The Open Championship- Carnoustie

cshea

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3rd major!

The course is apparently baked out due to an unusually warm summer in Scotland. So it’ll play firm and fast, and we should have a great week of golf.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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This is going to be fun to watch. Pretty sure they don't have irrigation on the fairways, just the greens. We'll probably see a 500 yard drive at some point and some putts that will start 30-40 yards from the green. I'm not sure who it favors, but figuring out distance control off the tee is going to be big. Some of the big hitters may only hit a few drivers all week.
 

cshea

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Will be interesting to see the differences in strategy this week among the players. On Live From last night some guys (Rahm and Rory) said they were going to bomb and gauge, since the rough and fescue isn’t as penal as in years past due to the conditions. It is burnt and whispy and they can play out of it. Others, like Tiger, have said they are getting 80+ yards of roll out with irons off the tee, so irons off the tee will rule the week.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Tiger hitting a 300+ yard stinger off the tee all week might work wonders for him.

Carnoustie is great. 16, 17, 18 are a brutal finish. Van de Velde’s disaster was self-inflicted but those holes can ruin a lot of rounds.
 

FL4WL3SS

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This is going to be fun to watch. Pretty sure they don't have irrigation on the fairways, just the greens. We'll probably see a 500 yard drive at some point and some putts that will start 30-40 yards from the green. I'm not sure who it favors, but figuring out distance control off the tee is going to be big. Some of the big hitters may only hit a few drivers all week.
I think some are talking about hitting exclusively drivers as a strategy. I could see both arguments. The rough and heather is pretty manageable and not lush at all.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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I think some are talking about hitting exclusively drivers as a strategy. I could see both arguments. The rough and heather is pretty manageable and not lush at all.
I'd be more worried about uncontrolled roll into problems in the fairway....pot bunkers, ditches, etc. I've only played a few courses in my time where the fairways were so hard you couldn't control tee distance and it isn't pretty. You walk up to the spot where you think your ball is and its in the lake 75 yards away. That more than the rough would worry me if I was hitting the driver.

Having said that, I haven't looked at the course map too much, so I'm interested to see how it plays out. If there aren't many problems that are in the fairway or many doglegs, some guys will bomb it down there. I see its unique in that it has 2 par 5's and only 3 par 3's. So I'm sure there are some par 4's that will be reached off the tee. I can't wait for morning golf.
 

cshea

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There are the usual fairway bunkers
that are essentially 1 strike penalties out there, plus the burn. Some of the fairway bunkers require a 290-300 carry, so the longest players will probably just take it over the top while the players who don’t have that length will need to control an iron to stop short of the bunkers.

The most common “it’s playing really fast” example repeated on Golf Channel and elsewhere is Padraig Harrington driving it 459 yards and into Van de Velde’s burn on 18 during a practice round.
 

BigMike

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Well, an hour into the tournament and the course is looking pretty defenseless so far

Pieters drives #1 (hits it about 385), leaves about a 30-40 foot put which he lags up for the tap in Birdie
 
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Doug Beerabelli

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I'm here in Cape Cod, err, Carnoustie for Th and Friday. This is perfect Cape weather. Ludacris Open weather. A wisp of a breeze on 2. Gonna see Rose and Speith soon.

Greens look lush. Everything else dry and wispy. We are near a couple drives in left rough, let's see how it goes
 

BigMike

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I always forget just how long these first round are. We are already 7.5 hours into the round, and there is still almost 3.5 hours before the final group tees off.

I was wondering why there were no comments yet, and then realized Tiger is still 80 minutes from teeing off.

Spieth has been all over the course the last few holes. Was fortunate with a par of the short par 5 14 and now doubles 15, but still at -1
 

cshea

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Well, an hour into the tournament and the course is looking pretty defenseless so far

Pieters drives #1 (hits it about 385), leaves about a 30-40 foot put which he lags up for the tap in Birdie
I don’t know, I think it is pretty tough even without the weather. Average score is over par. Kisner had a great round but needed a few long par saves to shoot 66. It isn’t a birdie fest at this point. 68/69 seems like a great score.
 

Byrdbrain

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DJ and Spieth with a couple of terrible drives within about 30 seconds of each other(different holes). Spieth's ball must have gone 100 yards right of the fairway and in to the berm.

Edit: I had the sound down and thought DJ lucked out and had a shot, I didn't realize he was OB left.
 

TFP

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Stannis Baratheon is the perfect narrator for the little vignettes on the Golf Channel.
 

Bergs

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Beautiful shot by Tiger out of the trap.

edit: And he fucks the birdie put.
 

Bergs

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Tiger will be lucky to bogey with that tee shot.

Edit: great shot to set up a long-ish par putt.

Edit #2: Bogey.
 
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BigMike

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Tiger starting to get very frustrated out there. Bogey on 13 missing a short par putt, Bad par on the short par 5, and then follow that with running a short iron into the second fairway bunker on 15, where he just had to pitch out
 

BigMike

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OK, so that was the coolest story of the day.

Brandon Stone shoots -3 in the morning. Then goes out with his family, to play St Andrews in the afternoon, apparently with some Hickory clubs.
 

johnmd20

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15 hours of wall to wall golf. That is just incredible and inspiring and I'll make my monthly complaint that the Masters is SO stupid to limit their coverage in the way they do.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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15 hours of wall to wall golf. That is just incredible and inspiring and I'll make my monthly complaint that the Masters is SO stupid to limit their coverage in the way they do.
The Open is my favorite major for this reason. Wake up in the morning to golf and it goes on through the afternoon. Can't be beat.