2012 British Open Discussion Thread

[tristanhilton85]

I went with G-Mac to win (like Jamo said, we couldn't pick Tiger)... He's played pretty well this year (good showing at the US) and I think he'll do well. I said he'd be -9, but who the hell really knows.

[nevets88]

Anyone know the streaming options available via opengolf.com in the US? According to the website, the live coverage is only available in the UK. Bollocks!

US ESPN BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Thu, July 19 5:00 AM - 3:00 PM EDT

Fri, July 20 5:00 AM - 3:00 PM EDT

Sat, July 21 7:00 AM - 2:30 PM EDT

Sun, July 22 8:00 AM - 1:30 PM EDT

[Wansteadimp]

Originally Posted by nevets88

Anyone know the streaming options available via opengolf.com in the US? According to the website, the live coverage is only available in the UK. Bollocks!

US ESPN BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Thu, July 19 5:00 AM - 3:00 PM EDT

Fri, July 20 5:00 AM - 3:00 PM EDT

Sat, July 21 7:00 AM - 2:30 PM EDT

Sun, July 22 8:00 AM - 1:30 PM EDT

Welcome to my world for the majors held in the US

[jamo]

Anyone know the streaming options available via opengolf.com in the US? According to the website, the live coverage is only available in the UK. Bollocks! US ESPN BROADCAST SCHEDULE   Thu, July 195:00 AM -3:00 PM EDT Fri, July 205:00 AM -3:00 PM EDT Sat, July 217:00 AM -2:30 PM EDT Sun, July 228:00 AM -1:30 PM EDT

ESPN3.com / WatchESPN.com?

[Zwick]

Hopefully the weather doesn't decide the championship. I don't mind the bad weather if all the players get their share of it. But if the morning has calm weather and the afternoon gets gale force winds and heavy rain, it's just not fair.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by mvmac

That's who I predicted for the TST staff predictions, great minds think alike

I just saw a little blurb on Golf Channel where Mahan said he cut down his clubs this week for better control?  Not sure if I heard that correctly or not... But I hope it works!

[Chilli Dipper]

Here's the thing about thick rough on major championship venues... it's often an advantage for the longer and slightly wilder hitter. What? What's the difference in driving accuracy? 72% tops the list and 49% is at the bottom of the list. So 23% or so. Let's call it 20% difference between the average short-but-accurate (SBA) hitter and the long-and-wild (LAW) hitter. I forget who, maybe Dustin Johnson, made the point years ago that everyone's going to find the rough a good portion of the time, but the LAW are often better at escaping from it and saving par (they're stronger, and they're more used to playing from it). So if the rough costs the average LAW 0.3 strokes and costs the average SBA 0.7 strokes, things start to tip towards the advantage being towards the LAW over the SBA. Of course, ideally you'd find a player that's both long and reasonably accurate. But I'm just saying - long rough doesn't always penalize the long hitters. Sometimes it's worse for the "accurate" guys, because they're still gonna miss 30% of their fairways or more.

That's an interesting theory, Erik, but I'm not ready to provide it any merit beyond the anecdotal. Golf Magazine's website ran a profile of Martin Laird (a bomber) the week of the US Open, wherein he espoused a strategy for Olympic identical to the one you described. The result? Laird shot a 78 on Thursday and missed the cut, while the three players battling for the win ranked below the median on the 2012 PGA Tour in driving distance. In fact, the top-ranked player in driving distance among the top ten at Olympic was Padraig Harrington in 42nd, and he is someone who has never been confused for an overpowering player during his career. (To be fair, Nicolas Colsaerts does have that reputation, but as a PGA non-member, his distances do not appear in the official statistics.) I think there is some truth to the idea that length is more valuable than accuracy on certain types of major venue set-ups. It certainly was the case at the US Open in 2007, where Angel Cabrera won, and Bubba Watson introduced himself to the world. But Oakmont was not only a penal course, but a long one as well. The same could be said for Whistling Straits two years ago. However, as we saw a month ago on another championship venue of modest length, I'd say shorter hitters are still very much in the game.

[brocks]

Anyone know the streaming options available via opengolf.com in the US? According to the website, the live coverage is only available in the UK. Bollocks! US ESPN BROADCAST SCHEDULE   Thu, July 19 5:00 AM -3:00 PM EDT Fri, July 20 5:00 AM -3:00 PM EDT Sat, July 2 17:00 AM -2:30 PM EDT Sun, July 22 8:00 AM -1:30 PM EDT

Those times cover most of the round of most of the big names on Thursday and Friday; tee times [URL=http://www.cbssports.com/golf/blog/eye-on-golf/19594522/british-open-tee-times-pair-tiger-woods-justin-rose-sergio-garcia]here.[/URL] You will miss less than an hour of the rounds of Tiger, Phil, Rory, Paddy, Lee, Luke, Bubba, Dustin, Darren, Ernie, Graeme, and Tom Watson, to name several. And from [URL=http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/golf/british-open/news/mcilroy-westwood-woods-target-number-one_34732.html]here,[/URL] the implications for World #1 this week: "If Donald misses the halfway cut at Royal Lytham & St Annes then number two Rory McIlroy will need a top-two finish, while third-placed Lee Westwood would have to win with Donald outside the top three. Tiger Woods could also become number one for the first time in 21 months if he wins his fourth Open title and Donald doesn't finish second or third on his own." Heck, might as well just post them all: All times EDT (a-amateur) Thursday-Friday 1:19 a.m.-6:20 a.m. - Barry Lane, James Driscoll. 1:30 a.m.-6:31 a.m. - Richard Finch, Garth Mulroy. 1:41 a.m.-6:42 a.m. - Matthew Baldwin, Adilson Da Silva, Tadahiro Takayama. 1:52 a.m.-6:53 a.m. - Rafael Echenique, Kodai Ichihara, John Huh. 2:03 a.m.-7:04 a.m. - Sandy Lyle, Todd Hamilton, Mark Calcavecchia. 2:14 a.m.-7:15 a.m. - Alejandro Canizares, Jeev Milkha Singh, Greg Chalmers. 2:25 a.m.-7:26 a.m. - John Daly, Chad Campbell, Michael Hoey. 2:36 a.m.-7:37 a.m. - Thongchai Jaidee, Justin Leonard, Simon Khan. 2:47 a.m.-7:48 a.m. - David Duval, Raphael Jacquelin, Miguel Angel Jimenez. 2:58 a.m.-7:59 a.m. - Stephen Ames, Robert Rock, Kyle Stanley. 3:09 a.m.-8:10 a.m. - Stewart Cink, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Johnson Wagner. 3:20 a.m.-8:21 a.m. - Jamie Donaldson, Bill Haas, Y.E. Yang. 3:31 a.m.-8:32 a.m. - Davis Love III, Tim Clark, Paul Lawrie. 3:42 a.m.-8:43 a.m. - Adam Scott, a-Alan Dunbar, Matt Kuchar. 3:58 a.m.-8:59 a.m. - Vijay Singh, Nick Watney, Ian Poulter. 4:09 a.m.-9:10 a.m. - Darren Clarke, Ernie Els, Zach Johnson. 4:20 a.m.-9:21 a.m. - Lee Westwood, Yoshinori Fujimoto, Bubba Watson. 4:31 a.m.-9:32 a.m. - Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell, Hiroyuki Fujita. 4:42 a.m.-9:43 a.m. - Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia. 4:53 a.m.-9:54 a.m. - Ryo Ishikawa, Martin Kaymer, Tom Watson. 5:04 a.m.-10:05 a.m. - Thomas Bjorn, Aaron Baddeley, Charl Schwartzel. 5:15 a.m.-10:16 a.m. - Jason Dufner, Martin Laird, Kevin Na. 5:26 a.m.-10:27 a.m. - James Morrison, Daniel Chopra, Joost Luiten. 5:37 a.m.-10:38 a.m. - Thorbjorn Olesen, Troy Matteson, Thomas Aiken. 5:48 a.m.-10:49 a.m. - Brad Kennedy, Mardan Mamat, Steven Tiley. 5:59 a.m.-11 a.m. - Warren Bennett, Aaron Townsend, Grant Veenstra. 6:10 a.m.-11:11 a.m. - Dale Whitnell, Sam Walker, Elliot Saltman. 6:31 a.m.-1:19 a.m. - Bob Estes, Steven O'Hara, Brendan Jones. 6:42 a.m.-1:30 a.m. - Juvic Pagunsan, Scott Pinckney, Nicholas Cullen. 6:53 a.m.-1:41 a.m. - Steven Alker, Lee Slattery, Russ Cochran. 7:04 a.m.-1:52 a.m. - Tom Lehman, Pablo Larrazabal, Greg Owen. 7:15 a.m.-2:03 a.m. - Marcel Siem, George Coetzee, Chez Reavie. 7:26 a.m.-2:14 a.m. - Marcus Fraser, Lucas Glover, Gregory Havret. 7:37 a.m.-2:25 a.m. - Charles Howell III, Paul Broadhurst, Richard Sterne. 7:48 a.m.-2:36 a.m. - Carl Pettersson, K.T. Kim, Gary Woodland. 7:59 a.m.-2:47 a.m. - Ben Curtis, Paul Casey, Trevor Immelman. 8:10 a.m.-2:58 a.m. - Robert Karlsson, Mark Wilson, Branden Grace. 8:21 a.m.-3:09 a.m. - Harris English, Simon Dyson, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 8:32 a.m.-3:20 a.m. - Angel Cabrera, K.J. Choi, Ross Fisher. 8:43 a.m.-3:31 a.m. - Jonathan Byrd, Sang-moon Bae, Alvaro Quiros. 8:59 a.m.-3:42 a.m. - Nicolas Colsaerts, Hunter Mahan, John Senden. 9:10 a.m.-3:58 a.m. - Bo Van Pelt, Francesco Molinari, Toshinori Muto. 9:21 a.m.-4:09 a.m. - Rory McIlroy, Louis Oosthuizen, Keegan Bradley. 9:32 a.m.-4:20 a.m. - Rickie Fowler, Padraig Harrington, a-Manuel Trappel. 9:43 a.m.-4:31 a.m. - Luke Donald, Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy. 9:54 a.m.-4:42 a.m. - Steve Stricker, Toru Taniguchi, Anders Hansen. 10:05 a.m.-4:53 a.m. - Peter Hanson, Retief Goosen, Robert Allenby. 10:16 a.m.-5:04 a.m. - Jim Furyk, Koumei Oda, Fredrik Jacobson. 10:27 a.m.-5:15 a.m. - Marc Leishman, Brandt Snedeker, Alexander Noren. 10:38 a.m.-5:26 a.m. - Andres Romero, Jbe Kruger, Richie Ramsay. 10:49 a.m.-5:37 a.m. - Ted Potter Jr., Ian Keenan, Andrew Georgiou. 11 a.m.-5:48 a.m. - Troy Kelly, Morten Orum Madsen, Anirban Lahiri. 11:11 a.m.-5:59 a.m. - Prayad Marksaeng, Justin Hicks, Ashley Hall.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Chilli Dipper

That's an interesting theory, Erik, but I'm not ready to provide it any merit beyond the anecdotal. Golf Magazine's website ran a profile of Martin Laird (a bomber) the week of the US Open, wherein he espoused a strategy for Olympic identical to the one you described. The result? Laird shot a 78 on Thursday and missed the cut, while the three players battling for the win ranked below the median on the 2012 PGA Tour in driving distance. In fact, the top-ranked player in driving distance among the top ten at Olympic was Padraig Harrington in 42nd, and he is someone who has never been confused for an overpowering player during his career. (To be fair, Nicolas Colsaerts does have that reputation, but as a PGA non-member, his distances do not appear in the official statistics.)

And yet Graeme McDowell was hitting something like 3 or 4 fairways a round and finished T2 or whatever, didn't he?

I'm just saying, this has some merit to it:

1) longer hitters are stronger

2) longer hitters are hitting shorter irons from the rough when they find it than shorter hitters

Originally Posted by Chilli Dipper

I think there is some truth to the idea that length is more valuable than accuracy on certain types of major venue set-ups. It certainly was the case at the US Open in 2007, where Angel Cabrera won, and Bubba Watson introduced himself to the world. But Oakmont was not only a penal course, but a long one as well. The same could be said for Whistling Straits two years ago. However, as we saw a month ago on another championship venue of modest length, I'd say shorter hitters are still very much in the game.

Webb currently ranks in the middle of the pack for both distance and accuracy, FWIW.

But yes, anecdotal evidence means what it means. Just putting it out there that it could make sense that since everyone's in it 30-50% of the time, if the guys in it a little bit more often tend to lose less strokes to par, long rough could be an advantage for them.

Phil was winning the U.S. Open in 2006 despite not hitting very many fairways then, too. Anecdotal again, I know.

[Chilli Dipper]

Just as you say that, I read that Bubba Watson will give "Bubba Golf" a break this week. His explanation, and my reasoning for why I think the winner this week will skew to the accurate side of the driving spectrum, is that Lytham has more bunkers than any other links in the Open rota, and even if the bombers can gouge their way out of the fescue, the imperative this week will be to avoid the sand traps at all costs.

On another not, is there an official reason why there are 157 players in the field this week, and where the extra man came from?

[xxsoultonesxx]

There were quite a few big names playing well in crap weather similar to the forecast this year. Fowler, DJ, Mickelson, Garcia, Kim, Stricker, Kaymer, etc.)Hope they packed gore-tex. This should be epic.

[Motley01]

I love how Bubba keeps taking time off, and expecting to play good.

He's done for the season (career?). I'm so sick of him know, he doesn't deserve the green jacket.

[brocks]

I love how Bubba keeps taking time off, and expecting to play good. He's done for the season (career?). I'm so sick of him know, he doesn't deserve the green jacket.

He got off a good one at the press conference today. Some reporter asked him about there being no repeat winners in the last 15 majors, and he said, with a determined glint in his eye, that would change this week. After giving the reporters enough time to jump to the wrong conclusion, he added, "Keegan Bradley will win."

[bwdial]

Originally Posted by Motley01

I love how Bubba keeps taking time off, and expecting to play good.

He's done for the season (career?). I'm so sick of him know, he doesn't deserve the green jacket.

He's talking about his playing style.  He's going to back off "Bubba Golf" at The Open and try a little strategy... you know, instead of driver off the deck.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Hey, watch your mouth buddy!  That's agregious!

Ha, I almost pasted this into the other thread

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Hey, watch your mouth buddy!  That's agregious!

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Ha, I almost pasted this into the other thread

Oh crap!  I wish I could say that was a typo, but no such luck.  I just flat out don't know how to spell!

[Beachcomber]

Has Quiros been playing well as of late?  I haven't heard a peep out of him here in the states.  Just wondering what's up with him?

[joekelly]

So i see that Ol' Tom Watson is still in there showing those young whippersnappers how to play the links. Tom's fellow competitor for Thur and Fri is 42 years his junior. Tom is forty two years older, incredible.  That would be Ryo Ishikawa.  Go Tom!!