The Open Championship of 2012 will be held at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
This course looks to be a good challenge for the players. Lots of bunkers, tall rough and narrow fairways. Accuracy will play a huge role on this course. The sprayers I believe will have a hard time on this course.
What do you guys think?
I played The Open at Lytham in 1996…was doing quite well for 2 rounds…and used a persimmon!!!..I may be the last person to ever use a persimmon in a Major?
Good course. Tough start the first 3 holes. The 6th is now a par 4 instead of a par 5. Back nine has some good par 4 holes with 13 and 16 being shorter birdie chances.
A few slopey fairways and elevated greens making tougher shots than the length of the hole suggests such as the 8th
The biggest problem with this course is if the wind gets up because the prevailing wind blows across the holes (left to right on most front nine holes)… the back nine routes a little differently so you get right to left shots and downwind and into…If the rough is up which i think it is because of the rain then a good driver of the ball should prevail.
Some good fairway bunker positioning. I am looking for a Westwood or a Schwartzel, OOsthuizen guy to do well…who have pretty solid ballstriking and control. It has been a good course for ‘foreign’ winners with Player, Thompson, Locke, Seve (twice), Bob Charles winning there…jacklin was the hometown hero in 69 an dAmericans have owned the last couple with Lehman and Duval joining Bobby Jones as US players winning there… It is a very solid list of winners at that course so I would expect something similar, but haven’t seen the course on TV yet to see the rough or wind to have a really bold prediction or to count anyone out.
1996 pretty good scoreboard of names to be amongst during the 2nd round… How was Nicklaus…shot 66 that day at 56 years of age!!!
Seves 65 in the last round in 88 has to be one of the best rounds ever, I think the video is in the Seve section in the Vault if anyone hasn’t seen it.
Off up there for friday & saturday, it sounds like the rough is decent but fairways generous & softer than usual + we now look set for very light winds so i’m wondering if the course wil be able to defend itself.
It looks like a fair test if you can hit the thing straight. Fairways will hold more than normal, but lose it left or right and you’ll be hacking out. Can’t wait and I think it’s made for a Furyk or even a surprise like Paul Lawrie to do well.
Looking forward to any observations you and other ABS members might post TC, makes it a [size=200]LOT[/size] more interesting.
My vote is for Tiger… If he doesn’t hit driver once… 
LOL, that’s what I was thinking. Maybe Tim Chapman can rush him on the driving range and snap his driver in two. Best favor you could do for him.
Or maybe slip in a persimmon driver under that Tiger head cover and when he hits the first tee he will have to play with it.
HAHA… Tiger practices with persimmon and said he lost only 10-15 yards with it and hits a lot more fairways… Why not use it? Screw Nike and their junk…
I bet even his fairway metals are junk as well… He doesn’t need graphite in them and are probably way too light … If you go back to the US Am or when he was playing in 2000, you can see the confidence in his eyes with his driver, now he’s just shitting bricks over the ball…
Well, the NIKE contract says he’s got to play their sticks. What I don’t get is why they don’t make a decent driver built for accuracy instead of distance for him.
Smaller headed titanium with a steel shaft with a flatter lie angle. Not rocket science and might even give them an advantage over their fellow OEMs in the next round of “What’s hot for 2013”. That is until they start copying you.
God forbid they would actually advertise for 10 yards straighter versus 10 yard longer into the woods.
Some times I wonder if anyone in marketing even plays golf?
Maybe Tiger doesn’t even know his clubs don’t fit him… I’d like to know his iron lie angles, from what I’ve heard he uses 1 degree up, and from what I’ve seen at impact, probably 4-5 degrees flatter would do the trick… Ah, what the hell do we know huh? 
I’ll certainly be trying to get a follow on Tiger Sergio & Rose, apparently it is one of the better courses to watch as being smaller than most the spectators are closer to the action. Tiger is certainly talking of having to use the driver, so we’ll see where that leads him. I have a fancy for Westwood to come good at last if the course does favour good driving of the ball, but fear we might not see the cream at the top with the forecast light winds, Lee Slattery is a local & might go better than his 500/1
I hope it dries up and the wind starts blowing so we can see some shot making…
You’d think with no wind, soft fairways and greens, these guys should hit every fairway and most greens. I’d hate to see Scott when he thinks his ball striking isn’t so good.
If someone could manage to get a hold of Tigers driver and snap it over their knee, he’d waltz away with Auld Claret. That POS just kills him time after time
Yesterday Tiger used the driver once and the 3-wood twice off the tee. Missed left once with the 3-wood, but aside from that he hit all the fairways. 83% GIR.
I am looking forward to some bad weather out there. Some wind would be nice. Without weather to defend itself we could be looking at another 2011 US Open where winner is -18.
Not sure why everyone is hating on Tiger’s driving right now. Under Haney and in that 2008 swing posted up recently - yes I agree he was stuck and standing up and just terrible. But under Foley he has completely turned himself around. It’s really quite remarkable. His total driving, which combines accuracy and distance, is currently 5th on tour. Can we give the man some credit for working his ass off and trying hard to change his swing DNA the same we we all are? I don’t prefer Foley’s stack and tilt hybrid model for myself and I wouldn’t teach it to my kids but I accept that it can work well for some and Tiger is MASSIVELY improved over where he was under Haney’s junk. We are witnessing a return to dominance…he has won 3 times on tour already this year and there’s no reason to think he won’t get better if he sticks with what he’s doing. Hogan he is not…but he’s swinging left with better connection, using the ground (more vertical than horizontal but still using it), controlling his trajectory in a way he hasn’t in a long time, and above all compressing the golf ball. If anything is holding him back, it’s his putting.