance of Open Championship victory. The late withdrawal of Vijay Singh has plucked him out of the reserve list and into Thursday’s starting line-up for a 7.25 match with Simon Dyson and Gary Woodland.


It was over the links of Royal St George’s in 2003 that the tall Dane held a two-stroke advantage over clubhouse leader Ben Curtis as he stood on the tee of the short 16th. His tee shot toppled into a bunker at the back right of the green, with the hole cut close to that edge. His first recovery shot spun back off the green to his feet. So did the second. The double-bogey wiped out his lead and when he dropped another shot at the 17th his chance of Open glory was gone

Sahara is the name given to the huge fairway bunker on the 4th hole.


3 Guys you never heard of.....
Floris de Vries is from Holland, plays on the Challenge Tour and is in this his 1st Open Championship because he won the IFQ Africa by 4 shots 64,68 -10 in Johannesburg

Craig Hinton is one of 5 amateurs in the field, he's English and won a LFQ to get into the Open. He was temporarily struck blind in 2009 and took 8 months to recover and was taken to intensive care for a week in Spain earlier this year with "inflammation of the heart"

Tetsuji Hiratsuka is a 39 year old Japanese golfer playing in his 2nd Open. He has won 5 times on the Japan Tour and 3 times on the Asian Tour

Bad Weather... while the weather forecast is not too bad for this week in the 1938 championship at Royal St Georges they endured some of the worst weather to plague the Open. The wind was so strong the large exhibition tent was ripped apart and debris scattered as far as the clubhouse at Prince’s, almost a mile away.

Only seven scores under 80 were recorded in the final round and the 78 by Reg Whitcombe, one of 3 English golfing brothers was the most significant, allowing him to hold on for a 2 shot win.

Toughest closing hole  Royal St George’s has the toughest closing hole of all Open courses.Figures compiled by The R&A for Championships played from 1982 to 2010 show that the 459-yard par four has been played at an average of 4.62.

It’s not the most difficult par four in Open play, that honour belongs to the devilish 17th at St Andrews, but it is the closing hole that champions have struggled with the most.

And for this year it has been re-shaped, with the fairway moved to the right. One of the three cross bunkers has been removed and the other two raised and two new bunkers introduced on the left. The bunker at the front left of the green has been moved closer to the putting surface to tighten the approach. So don’t expect any respite here for the man who would be champion.

Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
(notes from Open Championship.com)