2015 British Open at St. Andrews Discussion Thread

[Mr. Desmond]

If not mentioned, Jordan Spieth's team hired a St Andrews expert as to target lines, bunkers, greens, and even what the tides do under conditions...

He may not have arrived early, but he is prepared.

The balmy practice weather may be the undoing ... as weather is expected tomorrow afternoon and ...

[ChrisP]

I always notice when Spieth is talking, he says "We are prepared", "We thought it was a good idea", "We are really honored to be here", "We had a game plan", etc. Maybe the only guy I know who really includes his team when talking and really gives them a lot of accolades.

[boogielicious]

Ben Martin's wife is not at the British Open, and the reason will make you laugh.  From golfdigest.com.

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2015/07/ben-martins-wife-is-not-at-the.html

Quote:

Ben Martin's wife is not at the British Open, and the reason will make you laugh!

By Shane Ryan

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- On the back nine of Tuesday's practice round, Zach Johnson told a funny story about Ben Martin, and why his wife Kelly won't be attending this year's British Open at St. Andrews. He had us in stitches, so I tracked Martin down before his own practice round this morning and got the details straight from the source:

In February, Kelly's sister Emily (Ben's sister-in-law) got engaged. She and her fiance planned to get married this summer, and later that month, they began to search for a reception venue and a church. Ben and Kelly were at the Honda Classic, and while Ben was at the course practicing early in the week, Kelly got a phone call. It was Emily -- she wanted her sister at the wedding, of course, and was calling to see which weekends would be most convenient with Ben's schedule. Kelly took out her calendar, flipped to the summer, and saw what looked like a perfect date: Saturday, July 18. That would definitely work, she thought, based on the words she saw written on the page:

"Open week."

It worked for Emily, too. By the time Ben got back from the course that day, his sister-in-law had already booked the reception and the church for that weekend. Kelly told him the news, and he paused.

"That doesn't sound like a very good weekend," he said.

"No, it was in my calendar," she said, starting to worry. "It was open."

"Yeah," he said. "The Open Championship. The British Open ."

By the time she called her sister back, everything was booked, and since they weren't 100 percent positive that Ben would qualify for St. Andrews, they couldn't ask her to change. But he did qualify, in May, and that's why Martin's wife, who travels with him almost every week, won't be there for the best tournament of all, and why Martin won't be at his sister-in-law's wedding.

(Incidentally, it's also another great example of why all Americans should call it the "British Open".

[nevets88]

Spieth, kickaround.

[boogielicious]

Spieth, kickaround.

Jordan!  Let Carli Lloyd kick the ball!  You hit it with a stick!

[tigerrag]

Ben Martin's wife is not at the British Open, and the reason will make you laugh.  From golfdigest.com.

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2015/07/ben-martins-wife-is-not-at-the.html

Haha I actually have met Kelly a few times, and she is a great person.  Definitely a funny story.

[turtleback]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gunther

Lol, very nice.

Chill out mate, both names work although most recognize The Open Championship is the official nomenclature.

That's just the problem... you guys don't realise that on this side of the pond we get pretty pissed off when Americans call it wrongly.. a bit like us calling the US Open the YANKEE OPEN... And it's not even The Open Championship... Just simply The Open

You don't get it.  We don't care that you get pissed off.  Calling it the British Open was good enough for Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus, both of whom called it that in various publications.  And I'm sure that it is only the small minds who get pissed off at something that, in the larger scheme of things, just isn't important enough to GET pissed off at.

BTW, since we are getting so technical here,  the word is spelled gettin g , not gettin.

[harry hooker]

You don't get it.  We don't care that you get pissed off.  Calling it the British Open was good enough for Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus, both of whom called it that in various publications.  And I'm sure that it is only the small minds who get pissed off at something that, in the larger scheme of things, just isn't important enough to GET pissed off at.

I don,t get pissed off with it at all and i am english. What you call it amongst youselves i could not care less. However say we were to create our own masters tournement. In my eyes yours would be the original and therefore i would speak of yours as the masters and ours as the u.k or british masters. Just common courtesey really.

[ChrisP]

One of the Open Officials today referred to the "masters" as the U.S. Masters. I've heard it referred to it as that many times before from Euros.

[harry hooker]

One of the Open Officials today referred to the "masters" as the U.S. Masters. I've heard it referred to it as that many times before from Euros.

Thats as maybe. I was speaking for myself i just call it the masters. For what its worth i agree. One thing that does piss me off though (and many others) i,m not a bloody euro ;-)

[ChrisP]

So watching the preview show, one thing we need to prepare for with the ESPN coverage.....10,000 of those Ray Liotta 1800 vodka commercials. They've already shown it on every single break.

[Mr. Desmond]

When it's permissible to call it the British Open...

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- On the back nine of Tuesday's practice round, Zach Johnson told a funny story about Ben Martin, and why his wife Kelly won't be attending this year's British Open at St. Andrews. He had us in stitches, so I tracked Martin down before his own practice round this morning and got the details straight from the source:

In February, Kelly's sister Emily (Ben's sister-in-law) got engaged. She and her fiance planned to get married this summer, and later that month, they began to search for a reception venue and a church. Ben and Kelly were at the Honda Classic, and while Ben was at the course practicing early in the week, Kelly got a phone call. It was Emily -- she wanted her sister at the wedding, of course, and was calling to see which weekends would be most convenient with Ben's schedule. Kelly took out her calendar, flipped to the summer, and saw what looked like a perfect date: Saturday, July 18. That would definitely work, she thought, based on the words she saw written on the page:

"Open week."

Related: Why it's ok to call this major the "British Open"

It worked for Emily, too. By the time Ben got back from the course that day, his sister-in-law had already booked the reception and the church for that weekend. Kelly told him the news, and he paused.

"That doesn't sound like a very good weekend," he said.

"No, it was in my calendar," she said, starting to worry. "It was open."

"Yeah," he said. "The Open Championship. The British Open ."

By the time she called her sister back, everything was booked, and since they weren't 100 percent positive that Ben would qualify for St. Andrews, they couldn't ask her to change. But he did qualify, in May, and that's why Martin's wife, who travels with him almost every week, won't be there for the best tournament of all, and why Martin won't be at his sister-in-law's wedding.

(Incidentally, it's also another great example of why all Americans should call it the " British Open .")

[MrSports]

Any love for Bubba??

[DaveP043]

Any love for Bubba??

From what I've seen, Bubba doesn't handle either wind or bad bounces all that well.  The forecast is for plenty of wind, and I know from personal experience that there are nothing but bad bounces through most of the golf course.  He's not one of my favorites.

[Gunther]

Any love for Bubba??

[quote name="DaveP043" url="/t/83040/2015-british-open-at-st-andrews-discussion-thread/160_40#post_1169594"]From what I've seen, Bubba doesn't handle either wind or bad bounces all that well.  The forecast is for plenty of wind, and I know from personal experience that there are nothing but bad bounces through most of the golf course.  He's not one of my favorites. [/quote]I think he goes over each year with the intention of missing the cut. Heard his presser yesterday and he basically waved the white flag. Said some of the right things but he's aware of his limitations over there. He's an odd duck and definitely not one of my favorites either.

[RandallT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSports

Any love for Bubba??

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveP043

From what I've seen, Bubba doesn't handle either wind or bad bounces all that well.  The forecast is for plenty of wind, and I know from personal experience that there are nothing but bad bounces through most of the golf course.  He's not one of my favorites.

I think he goes over each year with the intention of missing the cut. Heard his presser yesterday and he basically waved the white flag. Said some of the right things but he's aware of his limitations over there. He's an odd duck and definitely not one of my favorites either.

Not a single prediction in the contest for Bubba. By my spreadsheet of the choices, 85 different golfers were picked. Not one person picked him!

[MrSports]

Wow, not a single person? Now I know! Thank you all for taking time to reply, enjoy The Open!

[RandallT]

Wow, not a single person? Now I know! Thank you all for taking time to reply, enjoy The Open!

2 picks for Tom Watson. None for Bubba Watson.