Georgie Bingham: how the YOUNG cleaned up the OLD Course poses a difficult question
Cameron Smith of Australia celebrates with The Claret Jug during Day Four of The 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course on July 17, 2022 in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images).
Can we talk about the elephant in the room? No, god, I don’t mean LIV, that’s less elephant and more carnival-that’s-taken-over-the-whole-house in terms of being OUT there.
I want to talk about the Old Course and a problem it presents the R&A. The question for me after last’s week’s 150th Open celebration was, “is this magic old place enough for the young guns?” It was a question asked quietly a few times - and there were even golfers - like the US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick who shrugged and answered reluctantly with a “no”.
When the winds don’t blow and the rain doesn’t come at The Open, as per last week, then St Andrews becomes more a test of bounce-and-run and pin positions. As that played out I wondered whether the Old Course needs to change with the times. Last week, the kids bombed the ball over ever single fairway hazard with incredible precision to leave themselves with (at the most) a tiny wedge/bump-and-run or a putt on every single par four. Eagles (which ordinarily come on par fives for the longer players or as a hole-out from the fairway on par fours) were so commonplace, that Shane Lowry’s back to back eagles on the Saturday didn’t surprise me as they should. These trends, how these players negotiated the hallowed turf, was, as noted on Sky Sport’s commentary, “not how this course was designed to be played”.
Let’s just clear a few things up before we go any further, there will never be anything MORE prestigious than winning at St Andrews. It’s a seriously special place and I can’t see that changing, but history and prestige doesn’t mean things can’t change. The R&A placed the pins to ensure they really tested the golfers and the course did still present a serious challenge of skill and concentration - Dustin Johnson’s back nine on Saturday showed that the course punishes any mistakes handsomely - but when a new low record is set like it was, and when eagles and birdie runs can come (as they did) for SO many golfers I think we have a responsibility to ask the question about whether things need to change there for Opens to come.
There’s almost no bad/heavy rough due to the proximity of the other courses and the ‘scrummed in’ nature of the geography at St Andrews. There’s only two par threes and Sky’s statistician noted the 11th (a par three) was for example, playing harder than the par four 9th, meaning people were gross scoring LOWER on a par four then on a tricky par three. Even as I write this I suspect I’ll be ridiculed for suggesting we change something so historic and prestigious, but how about making two of the easier par fours into par threes for the next visit of the best golfers in the world? That would be a start! As I am writing this I worry I am going to make myself unpopular with the powers that be, but I really hope they are having conversations behind closed doors on how to make this incredible venue more of a test when the wind and rain don’t show.
Maybe this Open Championship highlights even MORE the need for a conversation about the introduction of tournament balls for the men at the very top level of the game, because that, for me, is the only other way the questions posed by Cameron Smith et al can be addressed.
Georgie Bingham, broadcaster and journalist, writes a bi-weekly column for The Cut Stuff. She’s golf obsessed. She’s ready to go behind the tour.
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