2016 British Open at Royal Troon Discussion Thread

[b101]

12 hours ago, ChrisP said:

There's not a premium on length. It's more strategy. The big hitters last week were trying to overpower the course, hitting driver and driving it into fescue and pot bunkers. Mickelson and Stenson kept hitting irons off the tee and playing fairways and greens. Same was when Watson and Norman contended. Same when Clarke won. Not all links courses are for the power boys.

I remember thinking this every time Rory and Bubba took out driver on just about every par 4 before either winding up short of the green and still making par or hitting the rough. I wonder what @iacas made of it and where this fits with The Rule? I kept thinking that 3 wood was the play round most of the course - particularly that first hole, but could well have been wrong.

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, b101 said:

I remember thinking this every time Rory and Bubba took out driver on just about every par 4 before either winding up short of the green and still making par or hitting the rough. I wonder what @iacas made of it and where this fits with The Rule? I kept thinking that 3 wood was the play round most of the course - particularly that first hole, but could well have been wrong.

Stenson's 3W on 18 almost went into the pot bunker too! I think the Rule needs to include adrenaline rush!

[ChrisP]

6 hours ago, b101 said:

I remember thinking this every time Rory and Bubba took out driver on just about every par 4 before either winding up short of the green and still making par or hitting the rough. I wonder what @iacas made of it and where this fits with The Rule? I kept thinking that 3 wood was the play round most of the course - particularly that first hole, but could well have been wrong.

Remember when Tiger won the Open in 2006? Hit ONE driver all week. The rest irons. People criticized him for it, but he was the one holding the claret jug in the end. It's the reason I love the British. It really is more about strategy and not power and I love that.

[Jeremie Boop]

5 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

Remember when Tiger won the Open in 2006? Hit ONE driver all week. The rest irons. People criticized him for it, but he was the one holding the claret jug in the end. It's the reason I love the British. It really is more about strategy and not power and I love that.

I liked seeing the mix of clubs people used off the tee. People with the length could use irons off the tee to put themselves in position while others had to use anything from hybrid to driver to get to the same position. Part of that was also the wind though, depending on when the person was playing it opened up a lot of possibilities of how to play the holes. While I like to see players hit those bombs off the tee, I also like to see how they handle longer approaches into the greens as well. Events like this one show that not hitting the green from 180+ isn't exactly uncommon even for the pros so we really shouldn't expect to do it every time ourselves. It definitely puts things in perspective.

[b101]

5 hours ago, Jeremie Boop said:

I liked seeing the mix of clubs people used off the tee. People with the length could use irons off the tee to put themselves in position while others had to use anything from hybrid to driver to get to the same position. Part of that was also the wind though, depending on when the person was playing it opened up a lot of possibilities of how to play the holes. While I like to see players hit those bombs off the tee, I also like to see how they handle longer approaches into the greens as well. Events like this one show that not hitting the green from 180+ isn't exactly uncommon even for the pros so we really shouldn't expect to do it every time ourselves. It definitely puts things in perspective.

Completely agree and it's what makes it my favourite major (alongside the obvious bias of it being over here). There was also the fun on Friday afternoon in the wind when Day, McIlroy and Bubba couldn't hit a par 4 in two .