Preview: The Open Championship 2014

As we enter the week of the third major championship of 2014, it has perhaps earned the mantle of my most anticipated tournament week ever. Don't get me wrong, the insatiable atmosphere and buzz that reaches fever pitch in the weeks before the Masters always gets me ridiculously hyped. But this year, with the absence of a certain Mr Woods at Augusta, it wasn't quite the tournament that had consistently wetted my appetite for as many years as I've been watching golf. The Open has always been a curious major for me. Some years, like this one, I am itching for it to get started. Other years it has kind of crept up on me and I don't end up as engaged as I'd otherwise expect. In terms of The Open as a spectacle however, it rarely disappoints. There is no other tournament like it and it is welcome respite from the sometimes all to similar courses featured on the PGA and European Tours. Links golf most certainly separates the men from the boys, as the elite players are forced out of their comfort zones, hitting shots that would only pay dividends on a links course. It is truly fascinating to watch. 

As I mused on in my last post, I feel like golf is at a bit of a junction in regards to its relevancy on the world sporting stage. Major championships are a great indicator of how many people are watching the sport, as well as being important spectacles for bringing outsiders to the game (even if it is only for a short time). For hardcore golf fans like me, this years Open is a tantalising proposition for a number of reasons. Of course, there is the obvious dominating headline - the return of Tiger Woods to major championship golf. A crucial step for him as well as for golf. He is bound to bring the TV ratings a much needed boost. But more importantly, it will be utterly fascinating to see the great man return properly at 1) The Open and 2) Royal Liverpool - the course at which he masterfully won this tournament 8 years ago. It was a victory that was symbolic of Tiger's all powerful reign over the game of golf and personally, the event that sticks out as being one of, if not his greatest major victory for a number of reasons. I may reflect on his win in more detail in another post shortly. Aside from Tiger, I feel like this is going to be a special major for a variety of other reasons. Rory McIlroy is back doing some of the things we all know he is capable of after his win at Wentworth a couple of months ago, and it will be interesting to see him try to adapt his usually 'US style' game to links golf once again. Phil Mickelson will be desperately trying to regain the form that helped him lift the claret jug 12 months ago at Muirfield. Justin Rose will be looking for a chance at his second major after 2 huge victories in the last month - the second of which coming in Scotland 2 days ago. In addition to the obvious picks, I am also really interested in seeing if any of the rising stars from both tours can capture their first major. Some players have been so close, and have shown undeniable promise in normal events but haven't quite stepped into the big league. I'm talking about players like Rickie Fowler, Jason day, Jordan Spieth and Matt Kucher, to name a few. Finally, at a tournament as unique as The Open, there is always the large probability of a surprise champion like Ben Curtis in 2003 or Todd Hamilton in 2004; even Ernie's victory in 2012 came as a big surprise to the golf world.

Anyway, here are my top five 'Players to watch' at Hoylake come Thursday. These are not necessarily the players I believe have the best chance of winning, but simply the players that I will be most excited to watch.

Tiger Woods

Tiger always brings the majority of hype to a major. This year the excitement is heightened to the power of 100. He made his return from a 3 month absence due to back surgery 3 weeks ago at his own tournament - The Quicken Loans National at Congressional. It fell far short of a typical Tiger-like performance as he crashed out at the halfway stage, carding +7 for 2 rounds. It was not surprising to see this unfold. What did surprise me however was Tiger's apparent satisfaction with such a rough performance. Maybe that's a bit harsh considering in many ways, it was a massive achievement to even be able to come back and compete so early, considering how long it has taken other golfers to return from the same treatment. But even so, seeing Tiger smile after missing the cut, when at one time only wins would suffice, was a perplexing thing to see. It was also a little confusing to hear that he would not play any other tournaments in the run up to The Open. Playing in the Scottish Open would have given him much needed competitive 'reps' and a preliminary chance to play some links golf. Nonetheless, you can be sure that Woods will come to Hoylake as ready as he can possibly given his current state and will give his absolute all. Having won emphatically at these links in 2006 using genius course management and only irons and woods off the tees, I think he still has a (slight) chance this week. If the course plays dry, Tiger will feel more at ease and will not have to take the driver out very much. If it plays wet and long, he may struggle. Especially if he is trying to force his drives in any way. His short game was not up to scratch at Congressional either, and with links golf usually putting a precedent on lag putting, Tiger will need to be a lot, lot better. Whatever the case, its great to have Tiger back on the scene and whether he wins or misses the cut, I'm sure it will still be enthralling to watch.

Justin Rose

Rose is in blinding form at the moment and I think justifies being the favourite in many bookmakers eyes. Coming off the back of wins at both the Quicken Loans National at the end of June and The Scottish Open last week. For me, there is nobody playing better right now. Last week he proved that he has what it takes to go all the way on a links course, but it hasn't always been this way. Most people remember Justin's famous hole out on the 18th at Royal Birkdale when he was just 17 years old. But it has been far from his favourite major, especially lately. Rose has missed the last 2 Open cuts and has 9 consecutive over par rounds. He vaguely contended in 2002 and 2009, but has not managed a top 10 since that fairytale week in '98. I'll be interested this week to see if Justin can break his bad run at this tournament. My instincts tell me he will play well. Rose has transformed himself into a different player in the last 2 years. Winning the US Open at Merion last year showed the golfing world that he has what it takes to pull it out of the bag in the majors, and I personally think he'll win at least 1 or 2 more. He looked all powerful last week in Aberdeen and executed a near perfect links golf game plan. His methodical style of play will suit Hoylake, as long as he stays patient. Phil Mickelson did the Scottish/British Open double last year - perhaps a good omen for Rose?

Rory McIlRoy

Like Tiger, Rory has that special something in that he always makes a tournament more intriguing if he plays well. His record in The Open is a mixed bag to say the least. A missed cut last year and a T60 in 2012 indicate that McIlroy's game is better suited to PGA and USGA course set ups. Yet McIlroy is not without success at The Open. He fired an opening 63 at St Andrews in 2010 and eventually ended up in a tie for third. A blinding start was also made at the Scottish Open last week, proving that when McIlroy's game is on, there is nobody in the world of golf as effective, even on links courses. I think the question with Rory is still his shaky consistency. He has proven 2 times now that he is capable of not just winning, but systematically destroying fields in a similar manner to a certain TW. There is nothing to suggest that Rory won't do a similar thing this week as he did at both the 2011 US Open and the 2012 USPGA. Having overcome a tumultuous 12 months in 2013, this year has been pretty impressive. His dramatic comeback win at Wentworth was a spectacle I was able to witness first hand, and it really felt like the culmination of his hard work finally paying off again. If Rory gets off to a good start, don't be surprised to see him in the hunt on Sunday afternoon. 

Rickie Fowler

I have always been drawn to Rickie Fowler. Yes, the guy adds youth and a heavy splash of colour to the PGA Tour. But above all, his game has blossomed into one that can rival the very best players in the world week-by-week. Seemingly every week I see his name there or there abouts on the leaderboard and yet, he never seems to quite get the job done. He has a good record in his short career at The Open, with 2 top 20's out of 4 tries, with only 1 missed cut coming last year at Muirfield. He has also had a terrific major season thus far this year - a hard grafted tie for 5th at the Masters and a 3rd place finish behind a scintillating Martin Kaymer at last month's US Open. Add to that another top 10 at the Scottish Open last week and I feel like Fowler is poised for a very successful Open. One thing's for sure, Rickie will bring his usual panache and unique style to the old links.

Adam Scott

Finally we have the world number 1, Adam Scott. Do I need to mention this man's history at this tournament over the last couple of years? Every golf fan remembers Scott's infamous meltdown at Lytham in 2012, all but handing the claret jug to Ernie Els in the final holes. It was his to lose, and he gave it away. Yet Adam quickly put the defeat out of his mind and 9 months later he was the proud owner of a green jacket. On his return to The Open last year he again looked impressive, tying for 3rd. All this proves Scott's major credentials and his aptness to links golf. It is rare that a week goes by when Scott's in the field where you don't feel like he's contending in some way. I love watching how Adam conducts himself and plots his way around tricky courses meticulously. It will be a joy as ever to watch him in action this week.

So those are my picks for this years Open Championship at Hoylake. It is all set to be a great tournament for players and fans alike. Although I think we will see a very different championship to the sun-baked, Tiger dominated Open of 2006 in Liverpool. Still, who knows? We shall have to wait and see.

Let me know your picks for The Open in the comments or tweet me at @Balzo93

Thanks for reading! 

 

   

Would Golf Become ‘Obscure’ Without Tiger Woods?

Since starting this blog some time ago, I have regrettably not posted anything since my introduction. This is due to a number of factors, but principally that I have been too wrapped up in other endeavours. I want to put that right today and from now on - although maybe I am speaking to soon considering how enthusiastic I seemed in my introduction post. But regardless, I felt compelled to break my silence and write something today.

I’m going to keep it very general and to the point in this post as this seems to be the tone in which I have been thinking about the game in recent months. The thing is, it would seem to me that the sport of golf is at a bit of a crossroads at the moment. Of course I am talking about the professional game, but also how its recent evolution is starting to turn heads in both the amateur realm and also the broader sporting community. I wouldn’t at all say that golf is losing its pedigree on the world stage – in fact I would argue that it is being talked about more than ever at the moment. But for the right reasons? I’m not so sure. Every story I appear to come across now about my beloved game either seems to be downplaying somebody’s achievements or subtly implying that doom is inevitably impending for the game as a TV spectacle. ‘Why?’ you ask. Well, for a number of reasons…

The first obvious reason for sports journalists to take such a view is TV ratings. Of course, nobody can deny that cold hard stats are concrete in revealing the overall health of a sport. But it seems to me to be a bit of a scapegoat. You can be sure that if there has been even a 5% drop in viewings at a golf tournament, there will be at least 10 articles rabbiting on unrelentingly about how ‘golf is dying’ and how ‘it is on the verge of becoming a niche sport once again’. Of course many of these articles are pure hyperbole. But they highlight an interesting point. The fact that golf has ALWAYS been a niche sport in the eyes of the majority of sports journalists. By this I mean that it is a polarising sport - one that divides opinion, one that has as many fans as critics and cynics. When I read these articles I can’t help but think one of two things. The first of which is that these journalists cannot wait to bury golf into obscurity and insignificance. The other is, undoubtedly, to over-exaggerate the importance of one man – Tiger Woods.

It is true that golf needed Tiger, and continues to need him to bring in the same level of viewers as it enjoyed for his lengthy dominance at the top. He was the singular driving force in bringing awareness of the great game to millions, driving PGA tour prize money through the roof and causing a revolution of health and fitness conscious players. Tiger Woods WAS golf - from his fabled 1997 Masters victory up until the agonisingly public meltdown of his private life in late 2009. But is he still golf? More importantly, does golf need Tiger Woods to sustain any kind of significant fan base? These are unanswerable questions. Not least due to the fact that Tiger is still out there, albeit riddled with career threatening injuries and without a major in 6 long years. But as of last week he is back out on the tour, making more headlines than ever. So my impression would be that in the context of sport in general, golf does need Tiger, or at the very least a comparable superstar, to remain as big as it is now in the years to come. The thing I don’t agree with these journalists on is that we need a healthy Tiger Woods. Or rather a Tiger Woods that is winning 8-10 times a year. Having been a huge Woods fan for the best part of 10 years, I of course would love to see him regain his form in the majors and go on to challenge Jack’s record of 18. However, the power of Tiger is so great that I believe that he does not necessarily need to be playing well for golf to remain on the radar of a lot of casual sports fans. His mere presence is enough to attract the masses to attending tour events and their TV’s alike. I mean heck, the man hasn’t won a major since 2008 and has been written off more times than you can shake a stick at. Not to mention his plethora of injuries that have taken him out of the game for months at a time. Yet still he is the name on everybody’s lips when golf is in the news. So although I don’t agree with most of them, I do understand why 90% of golf articles are written about Tiger and not about the players who are making the real headway on the PGA Tour. He is still the figurehead. He is still the superstar. It is in the nature of every sport to need a dominant figure – especially in the modern age. The difference is that with golf Tiger is made out to be the solitary lynchpin in a sport on the edge of downfall.

What I don’t care for are the repeated and frankly insulting comments on the achievements of other players. In the naivety of some of these articles, there is a blatant disregard for how much of a monumental achievement is to win a major in the modern era. For instance Martin Kaymer’s emphatic US Open triumph at Pinehurst last month, where he ran away from the world-class field to win by 9 shots. I must have read at least 5 throw-away comments about ‘nobody caring’ and that ‘it is only really a win if Tiger is in the field’… It may be true that Tiger is still golf in the eyes of the arm chair sports fans and journalists, but he is most certainly not head and shoulders above the rest anymore when it comes to the competition. The Tiger era kickstarted an explosion in kids taking up golf at an early age, and subsequently building games that could now probably even rival his own of a few years ago when he was at his prime. Put simply, the talent at the top of the world rankings right now is frighteningly abundant. So yes, golf needs Tiger Woods to remain appealing to the masses. But it does not need him for there to still be fierce competition week by week on the PGA Tour. Hence, the achievements of Kaymer, or any other players in the top flight of the game must not be downtrodden or overlooked when looked upon in retrospect.

To wrap up, I do think golf is at a transition point - but only when you look at it from an outsider’s perspective. Who knows, Tiger Woods might come back from his recent back surgery a renewed player. He might go on to win 10 more majors before he hangs up the clubs. If he does then it will undoubtedly take golf to even greater heights as an overall sport. He may keep playing but not win as regularly. This, in my opinion, will also keep golf on the public’s radar. Or, god for bid, he may be forced into an early retirement after a final hammer-blow injury. This may set golf back a little bit, but not too much. In 2014, the sport truly has some incredible athletes to its name who are going to go on to do awe-inspiring things for years to come. If golf’s governing bodies remain on the ball and allow the sport to evolve as naturally as possible, I see no reason why the game I have grown up watching and adoring cannot remain healthy and popular for many a-generation to come.