2015 British Open at St. Andrews Discussion Thread

[DeadMan]

I think this might be the major Jason Day breaks through in. Especially if he plays in good weather.

[Rick Martin]

I think this might be the major Jason Day breaks through in. Especially if he plays in good weather.

Hope so. He's one of my favs.  Has he gotten over that viral labyrinthitis/vertigo?

[KevinFaulkner]

What would you guys say are the most important stats for winning at St. Andrews? Distance makes it a lot easier by carrying all the trouble - hope to see DJ come back strong here. I'm also thinking 3-putt avoidance and scrambling would be pretty crucial too with those huge greens, and depending on the weather and wind balls could be running through the greens.

What are you thoughts?

[colin007]

Avoiding the bunkers.

[Gunther]

What would you guys say are the most important stats for winning at St. Andrews? Distance makes it a lot easier by carrying all the trouble - hope to see DJ come back strong here. I'm also thinking 3-putt avoidance and scrambling would be pretty crucial too with those huge greens, and depending on the weather and wind balls could be running through the greens. What are you thoughts?

Biggest problem I had there is putting. I averaged 5 3-putts a round. For the pros, it's always tough for them to adjust to the slower greens and the the gargantuan size. Distance is not a huge factor there although it always helps. It's been lengthened but just play to the left on almost every hole and bunkers can be avoided. So, guess I'll go with approach shots as being most key although that could be said of any tourney I guess. GIR important but average distance to hole moreso.

[misty_mountainhop]

What would you guys say are the most important stats for winning at St. Andrews? Distance makes it a lot easier by carrying all the trouble - hope to see DJ come back strong here. I'm also thinking 3-putt avoidance and scrambling would be pretty crucial too with those huge greens, and depending on the weather and wind balls could be running through the greens.

What are you thoughts?

Avoid the pot bunkers.

Driving/distance will be important as some of the par 4s are drivable for people like DJ (and par 5s easily reachable in 2) and short irons in to greens will be a big advantage. If DJ drives it as he did at CB, I'll be amazed if he isn't a factor as all he'll be doing is flicking wedges into greens.

Putting? Not so sure. Greens should be a good pace but there's not that many big slopes and though they're big surfaces, they'll putt a damned sight better than Chambers Bay did.

It's really not a difficult course for these guys. If there's little wind and it's not bone hard, expect the winning score to be well under par.

[SteveBamford]

Key Stats? Woods and Oosthuizen topped the Total Driving category across all 3 of their triumphs. Expanding on this point Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson and Rory McIlroy finished in the places in 2010 so it follows that all 4 of these excellent drivers still rank highly in the PGA Tour Total Driving stats 5 years later.

[Quadhole]

Strokes gained T to green is so important too. Speith goes over and beyond that with such great putting which is far above everyone else. Outside of that it is a who's who of the top 20. Somehow Lucas Glover makes it onto that list and it shows how bad in other area's he is... Poor Guy....

Anyone of 20 guys could win this one. Hope for speith to win, just want an american champ and for Rory to be chasing him in years to come.

[nevets88]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say some guy we never/rarely heard of will be near the top of the leaderboard on the weekend.

[Vinsk]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say some guy we never/rarely heard of will be near the top of the leaderboard on the weekend. :-P

I don't think it'll be the weekend, but I agree we'll have some (beige paint) names after the opening round. Brian Davis, Scott Brown, and although he did pull off a win, Lingmerth will be up there. I think we often see lesser names soon because they don't really have the level of pressure the bigger names have. They're probably thinking "just go out there and do your best, enjoy the beauty of the course..." I dunno. I'm pulling for Spieth and I'd like to see Tiger show up.

[KevinFaulkner]

So you'd say the miss is left at St. Andrews? And avoiding pot bunkers is key (obviously). F Molinari might be a good pick then..atrocious putting stats but somehow played well at Chambers, driving accuracy is best on tour, and his miss is left. Thoughts?

[DaveP043]

At the Old Course, the safest miss off the tee is left, but that brings into play many of the small pot bunkers right in front of the greens.  If the course is good and firm, its better to be shorter off the tee and more to the right than long and directly behind those wee bunkers.

[ChrisP]

At the Old Course, the safest miss off the tee is left, but that brings into play many of the small pot bunkers right in front of the greens.  If the course is good and firm, its better to be shorter off the tee and more to the right than long and directly behind those wee bunkers.

In that case, Tiger better fix his slice problem. All his misses were right last week. But one of the reasons people like Spieth a lot is because he can draw the ball and when he does miss it, he misses it left. Same with DJ. Btw, a big storm supposed to move into Europe next week. Heavy winds predicted during the practice round. Will be interesting to see if it sticks around all week. Supposed to be at the very least breezy on the coast of Scotland next weekend, according to early weather prognostications. A bit chilly and wet as well.

[Gunther]

So you'd say the miss is left at St. Andrews? And avoiding pot bunkers is key (obviously). F Molinari might be a good pick then..atrocious putting stats but somehow played well at Chambers, driving accuracy is best on tour, and his miss is left. Thoughts?

He's on form and probably not a bad pick but I can't see him holding on for a major. Course, I said that about Curtis, Schwartzel, Weir, Hamilton, et. al.

[ChrisP]

The trend is majors lately is the big names have been winning and contending. Got to go back to Webb Simpson in 2012 to find really the last "under the radar" guy to win a major. And St. Andrews has a history, much like Hoylake, of having very star-studded leaderboards. So I tend to think one of the more prominent names will come out on top. I do like Scott given he will have Stevie on the bag and he's posted three straight top-5s at the British. Stevie has a pretty good knowledge of St Andrews last I checked.

[RJH999]

So you'd say the miss is left at St. Andrews? And avoiding pot bunkers is key (obviously). F Molinari might be a good pick then..atrocious putting stats but somehow played well at Chambers, driving accuracy is best on tour, and his miss is left. Thoughts?

Yeah, but his putter eventually fails him.

[Wally Fairway]

Weather forecast -1 week

[ChrisP]

What's interesting about the weather forecast is they're calling for a Westerly wind, around 10-15mph. That's the same wind that John Daly won out of in 1995. That means the Front 9 plays into the wind and the back nine plays downwind. On 17, balls will be pushed towards the left rough and 18 will become a very reachable par-4.