Most weeks on the PGA Tour, golfers can be rewarded for playing bomb-and-gouge-style golf, hitting tee shots as far as possible to set up short irons and wedges into the greens. With holes often cut just a few feet from the edges of greens or tucked behind bunkers, in the United States the pros play an aerial game.
For this week’s British Open, however, all eyes are on the Home of Golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. On that course and other seaside links courses, the game is different. The sandy soil drains amazingly fast and the wind typically howls, serving as the course’s primary defense. Tee shots hit high into the air with drivers and fairway woods can be pushed and pulled offline, then bounce and roll as far as 100 yards, bringing pot bunkers, knee-high fescue and gorse bushes into play. Distance is still rewarded, but control is critical and judging how far shots will roll is important.
And with very little rain in the forecast for the 150th Open Championship, conditions likely will be firm and fast, so many players may add a low-lofted driving iron to their bag.
