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Is it just me, or is there something fundamentally wrong with top level golf these days?
Day in, day out, week in, week out, it just ain't hard enough. Or so it appears. End of day three at the Open and 7 out of the original 156 best crop of current golfing competitors are under par. SEVEN! Approximately 4% of the field! One of whom has to get up four times in the night to pee. I hope he wins.
Tom Watson has shown absolute class. Brains over brawn. Five of the other six who are under par are tried and tested pro's who, I'm sure all would agree, are classy players. Goggin is the final one. I know nothing of him. Can't really comment.
Yes, the wind has blown. Welcome to seaside golf. I play golf at the seaside and we're lucky if we play four times a year in calm conditions. The rough is high and impossible to play from in some cases. The course isn't uber-long and, as the commentators rightly say, shoot for the middle of the greens and you avoid the nasty humps and bumps.
Watson has shown that there's a way to play it. Ignore the flag. Run it up. Two putt for par and run the occasional bomb in for birdie. Links golf at it's finest.
The players of today have been spoiled rotten by fairways as wide as runways and greens you could build a ship on that stop the ball instantly. Imagination has suffered, particularly for those that play in the US. For players that are used to playing on courses where there really is no punishment for poor shots and -22 wins, tests like the Open really show them up. And the class shines through. The patient, ego-less, intelligent and switched on players are the ones that succeeed.
Only St Andrews can yield low scoring Opens now. The rest of the courses on the Open rota have teeth rarely seen by the modern-day spoiled millionaires. I love seeing them struggle on a proper golf course.
It needs to change, IMO. Shooting under par should be difficult. Par means nothing on the PGA Tour, and only slightly more on the European Tour.
Bring back difficulty more regularly. Anything else is just a false putting contest.
Day in, day out, week in, week out, it just ain't hard enough. Or so it appears. End of day three at the Open and 7 out of the original 156 best crop of current golfing competitors are under par. SEVEN! Approximately 4% of the field! One of whom has to get up four times in the night to pee. I hope he wins.
Tom Watson has shown absolute class. Brains over brawn. Five of the other six who are under par are tried and tested pro's who, I'm sure all would agree, are classy players. Goggin is the final one. I know nothing of him. Can't really comment.
Yes, the wind has blown. Welcome to seaside golf. I play golf at the seaside and we're lucky if we play four times a year in calm conditions. The rough is high and impossible to play from in some cases. The course isn't uber-long and, as the commentators rightly say, shoot for the middle of the greens and you avoid the nasty humps and bumps.
Watson has shown that there's a way to play it. Ignore the flag. Run it up. Two putt for par and run the occasional bomb in for birdie. Links golf at it's finest.
The players of today have been spoiled rotten by fairways as wide as runways and greens you could build a ship on that stop the ball instantly. Imagination has suffered, particularly for those that play in the US. For players that are used to playing on courses where there really is no punishment for poor shots and -22 wins, tests like the Open really show them up. And the class shines through. The patient, ego-less, intelligent and switched on players are the ones that succeeed.
Only St Andrews can yield low scoring Opens now. The rest of the courses on the Open rota have teeth rarely seen by the modern-day spoiled millionaires. I love seeing them struggle on a proper golf course.
It needs to change, IMO. Shooting under par should be difficult. Par means nothing on the PGA Tour, and only slightly more on the European Tour.
Bring back difficulty more regularly. Anything else is just a false putting contest.
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