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The Open Championship Blog offers a look behind the scenes of one of the world’s most recognisable sporting events. Written by R&A staff members and regularly updated, it documents, first-hand, the year-round work that goes into the successful staging of a Major Championship.
At the head of the IFQ…
By Grant Moir, Director — Rules of Golf
I write this from the departure lounge at Melbourne Airport heading back to Scotland after a nine-day stint in Melbourne that concluded with IFQ — Australasia at Kingston Heath Golf Club.
Having completed the first stage of my trip — and, as of now, the first stage of my blog –, a Rules education course at the Victoria Golf Club, I headed straight off to nearby Kingston Heath to take a look at the course and finalise the Local Rules for IFQ, which was commencing the following day.
As soon as I arrived, we had a meeting of the Rules Officials chaired by Geoffrey Vero from The R&A’s Championship Committee, who confirmed that Kingston Heath was a very “clean” course from a Rules perspective. This means that the likelihood of having to make complex rulings is pretty slim, in contrast to The Open itself where grandstands and TV towers give rise to more challenging decisions.
It was good to catch up with my colleague Rhodri Price from The R&A’s Championship Department: Rhodri heads-up IFQ in Australia, South Africa and Asia from an administrative perspective. He’ll be heading straight to Jo’burg from Melbourne for the second IFQ of the year before he gets to come back to frozen Fife. We also had Claire Bates from our Equipment Standards Department out here providing the players with the opportunity to have their irons tested, to ensure that they conformed to the new groove regulations.
The qualifying ran very smoothly. Our team of Rules officials were not called on to make too many rulings, and the pace of play was very good on both days. GA and the PGA provided officials, so along with The R&A team we had eight on-course referees. No one in Australia seems to be called by their actual name, so we had a ‘Langers’, a ‘Maggers’, a ‘Buttza’ and a ‘Swano’ on the Rules team — I’m not sure that ‘Moirsy’ will catch on at home!
Although play-offs can be exciting, as administrators we are normally hoping to avoid them, so we were all pretty pleased when we got our three qualifiers without having to go to extra holes. Kurt Barnes, Ewan Porter and Peter Senior made it to St Andrews, and it is an understatement to say that they were all delighted. Senior, who at 50 has just become a “senior”, was probably the most thrilled of the three. He was genuinely excited at the prospect of an 18th Open appearance followed by his debut in The Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie the following week.
Well, the flight has been called and it is time to head back to the Scottish winter. A big thanks to all the Aussies who made my first visit to Melbourne such a great experience.
Grandstands with a view to 2010…
By Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, Assistant Director — Championships
It might only be October but Turnberry seems a distant memory, a fond memory, but a distant one nonetheless. St Andrews is now my number-one focus and I’m already starting to get excited about what will be my third Open Championship at the Home of Golf. But this one is special. It’s the 150th anniversary of the Open and, consequently, The R&A will be trying to ensure it’s one to remember.
We’re putting up more grandstand seating — about 21,000 seats in total — than ever before in 2010 to accommodate the 200,000-plus spectators that we hope will come and witness this fantastic occasion. In fact, I was out on the course recently plotting the positions of those grandstands with the company that constructs them; a time consuming job, but one that is ultimately very rewarding when you see, and hear, the galleries enjoying the golf on Championship days.
I’m basically looking for four or five things when positioning a grandstand, be it a 500-seater by the side of the green or a 2,400-seater by the first tee. Firstly, I try to imagine I’m a fan — not particularly difficult given that I’m the kind of fanatic that has attended every Open since they can remember — and think about what I want to see.
Although the focus of a seating area will usually be a green or a tee-shot, I always look for places that will have secondary views. The ‘loop’ on the Old Course is a great example. From grandstands around there you can see the seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th greens. That’s where I would be!
Then we’ve got to work out whether the position of the stand will affect the players, whether it will interfere with spectator movement and, above all else, whether it’s safe.
Putting up temporary structures can be a bit of a tricky business, especially when they’re being erected on uneven linksland. So before we can definitively say that the structure is good to go ahead, the opinion of our consulting engineer is sought and, in some cases, soil will be tested to determine if it can withstand the weight of scaffolding, seats and hundreds of people.
Presuming all the determining factors are met, the consultant will sign off the structure as safe and we’ll mark the location of the proposed grandstand. Back when I started at The R&A, that meant putting pegs in the ground. Nowadays, however, we use GPS to pinpoint the location and transpose those coordinates onto an aerial plan of the Old Course. Much more high-tec, but less time-consuming and much less back-breaking!
So the locations have now been plotted. Job done. The chosen locations will be tweaked over the coming months and construction will begin around the beginning of April next year. It’s at that time when The Open Championship excitement begins once again, and I for one can’t wait!
Pictured: An emotional Open…
By David Cannon, Senior Photographer — Getty Images
What do I say — I don’t think I have ever felt such mixed emotion at the end of The Open Championship. I thought Greg Norman last year was special but nothing can ever come close to having the honour to have walked all 18 or should I say 22 holes today with Tom Watson.
The amazing thing about the whole week is that I had not pointed my camera at Stewart Cink until the play-off. One of the truly nice guys of golf! It shows how many players were in contention on this epic final day.
Now I am looking at the pictures — the saddest picture but also the nicest picture is of a solitary Tom Watson standing on the 9th tee just gazing out to the glistening sea. One can only try to imagine what he was thinking. If I was standing there on that beautiful tee I would be thinking that there really is no better place to be, and how lucky I am to be looking across that stunning piece of sea to the Isle of Arran: The most tranquil moment during this frantic crazy Sunday afternoon of championship golf.
The Championship radio commentary on the final afternoon is my most valuable ally! Every shot as it happens — it keeps me up to date, it tells me where the players’ balls are finishing (vital to help go the right side of the holes) and lots of other great moments of interest.
Walking to the 5th, the first of the four play-off holes, I heard the commentators say that Stewart Cink was the ‘biggest party pooper in the world’. Do you know, for a few seconds I had to agree my heart was broken for 
Tom Watson — it was really hard to switch back into photo mode! But when you look back, Cink must have played really well to score 69 — and he had made the play-off by holing a great putt at the 72nd hole.
As the radio commentators also reminded me, Westwood and Wood had also managed to bogey the final hole to miss out by one shot. Golf really is the most cruel of games, but that is its ultimate appeal to me; the mix of emotions in a matter of yards and seconds are just incredible. This Sunday had every extreme — just stunning!
So I have to choose a few pictures to try and sum up the day. Watson on the tee at the 9th hole as I have already mentioned is my favourite moment in the final round. As with most championships though, the final moments are the ones that lend me the split seconds to capture the moment.
On the final green when the play-off finished as Cink holds his head in his hands as he passes Tom Watson walking off the green. It is almost as if he cannot look at Tom. Knowing Stewart, he will be feeling so much for him at this second in time. Then as Stewart Cink walked back to stand beside Tom Watson with the jug he looks down at the most famous trophy in golf just looking at the names; it is almost as if he is looking at the five times Watson’s name has been engraved before his. And just at that second Watson looks over and smiles — what a moment!
This just sums up our wonderful game. What a week and I cannot wait for the Old Course to let me tell more stories in 2010. As the scoreboard says ‘Well done Stewart see you at St Andrews!’
Yesterday at The Open….
By David Cannon, Senior Photographer — Getty Images, 8.00am, 19 July 2009
The Saturday of a Major tends to be the ‘quietest’ day of the four — a later start means a much more relaxed morning. I want to see the Amateur Champion Matteo Manassero play — 16 years old and in the final two days of his first major, an amazing achievement. I am also lucky enough to be featuring in the official film of this years’ Open Championship. This means that the most important task of the day is for me to follow Tom Watson all the way round.
After doing an interview for the film crew I head to the 1st tee to follow Manassero for a few holes. The wind is blowing hard from the right and helping slightly. Peter Hanson, his partner, is caught out as his ball is caught by the wind as it leaves the shelter of the grandstand on the right of the tee and it finishes in the deep rough left of the fairway. But Manassero hits his iron straight down the middle. A mid-iron second shot finds the green and two putts later he is off with a par. He plays like Watson no time over the ball and a crisp swing and the ball really ‘fizzes’ off the club. It’s so nice to see a free swing with no mind numbing pre-shot routine! And he even putts quickly! I’m already a fan.
Yesterday looked promising from the outset, two balls as well. The only snag with this is that I have to move faster through the rough! Two easy pars and the Italian is well and truly on his way. I was thrilled to see how he scored, 72 in that wind was a really solid effort. Another young star on the way and it is great to see him coming from one of the so called lesser nations of international golf. We have to watch the Italians — an Amateur champion and a US Amateur champion in the past few years.
I then spent a few holes with Ernie Els and Justin Rose. Both of them had birdies in the first few holes but then struggled to hold down a decent score. I know Ernie has another Major in his blood and Justin is so close — maybe not this one but there is one just round the corner for sure.
At 3.00pm it’s 1st tee time and Watson arrives to a huge roar from the crowds. I love these moments — tingles down my spine. I can’t imagine how these golfers control their emotions when walking onto the 1st tee to noise like this. Arrow straight shots from Watson and his partner Steve Marino and I’m off through the rough — one arms length from the ropes — tough in this terrain, but I love the golden colour of the grass!!
The 4th green is the cleanest scenic green on the course no crowd, ropes or anything between the green and the beach. It is a great spot to catch a lovely scenic. Luckily enough the sun was out and the sea was glistening in the afternoon sun. Added to this view were four police horses being exercised on the beach, a really lucky bit of timing and it added a lot to the picture.
So I was off and running, the 5th hole is one of my favourites — a huge difficult gentle left right dog leg from the tee. But today the wind is strong left to right and has been taking early prisoners! But both Watson and Marino negotiate the tee shot safely. I decide to walk along the seaside in the deep grass on the top of the ridge. I want to get the view of the green with the final group. The images are similar to yesterday but this time different suspects for my lens on the holes as far as the 9th tee. Every day is different; different players and different light so, though it maybe the same places, they are different moments. I tried a different picture on the 9th tee as Watson left the tee and walked up the little slope — a view of Watson and the bay with the lighthouse. I am being filmed at this time so I have to watch what I say but this was a great view — a beauty!
As for the golf, Steve Marino was struggling but just holding his own. Tom Watson was also holding on well: I saw a great putt at the 6th hole to save par. His putter seems to performing really well. But a couple of tricky bogeys in the next few holes meant he was tied for the lead heading to the 15th. This is the glorious par-3 as you finally turn home towards the hotel, with the treacherous ‘pit’ to the right of the green and the devilish bunkers left and long. Marino was to be truly snared by the ‘pit’ almost losing his ball and eventually taking a triple bogey 6 to plummet him down the leader board. Watson also had his problems; a little long from the tee and a bogey resulted from the bunker long.
Then the moment I had been waiting for; a long snaking birdie putt at the 16th and Watson raised his arms as he regained a share of the lead. With the relatively kind par-5, 17th to come the chances were there that he would be leading again after the last few holes. Sure enough a lovely ‘rescue’ found the green at 17 and a chance from 20 feet for an eagle, but he had to settle for a birdie. Still this amazing story continues as he made a par 4 at the final hole to lead by one. I cannot imagine a more amazing story in my 30 years of golf photography if he manages to hold on. I have not seen any reason why he won’t though if he plays again like he did yesterday. His drives were almost all straight and true and he holed his fair share of crucial putts. He looks so loose — 59 years old and swinging like he did in 1977. The BBC showed a swing from that win and one from yesterday — almost no difference still that long, effortless whoosh as the ball left his club.
A great finish awaits — but a really tough one for me and the Gettty Images team of photographers. 26 players within 6 shots of the lead: That is a true recipe for a tricky final day.
I wonder what twists of Open Championship fate await us today. The final 3 holes — treachery of all kinds on 16, riches galore on offer at 17, and those bunkers to avoid on 18 all await our lens –, the marvellous thrill of photographing golf, and The Open Championship.
The Open in pictures…
By David Cannon
9.00am: The rain is rattling on the roof of our caravan…but it’s ok, my team are at the course. Delegation the first art of management! Total trust in the guys at Getty Images. We have the best team of golf and sports photographers in the world. By the time I reached Turnberry at 9.45 almost 70 pictures were winging around the world, and probably 1500 frames were already in the hard drive. The early starters were already past the turn. We have a team of 7 photographers here — four of us have the ultimate inside the ropes access and the others work from fixed positions, or from outside the ropes. Today I am planning to work from outside looking for different angles and scenes of Turnberry.
The whole delivery system for the images is really critical; 7 ‘snappers’ and no film costs. When I think back to 1994 — what a difference 15 years makes. At Allsport, as we were in those days, we would shoot maybe 100 rolls of slide film and 50 rolls of negative film in the whole week. Sure we have more photographers, but the digital age is so different as it does not cost a bean to shoot a frame nowadays! Today as a group we shot 9892 frames and we have uploaded in the region of 650 images (we are still sending at 9.00pm). Imagine the cost of that in 1994; the equivalent of 275 rolls of film which, including processing, would work out at £8 per roll — almost £2200.00 worth of film. When, as Getty Images, we switched from film to digital in 2000 the film was almost $7 million a year — some saving that! It meant we all got great new camera kits and there was some nice change!
Also this year The R&A have provided a ‘half way house’ photographer working cabin beside the 9th and 14th holes where our runners are able to spool our digital cards of images direct tour office at the media centre. What a time saver this is — at least 25 minutes saved each time. For those who know Turnberry it is a pretty decent walk from the clubhouse to the turn and then onto the 10th 11th and 12th holes! My daughter Milly is one of our ‘slaves’ this week, so Anna, Boo and Milly are really happy about this. Their little legs are too! Being young computer ‘whizzes’, they took to the technical side in a flash and our pictures are being seen much faster this year.
Anyway enough of my ‘blurbing’ lots of different pictures today and lots of different weather too! Rain, wind, sunshine, and basically everything you could imagine temperature wise! An extraordinary day on the course — who could possibly have imagined Tom Watson leading and Tiger Woods missing the cut?! The Ailsa Course at Turnberry definitely showed the players its teeth today! And Tiger was clawed as badly as anyone!
Because of the team working together and my late arrival I just ‘floated’ around looking for scenic pictures. The shot of the 5th green with the huge crowds on the banks of the natural amphitheatre and the gleaming hotel on the horizon.
The view of the 9th tee with Westwood, Ishikawa, and Woods on the tee as yacht keels right over close by. And the crowd searching for Tiger’s ball at the 10th hole. It’s almost a ‘Where’s Wally’ moment as I tried to find him amongst the spectators frantically searching. I don’t think I can ever remember a worse stretch of golf from Tiger. Then there’s the shot of the final group leaving the 8th tee with the stormy clouds and Ailsa Craig behind.
Sadly I missed Tom Watson today but I’ll be there tomorrow for sure. What a story! I remember my mum and dad coming to Turnberry in 1977 and being so thrilled, especially as my mother was a WAAF officer stationed here at Turnberry in World War II — the memories she had were amazing. Stories for another day — but what a thrill she had watching Watson and Nicklaus. I was still trying to play golf then so was at home playing for Leicestershire. I know where I would have rather been!
But I was here four years ago though when Watson won the Senior Open. He and Nicklaus unveiled the stone on the 18th tee to commemorate their ‘Duel in the Sun’.
I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds tomorrow and Sunday!
9.09: 1st tee — the biggest media crush I have seen at The Open — Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Ryo Ishikawa. I’m excited for many reasons, the lure of the Tiger, the brightest star of the East, and Lee Westwood one of the golf’s best strikers and nicest guys! The whole Japanese photographers group are there, all 19 of them. Then another 20 or so of the world’s photo media, and a whole gaggle of writers; I would love to guess the frame and word count. Work it out from my take on the 1st tee. 50 frames, multiply by 40 — and that I reckon is on the conservative side — 2000 plus frames on that group on the 1st tee! Wow! And then the words, numbers I can’t even imagine. Then within 5 minutes my pictures were hitting the picture desks of over 3000 Getty Images Editorial clients around the world. The power of the digital world is scintillating!
Onwards to battle — the assembled ‘gaggle’ leave the tee area and we proceed to their second shots — I don’t take every shot they play. I’m always looking to make sure what I take is worth it as much as I can. Clean images of players ideally pictures not cut in half by yellow ropes or untidy backgrounds.
I am going all 18 with this group. It’s going to wear me out but as I said I’m excited. In all my 30 years of golf photography, three players stand out to shoot: Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods. I can honestly say that every time I go to work with one of these guys I get a really good picture. I could go for weeks with some of the world’s leading players and not really get a memorable image. I know with Tiger that he is going to give me a chance every round; the 3rd tee — a big hook under a TV tower and off we go! He’s stuck and takes a free drop but deeper into the rough, the rough flies the first nice one of the day — my first birdie!
At Getty Images we have many Japanese clients so I am trying to get pictures of Tiger and Ryo in the same frame. This is a challenge as it’s really only on the tees that they get close to each other, and our access is fairly limited to the tees, so I have to work hard at this.
Nothing much to report as the round progresses. We lose a few of the media so the walk is easier but I am still waiting to pounce! All the way to the 9th. Tiger on the tee — one of the most dramatic tees in golf — but damn and damn and damn there is a marshal with his ice lolly stick in his lovely red jacket waving it behind Tiger as he watches his ball. But Tiger looks anxious. It could be in trouble on the right! I walk ahead heading right I could tell by the way he was leaning.
His ball is OK, just in the fringe but clean as a whistle, short though. He is being very defensive, not like Ryo who is pounding the driver every hole. And Westwood? Well he’s just hitting it straight! Tiger’s second shot — this is the wonder of my job when you least expect it. The lie is good he is the right side to approach the green, a 6 iron I reckon at the most. He hits it. Immediately it’s all wrong and he is cross, short sided and ‘boing’ his club goes flying. The cameras rattle. Mine is on 10 frames a second and I need them all! Take a look at his club mid air it could almost be a boomerang.
It’s pictures like this that make it so much fun, not for Tiger of course, but every round I follow him wherever, whenever, there is a picture there.
The rest of the round pales in a way; lots of nice pictures, but no more ‘belters!’
Anyway a long and hard walk but lots of fun and that’s why I love it — I love watching Tiger! Not a good day but I know he will be there on Sunday. Let’s hope Lee is there as well, and as for Ryo, 17 years old wow! What a talent. I am going to have get used to the scrum!! Off to find Ernie and Rory — more fun but it’s beginning to feel a long, long day!
The Open in pictures…
By David Cannon, Senior Photographer — Getty Images, 12.00pm, 16 July
3.05am — So here we go. The morning of the first day of my 30th Open Championship, 29 as a photographer and one where I tried and failed to qualify at Carnoustie in 1975. Golf is my passion, and how lucky I have been to have followed golf all over the world for the last 30 years. I started my career in golf photography with a company called Allsport. In 1997 we were taken over by Getty Images for whom I now work covering golf globally all year. Getty Images work with The R&A on all their championships, the most important of which is The Open, which to me is the pinnacle of golf’s Major Championships.
My alarm ringing in my ear, I surface and head from our digs near Ayr in a caravan! Not just any caravan; 6 beds, running water and a view over the water to the Isle of Arran — what more could I ask?
On the first morning of each Open Championship since Hoylake in 2006, I have made an effort to get up and join the greenkeeping team as they prepare the course for play. The effort put in to preparing a course for the Championship is staggering.
3.45am: I arrive outside the entrance to the greenkeeper’s compound and wait for George Brown who has to escort me in. The scene inside the sheds is a hive of activity, mowers are being prepared, bunker rakes, dew sweepers, and all sorts of tools required for the task ahead are being loaded onto carts.
3.55am: George assembles his whole team and he addresses them from the balcony above the machinery. One of those moments where 
you see how much respect a genius of his trade is given, as he thanks the staff for all their efforts and as if they needed reminding he says:
“Here it is the moment we have all been working for, for the past few years. Those cold winter days digging out bunkers, and laying sod in new bunker faces, and all the other tasks, this is where it all becomes worthwhile”.
I snap away and at the end take a photograph of George and his team with all their machinery.
4.00am: The exodus begins, a well oiled army disperses to all points of the Ailsa Course. I play around blurring images to show the speed of the mowers as they leave.
4.25am: I am on the out on the putting green beneath the rear of the grandstand at the 18th as a greens mower with a headlight passes the Rolex clock and the lights of the Turnberry Hotel light the twilight pre-dawn sky.
4.50am I find George on the 7th green using a stimp meter checking the speed and the roll of the greens. His eyes are lit up as 3 out of 5 balls roll exactly on the same line a true sign of the purest greens, and they are running at almost 11.5 on the stimp. Watch out for lots of putts rattling the cups!!
5.05am: I am on the 9th tee as the sky is turning all shades of red as the sun begins to rise over the hills behind the course. The lighthouse sits against the crimson skies as its’ light twinkles across the almost calm sea. This is the quietest, stillest morning you could imagine. Pictures of grandstands, TV Towers, and scoreboards silhouetted against the sky, and policemen and security guards who have been patrolling all night are my only companions apart from the greenies!
5.30am: I am walking back towards the 18th and the mist has suddenly risen in the hollows of the 7th fairway, as a line of fairway mowers leave a clean cut on the dew ridden fairways.
5.40am — I find Michael Brown the Chairman of The R&A Championship Committee having a solitary sneaky putt on the 17th green, well not just one putt — at least 10! He is just checking the green and the pin position for the day — well that was his excuse anyway!
6.00 — I meet the Getty Images team for a quick plan of action — there are 7 of us shooting for the Championship and we need every one of them! 
6.30 am — Ivor Robson the official starter clears his throat — by the way I am sure he learnt this from Seve! He announces as only he can the first tee shot — “On the tee Paul Broadhurst” — he rifles his rescue club arrow straight as the sun streaks across the tee. We are off and running — and I am off for a delicious media centre brekkie to gather strength for 9.09am and 18 holes with the world’s number one golfer — guess who — oh, and I must not forget the Ibuprofen!!
Put yourself in the pros’ shoes…(Part 3)
By Graeme Scott, Manager Sport Development — New Zealand, 5.30pm,15 July 2009
It is now Wednesday afternoon at Turnberry and we are edging ever closer to the first tee time.
When I finished my last blog I was about to head up the hill to the Hotel and grab some breakfast. Many of the players have taken the opportunity to stay at the hotel and so each time you sit down to a meal you are surrounded by a who’s who from the world of golf.
The plan for Tuesday was for me to meet up with my colleagues from Australia and undertake another sweep of the course. Unlike the initial cruise around the links, this time we would be armed with a couple of golf balls and a plan of specific Rules scenarios that we wanted to go over.
Ever since I met Andrew Langford-Jones we have enjoyed setting up little scenarios out on the course and testing each other on “what ifs”. Now that John Buckley from Golf Australia has joined us on the panel he must also undergo this ritual. This is a great way to review relief situations in particular and sharpen the old grey matter before the tournament commences.
As I mentioned before, the course is very clean in terms of situations that may arise, particularly if the wind doesn’t get up. In view of this you must choose your time wisely and try to assess which scenarios are worth spending a lot of time on and which are not. At this level you must also try to picture how the professionals will play the course. It is no good using your personal ability as a guide since the reality is that they can do things that you can’t and never will.
I think that at one time or another all of us who work on professional tours have been sternly advised by a top player that we should not put ourselves in their shoes when deciding if they can or can’t play a particular stroke. You certainly look very stupid if you tell a player that you don’t believe that they can advance a ball from the rough to hit a temporary immovable obstruction, deny them relief only to hear the ball smack straight into it.
By hole four we had caught up with a group of three Aussies and Chad Campbell, who was claiming temporary citizenship to make up the four. Walking several holes with Geoff Ogilvie, Rod Pampling, Matt Goggin and Campbell was not only good crack but also an opportunity to check out landing areas and potential issues off the tee and around the greens.
The breeze was still coming from the South West but was not really strong enough to be causing major issues with the players. Both the fourth and the sixth were proving testing in relation to club selection. At 231 yards, the club selection at the sixth is crucial with a nasty pot bunker front right and a severe slope off the front of the green that will see anything slightly short slide down the hill.
After watching the guys play through nine holes we chose to return to the Committee room as I had arranged a meeting with my counterpart from the Scottish Golf Union. What a great decision this was as we had no sooner made it back to base when the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down.
Although the Championship is the primary reason that I am in Turnberry, these meetings have been extremely valuable. It would certainly seem that New Zealand and Scotland have many common issues that we are facing but we are also tackling other projects in similar ways.
After lunch I decided that my most beneficial course of action would be to read over all my tournament documentation and make myself fully aware of the Local Rules and Conditions for the week, so it was back to the lodge for a few hours of study.
Wednesday is always a big day in preparation for the first round and so we decided to take it easy with a quiet meal in Girvan. Since my good wife is English there is absolutely no chance of getting haggis for dinner at home and so a man has to take full advantage of the offer of haggis, neeps and tatties on the local menu. Needless to say, there was no problem with my Aussie mates trying to pinch any off my plate!
Wednesday morning saw the grey pants, blue shirts and tournament ties surface from the wardrobes as the Rules Committee had to report for our preparatory meeting in the Turnberry clubhouse at 8.30am. This is a very important meeting as we are briefed on all aspects of the event and then we are divided into a series of small groups to complete the official course walk.
However, another very important aspect of the meeting is that we receive our duties for round one and two. This is always pretty exciting, since not only do you find out which players you are with but also whether or not you are in for a long lie or a late finish.
Thursday afternoon, the second to last group of the day with David Smail, Tim Wood and Oliver Fisher — perfect! Obviously I know Smaily pretty well but I also know both Tim from Australia and Ollie from his amateur days both in Japan and at the Bonallack Trophy in Auckland.
Round two and I will be heading out with Cambo, Mark Calcavecchia and Paul Broadhurst at 11.41am. This will be my fourth pairing with Cambo in 3 years having walked with him at Carnoustie in 2007 and then twice last year at Royal Birkdale.
With the meeting over at 9.45am we all split up into our groups for the course walk. As with other aspects of the week this tour can not only assist with your preparation for the week but for your overall development. The groups are set up to include R&A officials, international officials and tour officials so you always get a great mix.
There is always something for everyone during the walk since not every tour uses exactly the same local rules at events. Things like the relief from immovable obstructions within two club lengths of the green are foreign to the US PGA Tour staff and so we have to take time to cover it off with them. Amateur officials are less familiar with Temporary Immovable Obstruction (TIO) relief and so additional time is spent going through examples of relief scenarios.
Due to the wealth of knowledge out on the course, the groups may at times see possible problems that have been overlooked in the build up by the R&A Rules Department. By calling in each of these situations, David Rickman and his team have the opportunity to head back out for a final sweep and make appropriate changes to local rules or course markings as they see fit.
With the walk complete, our group head back for a spot of lunch and an impromptu discussion on guess what — yes it’s hard to really get away from the Rules!! This is exactly why my colleagues have various nicknames for me in the office but the truth is that I love it! How can you not enjoy good solid banter with the brains trust of world golf — awesome.
Well it is now late afternoon and I really feel that I should go for a run but the weather is still so nice and warm! I hope that today is not Scotland’s summer as it feels good having the sun on your back after waking up to frosts in Paraparaumu for the last few weeks.
Tomorrow is a big day as the Championship tees off, but also because my two brothers are coming down and I haven’t seen them for a year. Should be a great day.
“Bring it on…”(Part 2)
By Graeme Scott, Manager Sport Development — New Zealand Golf, 9.45am, 14 July 2009
Well, it is currently 5.45am on Tuesday and my body clock has told me to get out of bed even though it will be fast approaching home time for everyone in the NZ Golf office back in New Zealand. How on earth does your body work all this out without a great deal of input from us?
It did the same to me yesterday even though I had done my best to confuse it by flying through Hong Kong and over Russia to London and then up to Glasgow.
My eyes may have been weary as the courtesy car driver turned off the main road and into Turnberry, but they soon opened up in awe when the majestic Turnberry Hotel and the grandstands surrounding the 18th hole came into view.
Perched on the hill overlooking the links, the recently refurbished hotel with its kilted doorman waiting to welcome me, was indeed a glorious sight. Although close to 9.00pm, the diminishing summer sunshine bathed the course and a gentle sea breeze pushed around the multitude of flags that adorn the venue.
Although tired I was excited and just couldn’t wait to start my week at The Open.
I felt pretty good after my six hour sleep and so went for an early breakfast before heading to the course. I couldn’t help but stop and take a few photos of the mini golf course that lies below the hotel. An awesome wee pitch and putt set up with holes no more than 30-40 metres in length and proper bunkers guarding the greens. How could you not have fun playing something like that?
Further up the lawns there is the 18-hole putting green and I start to recall memories of my own youth growing up in Montrose where golf was taken on in incremental steps like this. I was eager to be a good putter and chipper since I couldn’t play on the medal course until I had reached a decent standard on the much shorter Broomfield course. Great days indeed.
Fed and watered I headed for the course. Security is a huge undertaking at an event such as The Open and officials must at all times wear photo identification. Even referees must abide by the “no mobile phone” rule and so I do feel a touch naked without my Blackberry in my pocket.
On entering the course almost the first person that I met was Michael Campbell. He looked in great shape and had enjoyed an early round at the head of the practice day field.
My first priority was to find the Rules Office and say hello to R&A staff who had spent the last week at Turnberry defining the margins and boundaries and preparing supporting documentation for the Rules Committee.
The large “blue folder” that you receive on Monday contains a wealth of information regarding everything that you may possibly encounter out on the course as an official. This really helps you to plan your course walks each day as you can identify particular trouble spots and spend time working out possible scenarios.
The staff are extremely approachable and helpful at all times and I often have to remind myself that they have a huge number of jobs to do as I could easily talk golf to them all day.
Tool kit in hand, the next stop is the Committee room where the Rules Committee hang out when not on duty. There is a large international contingent working at The Open each year with an official appointed to each group during the event. This is different to most tour events which see a team of 6-10 officials in carts covering the whole golf course.
As I mentioned in my first blog, the opportunity that the R&A provide to international officials such as myself is incredible. The wealth of knowledge around you in this environment is immense and you really can’t fail but feed off it.
I had an appointment to meet my colleague and friend from the Australian PGA, Andrew Langford-Jones to conduct our initial course walk. Langers and I have established such a routine over then last couple of Open Championships and we usually take the opportunity to say g’day to all the Aussies and Kiwis in the field.
With a bit of time up my sleeve I took the chance to go and meet some of the other R&A staff that work in different departments. The Equipment Standards team complete much of the scientific work surrounding clubs, balls and other areas such as distance measuring devices. Emails and phone calls are great but nothing beats a face to face chat with an expert like Steve Otto or Claire Bates when it comes to issues that we are facing in our little corner of the world.
My next important job was to touch base with our other three members of the Kiwi contingent who I knew were heading off for a practice around mid day.
David Smail was just leaving the range after hitting some balls and looked relaxed and ready to go. This is his second major this year and he also looks likely to play in the PGA due to his world ranking. Like Cambo he was full of praise for the course, which he had played on Sunday.
Mark Brown and Josh Geary, both first timers to The Open were just about to hit off when I caught up with them. Both looked focussed and keen to get the week started so I left them to it.
The gentle breeze from the sea was starting to lift a wee bit so it was now a good time to see the course for myself.
Wow, I love links golf and Turnberry is as linksy as it gets!! Tee blocks set in the whin bushes (gorse to the non Scots) or perched on the shoreline and shaved green surrounds just waiting to tease the approach shot that has landed too close to the edge of the green. The sea of wavy rough only three metres from the perfectly manicured fairways — awesome.
Tiger had gone out really early, as he tends to do, but the legends of the game are just around every dog-leg. Tom Watson, checking his driving distances and still as committed as ever and Nick Faldo, the consummate professional who has traded his commentator’s microphone for his tools of trade once more.
In golfing terms the course is pretty clean with few run of the mill Rules scenarios likely to pop up. Also, the grandstands and other Temporary Immovable Obstructions are well located and, unless the wind bears its teeth, should be out of play.
The rough on the other hand is thick and juicy. The showery rain and sunshine of recent weeks has nurtured the root grass and created a real threat for anyone who strays off line.
If the weather stays benign then I think we are in for some great scores but if the south westerly rises then scores could rise, particularly over the closing holes.
I just made it back to the Committee Room when a heavy rain shower started. Time to head back to the hotel and prepare for the first official dinner of the week.
Each evening The R&A host various sponsors, guests and television companies and officials are provided with the opportunity to attend. Once again this is an excellent opportunity to meet with golf enthusiasts and administrators from around the world and discuss common issues and methods of addressing them.
What a great start to the week! Everyone really makes you feel so welcome here and they have a genuine desire to find about what is happening around the traps.
Well, 5.45am has now moved on to breakfast time before round two of the course inspections start around 10am. Another day at the 138th Open Championship — bring it on!
Why I’ll travel 12,000 miles…and would travel 12,000 more
By Graeme Scott, Manager Sport Development — New Zealand Golf, 4.20pm, 13 July 2009
I have heard several seasoned New Zealand All Black players say that it doesn’t matter how many times your name has been read out for the first international squad of the season, you still sit nervously on the edge of your chair just waiting for confirmation that you will once again represent your country at the highest level.
Well I’ve never had a call up for the All Blacks but I must confess that I get a similar feeling each time March comes around and invites from the Chairman of the Championship Committee to officiate at The Open are issued.
I received my first invitation to officiate at The Open in 2004 and recall being more nervous at Royal Troon than I have been at any other event in my life.
My role with New Zealand Golf provides me with the opportunity to act as tournament director at our national championships, oversee our Rules Official pathway and regularly officiate on the Australasian PGA Tour, but being in this elite environment as a New Zealand representative on the panel felt very special indeed.
On that first occasion I arrived at the course feeling extremely confident in my knowledge of the Rules, but having walked the course several times with other first timers and gone through hundreds of “what if” scenarios, by the time I walked on to the first tee on Thursday my stomach was performing a perfect 10 gymnastics routine.
However, as soon as I saw the three players in my group hit the most beautiful tee shots down the fairway I relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
As an international guest official at The Open you have a fantastic opportunity to extend your knowledge of the game by working closely with The R&A staff and the full time tour staff in attendance.
One thing for certain is that every one of the Rules Officials at The Open is extremely passionate about the game and not only enjoy a good discussion on a range of topics but also take the opportunity to find out about what systems and new initiatives are in place around the world.
People have said to me that a 35 hour trip across the globe for a golf tournament must be a gruelling journey but personally I can’t wait to get to Turnberry and soak up the atmosphere. Having never seen the venue before there will be a fair bit of leg work and preparation to be done before the first ball is struck on Thursday.
I’ve got a feeling that we’re in for a real treat…
By David Hill, R&A Director of Championships, 1.30pm, 9 July 2009
Well, we’re back at Turnberry after an absence of 15 years and, I must say, it’s great to return to one of the very best venues in the world. Since a lot has changed within the intervening years in terms of the way that we set up an Open Championship, we’ve treated the 2009 Championship venue as a bit of a blank canvas with no pre-conceived ideas about how it should be set up. The main aim, however, remains the same as it was in 1977, ’86 and ’94. To make sure that The R&A does justice to this most majestic of golf courses and offers spectators an unparalleled Major Championship experience.
On course in 2009 there are now 15,000 grandstand seats, more than ever before at Turnberry, which not only provide uninterrupted views of the golf, but are strategically placed to show off the breathtaking beauty of the Ailsa. Off the course, the tented village has been redesigned to provide a more modern facility which will comfortably house our improved public catering services. And, for the first time, the tented village will be home to a cinema showing three unique films about the rich history of golf and Turnberry.
Developing the event to this extent has necessitated a bit of a re-think as far as the event infrastructure is concerned. We’ve had to install a new telephone exchange, put in new drainage, new internal roads and upgrade the runways to improve car parking. But these sometimes challenging, and often time-consuming, tasks are made worthwhile, as they are every year, when you see an attractive venue ready to host the world’s best golfers emerge from the links. It’s that feeling which I continue to enjoy after over 30 years with The R&A.
When I celebrated three decades in the job earlier this year, someone asked me about my favourite Open memory. For me, Seve winning in 1984 springs to mind. It was an incredibly exciting final day which I think gave all of us a few butterflies in our stomachs. The moment that he holed that long putt on 18 under the St Andrews sun, punching the air like a victorious matador, is one which I will forever remember. It was such a significant event because it heralded a changing of the guard from the era of five-time Open Champion, Tom Watson, to a new great, Seve Ballesteros.
And this year has every chance of being just as good. Coming originally from Northern Ireland, it would be good to see the likes of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell challenging, but there are so many exciting young players emerging like the Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa, who I’m very much looking forward to seeing, and a few notable old hands returning such as Watson and Norman, that I’m sure we’re in for a fantastic final stretch on Sunday afternoon. Who knows, another ‘Duel in the Sun’ could be just around the corner!
In just a couple of days the players will start arriving to take up residence in the newly refurbished Turnberry Hotel, which is once again looking magnificent as it stands surveying the links.
Preparing the Ailsa…
By Grant Moir, R&A Director — Rules of Golf, 10.30am, 1 July 2009
As R&A Director — Rules of Golf, it’s fair to say that the run-up to The Open is always a pretty busy time but, as a contributor to discussions about lengths of rough, pace of greens, hole placements and local rules, it’s ultimately very enjoyable and rewarding.
Over the last couple of months I’ve been on a few course walks with R&A Chief Executive, Peter Dawson, and Turnberry’s Course Manager, George Brown, to really get to know the course and establish how it will be attacked by the best golfers in the world. As always, the first issue to review is the course condition which, in the Ailsa’s case, is of no concern at all. Having been closed since November, and with George having been at the helm for over 24 years, it is, unsurprisingly, in supreme condition. Aside from the players, I have no doubt that the most important people at any Open are the greenstaff, and we are fortunate to have fantastically committed teams at all our Open venues.
In addition to conditioning, we also review the setup. We decide the width of the fairways and the height of the first and second cuts of rough, and check on the sand depth in the bunkers. Even though the Ailsa has fewer bunkers than other Open Championship courses, they are well placed and will see a lot of action. Some are traditional links pot bunkers that will certainly cost all but the most inventive of players a shot. Others, like the one to the left of the re-shaped 16th fairway, will give a well-struck shot the chance to reach the green but carry a significant element of risk, with the green being guarded front and right by a gathering burn!
The Rules department is responsible for ensuring that the course is properly defined, which means staking and painting hazard and boundary lines. This can see us venturing into areas where few players are likely to visit, up to our necks in marram grass in the process of defining the beach that runs alongside the holes 4 through 11 as a lateral water hazard.
From a Rules of Golf perspective, the Ailsa is a pretty ‘clean’ course. Our only difficulties come in drafting local rules relating to The Open’s event infrastructure; scoreboards, TV towers, grandstands, marquees and the like. The key to addressing these issues is to try to ensure that the relief given from these “temporary immovable obstructions” is reasonable, without being overly generous. All of the Rules staff find that an ice cream from the Carte D’Or van assists in our deliberations over where a ball that comes to rest under the vehicle should be dropped!
During the Championship I’ll be in my golf buggy, ready to assist the referees walking with games should they need a second opinion, and monitoring pace of play. But perhaps the most interesting part of my day will come after the close of play, when I’ll go out with my marker pen and “spot” the following day’s hole positions. There’s a common misconception amongst golf fans that Open Championship final-day hole positions are made particularly fiendish by The R&A. The reality is, however, that we always try to maintain balance and consistency throughout all four days of play. Perhaps players just make it look harder as the nerves set in during the final round! Personally, I love to see birdies on the last day and hear the noise building in the grandstands as the leaders make their way round.
The 1994 Turnberry Open was my first as a full-time employee of The R&A, and it still feels fantastic to be involved with The Open 15 years on. To have a hand in setting up the course for the greatest players in the world to compete for the greatest prize in golf is a privilege, as is working with the team of Rules officials who join us from home and abroad. And for it all to be happening in a setting as glorious as Turnberry should make the next few weeks hard to beat.
Another day at the office…
By Michael Wells, R&A Assistant Director, 6.00pm, 24 June 2009
I’ve been on-site in Turnberry full-time since the 1st June, so about a month now. But I reckon if you combine all my trips here since the start of the year, then it’ll work out at about two months away from St Andrews. Sometimes it seems like a long time but, when you consider that some of the contractors have been on site since November, you realise that it’s not long at all!
As Assistant Director — Championships, I act as an intermediary between the contractors, the Turnberry resort and The R&A’s Championship Committee. I tell my friends that I’m responsible for placing the bins and portaloos, and that once that’s done, I get on with the less glamorous jobs! But actually I spend most of my time in the tented village, overseeing the construction and furnishing of the hospitality complexes.
Since I started the job almost 10 years ago now, straight out of school, it has been, and continues to be, a steep learning curve. It’s a constant source of amazement for me that my boss, David Hill, The R&A’s Director of Championships, can look at some links land and see a Major Championship venue. After a decade, I think I’m starting to understand the logistics of staging one of the world’s biggest sporting events, but I know I’ve still got a long way to go.
Everything is really taking shape now. Most of the marquees are up and are, I’m told, clearly visible from Ailsa Craig. But they’d be even more visible if we got a bit of rain to give them a wash; we’ve been praying for a downpour for two weeks now!
It’s great being at Turnberry at the moment, there’s a real buzz around and the anticipation is starting to build. The feeling of having 250 people from all over the country here, all pursuing the same goal, is what really keeps you going late into the evening. And of course, when the day’s work is done, there are always plenty of friends to go for a night-cap with.
Right, I’m off to play a few holes on the Kintyre course. After all, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!”
We’re at Sunningdale for the last IFQ of the season
By Rhodri Price, R&A Assistant Director — Championships, 6.45pm, 7 June 2009
I wrote my previous blog on Opengolf.com just before heading off to South Africa for the first of this season’s International Final Qualifying events. Now, as I write today’s, I’m at Sunningdale looking forward to the completion of the international qualifying schedule at IFQ — Europe tomorrow.
In the last four months we’ve been to Durban, South Africa; Melbourne, Australia; Sentosa, Singapore; and Plano, Texas, USA and, so far, 18 players have earned their places at Turnberry.
But now it’s Europe’s turn, and some of golf’s big-name players are here. Thomas Bjorn, Nick Dougherty and Johan Edfors will all be competing, along with Irish Open champion, Shane Lowry, who popped in to the R&A Office to say hello! There is a field of 96 with the top ten qualifying for The Open. It promises to be an exciting day.
As I write, last week’s European Open champion, Christian Cevaer, has appeared. He’s still thrilled about the victory, but seems intently focused on earning his open berth tomorrow.
Anyway, IFQ — Europe has been held here at Sunningdale since its inception in 2004. It’s a perfect venue: two wonderful golf courses, a beautiful clubhouse and lots of tradition. Every year, on something called IFQ Sunday, the club Secretary buys 20 fish suppers for the 20 greenkeepers, who take a half hour’s break — their only one of the day — before the work goes on late into the night.
They’ve worked particularly hard today after last night’s storms which washed the faces of all 158 bunkers away. In three hours, they re-faced all of the bunkers, and by the time I went out to have a look at the course, the hazards looked immaculate. At Sunningdale, as with all our IFQ courses, the effort that is put in behind the scenes to present the players with a course worthy of awarding Open places cannot be overestimated.
I’ve been on site for five days now making sure that everything is in place. The media centre is up and running, the scoreboards have been erected, the draw has been made and the players are arriving. All that remains to do is organise the burger van!
Cevaer, Paul Broadhurst and Steve Webster are practicing 20 yards away from the office.
I can’t wait.
A look ahead to the first two IFQs of 2009
By Rhodri Price, R&A Assistant Director — Championships, 1.00pm, 27 January 2009
During the first week of February I’ll be at Royal Durban Golf Club in South Africa to ensure that the first International Final Qualifying event of the year runs as smoothly as possible. It’s the first year that we’ve had the opportunity to take the event to Durban as the Sunshine Tour schedule meant that players would be in the KwaZulu-Natal area.
Royal Durban is one of the few championship courses in the world that sit within a horse-racing track. I’d anticipated that this would cause a few organisational problems but the South African officials are used to staging events like the South African Amateur and qualifying for the South African Open inside the rails so it’s proved reasonably straight-forward to pull things together on the build-up to the competition. Apparently the jockeys have all been warned about wayward five irons!
Having shared the event between Atlantic Beach Golf Club in Cape Town and Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club since 2004, it’s good to take IFQ to a different part of the country and to a golf club in whose clubhouse hangs a picture of ex-R&A Secretary and my old boss, Sir Michael Bonallack! I’ve spent some time in Durban during IFQ planning visits and, on a personal note, I’m looking forward to going back to such a vibrant city.
Not that there’ll be much time to relax and take in the sights; as soon as IFQ Africa reaches a conclusion, I’ll be straight onto a flight bound for Australia to run IFQ Australasia at Kingston Heath Golf Club on Melbourne’s famous Sandbelt.
We’ve been to Kingston Heath a few times before so everything is very familiar. Again we chose to go back there as the PGA Tour of Australia schedule meant that it would be convenient for players to take part in the time between the end of the Victorian PGA Championship and the start of the Moonah Classic.
It’s always a pleasure to go back to Melbourne. Everyone’s really keen on their golf and there’s never a shortage of volunteers who are happy to come and help us out.
When the 36 holes of IFQ Australasia come to an end on Tuesday 10 February, I’m sure I’ll be ready to leave the warmth of the Southern Hemisphere and come back to St Andrews knowing that we’ve given players that choose to, or have to play more locally, the chance to earn their place in The Open Championship.
The International Final Qualifying concept emerged from our strong belief that world-ranked players who deserved a place at The Open shouldn’t miss out just because they play on a domestic tour or couldn’t travel, either for financial or scheduling reasons, to qualifying events in Europe or America. It is The Open Championship so we wanted to make sure that it was Open to everyone.
There are now qualifying events in five continents: Africa, Australasia, Asia, America and Europe. Hopefully we’ve gone some way towards making playing at The Open as affordable and accessible as possible; providing you have the ability of course.
Though we haven’t yet had any IFQ qualifiers challenging during the final round of The Open, the value of the idea was proven at the US Open’s international qualifying events which appeared a couple of years after The R&A’s. Michael Campbell had only just scraped into the qualifying field, but, after managing to do enough at Walton Heath Golf Club to earn a start at Pinehurst, he went on to win the 2005 US Open title.
Director of Championships reflects upon The Open’s return to Turnberry
By David Hill, R&A Director of Championships, 4.30pm, 23rd October 2008
Come next July it will be 15 years since we had an Open at Turnberry, and I can safely say that everybody at The R&A is genuinely excited about the event coming back to this course. It’s a fantastic venue, probably the most scenic on whole rota, and certainly one with some of the most iconic memories, thanks to that fantastic first Open Championship held there in 1977.
I wasn’t working for The R&A back then — I joined a couple of years later, in 1979 — but I did go and watch the 1977 Open as a spectator, and it was fabulous. The weather was just so good, and it turned into the famous shootout between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, the “Duel in the Sun”. They both shot in the mid-60s every day and were 10 shots or so clear of the field before Watson edged ahead on the last hole to win. There’s no doubt that it’s one of the most memorable Opens in the last 40 or 50 years.
The fact that it was Nicklaus and Watson just reflected the dominance of the Americans at the time. Eight of the top 10 that year were Americans, something which changed fairly quickly after that, and the next two Opens at Turnberry saw an Australian, Greg Norman, and a Zimbabwean, Nick Price, win the Championship.
Norman’s win in 1986 was particularly exciting. We had everything that week, with the weather changing constantly from warm sunshine to freezing cold and overcast, with squalls battering the coast on and off. And then in 1994 Nick Price was a great winner, he played the best golf and we had superb crowds, so next year’s Open will have a lot to live up to.
It’s got to be said that bringing the Championship back here has been quite a challenge, though. The main reason that it hasn’t been here in 15 years is because of the traffic difficulties which we had in the past, but the Championship Committee is determined to take The Open to all the top links courses that are capable of hosting the event. We’ve been working with South Ayrshire Council for several years to work on a new road system to help people travel there, and now that is in place with additional parking areas.
The delay in returning brought other problems with it, though, since all the infrastructure that we used in 1994 had been in place since that first Open in 1977. Unfortunately that meant most of the ground services were pretty much obsolete, so we’ve had to start again. That’s meant we’ve had to start installing everything from a new drainage system to building a 60,000-gallon water tank, which ensures we’ll be self-sufficient for water during the event.
It’s not been unlike Hoylake a couple of years ago, where we were going back for the first time in almost 40 years. Turnberry has one big advantage with the number of old RAF runways on the site: they make for superb car parks! At Hoylake we had to spend a lot of time negotiating with farmers and the council to put in park and ride facilities, whereas although Turnberry is more remote, we have everything we could possibly want right on the site.
Everything’s going well in the final stages of planning now. There are a few final changes being made to the course — they’re being overseen personally by Peter Dawson — and we’re currently working out how many grandstand seats we’ll be setting up, which will probably be in the region of 15-16,000. I personally can’t wait to see if Harrington will be able to become the first man since Peter Thomson to win three consecutive Opens, or if Tiger Woods will be raring to come back and win. Neither have played in The Open there, but Whatever happens the players are looking forward to it — some have already been in touch about booking their rooms in the Turnberry Hotel — and hopefully it will be another great Open, to rank alongside previous ones at Turnberry.
We like a breezy Open, but this one has been a bit too breezy
By Peter Dawson, R&A Chief Executive, 11.40am, 20th July 2008
We like a breezy Open but this one has been a bit too breezy for comfort, and yesterday was the most challenging day. Despite the fact that we’d done everything we could to avoid getting into problems — choosing sensible pin positions, slowing down the greens and so on — we still came very, very close to having to suspend play. If two or three more balls had moved on the greens then we’d have had to do something, but luckily we got away with it and we’re left with the prospect of an absorbing final day.
It’s wonderful to see the names at the top of the leaderboard: it’s great to see Greg Norman back in front at an Open, and to see defending champion Padraig Harrington doing so well. And it’s also very good to see Ben Curtis back there too, especially since we’ve perhaps not seen as much of him as we might have liked to since his win in 2003. We’ve had some wonderful Opens over the years, but this one looks like being right up there amongst the most exciting and unpredictable. It’s funny how we’ve heard no more about the issues that were in the spotlight at the start of the week. I’ve certainly not heard the 17th green being talked about much over the past few days…
The climax of The Open will be fantastic for spectators and viewers, but for us today is the most stressful day. We’ve got the engraver here for the Claret Jug, we’ve got planning meetings for the prize ceremony, right down to details such as making sure we have two Silver Medals, since both amateurs would receive one if they finish tied. On top of that the wind is still strong and the sun is drying out the greens, so that could cause problems today as it did yesterday. One way or another, I’ve a feeling we’ll be kept very busy right up to the very end.
It was considered unsporting for anyone to practice before a round
By Peter Thomson, five-time Open Champion, 4.55pm, 19th July 2008
It’s always a pleasure to come back to Royal Birkdale. It was where I won my first Open in 1954 and my fifth in 1965, and where I have been made an honorary member, so it would be kind of strange if I didn’t have a special feeling for the place.
Apart from some small adjustments it’s the same course as it was in 1965. What makes it so challenging is the constant change of direction and the coastal location that brings the wind into play so often.
When I see the course prepared so beautifully for the Championship I really feel I would love to play, but my own game is not up to it any more. I played three times in St Andrews last week with some visiting friends and that’s more golf in a short time than I’ve played for a couple of years. There’s not so much pleasure in playing poorly. There are no 68s these days, more like 88s. I drive shorter, miss greens by a bigger margin and three-putt more.
What I like to do here is watch the practice rounds. I don’t have any special favourites, but what does amaze me is the intense practice these players put in. I can’t help feeling that there is a certain silliness in hitting 500 balls a day. Once you attain a high degree of proficiency you should be hitting fewer violent shots and looking after your body. There seems to be a blind faith in the idea that hitting thousands of shots will lead to great improvements, but that is not necessarily the case.
I never owned more than 10 practice balls and I would use my time playing holes. That way I learned to score and learned about my limitations and how not to extend myself. In those days it was considered very unsporting for anyone to go out for a practice session before a round — almost a form of cheating.
Things have changed a great deal and he growth of the game has been quite fantastic. Over the next decade it is going to get even bigger, especially in countries like China, Vietnam and Korea, and I hope that a lot of the accumulated old knowledge in golf is listened to in the years to come. It is important to realise that 99 per cent of the game is for the general public and just one per cent is the shop window of the professional tournament scene.
I’m not just here at Birkdale for pleasure. I will also be writing a piece for the Sunday Age newspaper in Melbourne, something I’ve been doing for 55 years. I remember writing about my own victory from the press centre here with The Open trophy perched on the desk beside the typewriter. In all I played 25 Opens and lost 20. Being here at Birkdale brings all those memories vividly back to mind.
It’s been a challenge this week — and I’m not just talking about the 4am starts
By Michael Wells, R&A Assistant Director — Championships — 8.55pm, 18th July 2008
It’s been a challenge this week — and I’m not just talking about the 4am starts and 10pm finishes. With the weather, it’s tough just keeping the tented village in a condition suitable for the 50,000 people visiting The Open every day. It’s just the general mess created by all those people walking through wet, muddy ground — we’re still looking good, though, thanks to our contractors. They’ve put down sand and wood chips in the affected areas, and luckily we’ve been able to keep everything running smoothly.
Running the Open is literally my full-time job: The R&A have a team of people based in St Andrews who look after it every year, and split up the jobs between us. One of the things that I look after, for example, is the leaderboards, which were a big thing this year. To be honest, we were slightly concerned about what the reaction would be when people saw that we hadn’t replaced the old boards with something electronic — whether people might see it as The R&A dragging our heels — but we did some research beforehand and people loved the old mechanical leaderboards, particularly the anticipation of watching the names or scores change and having those few seconds of suspense before the new information comes up. We honestly think it’s a better experience for people.
Not that the new leaderboards are just the same as the old ones: they’re much better, particularly for the schoolchildren who operate them. They’re watertight for a start — which has been pretty important this week — and much smoother and more reliable in operation. The kids who operate them get really competitive between them — the leaderboard on one side of the 18th is operated by children from Cranleigh school, and the one on the other side by others from Charterhouse, so they end up having competitions about who can get the changes up quickest. It means they enjoy it more — and the spectators see the scores more quickly. Everyone wins!
There’s 200 scoreboard operators in total, working 17 scoreboards around the course, the two leaderboards on the 18th, and two hole-by-hole boards in the tented village. It’s a lot, but it’s just a tiny fraction of the whole: there’s five or six thousand people working at The Open this year (1,000 purely in catering), plus 800 marshalls from local golf clubs who happily give up their time for the kudos of the job and the chance to be part of the effort. Plus a free jacket, of course!
This week itself is just one small bit of the whole, though. I’ve been based down here since the 5th May — basically, I lose most of every summer to The Open, and have done since I started the job nine years ago. There’s plenty of company around, though, such as our main contractor Grant Smith, whose been here since then as well. The hardest bit at many of the venues is fitting the tented village into the space; some, like Royal St George’s have huge amounts of flat space, which makes it easy. Others, like Lytham, are much more compact, which makes it much more challenging. Once it’s all over, though, it’s not nice, a real anticlimax. The place turns into a ghost town, and there’s always a major job to clean up everything that’s been left behind. It keeps me back for an extra week after everybody else has left.
For all that, it’s a great job: the venues are all in nice places, and it’s obviously great just being involved with The Open. And, once in a while, we even get to play a few nice golf courses!
And that’s when it hits you: this is The Open!
By Shona McRae, R&A Rules Department — 8.10pm, 17th July 2008
What a day! The weather was absolutely terrible this morning, not what you’d wish for at all on the first day of The Open. But apart from the soaking we all got out on the course, it was a great start to the tournament.
It’s been early starts and late finishes all week, but today and Friday are probably the longest days. Today I was up at 4.30 in the morning, got to the course for 5.15 to make all the preparations before the start, and I’ll be at the course until the end of play tonight. Each morning the Rules Officials collect the necessary information, pick up their radios and check with the Rules Office which groups they’ve been assigned for the day. Most details are dealt with in a briefing the day before it all starts: the officials come from all over the world, so sometimes they might not have come across the conditions that UK links courses present, so it is useful to discuss all aspects of this prior to the event.
Once play has started and the rules officials are familiar with the procedures, we co-ordinate our work from the Rules Department office — the rest of the year, I’m a full-time member of staff in The R&A Rules Department, so there are many other aspects to this role. However, by mid-morning today I had to head off out on the course: I was the official with the 10.48 group.
And that’s when it hits you: this is THE OPEN. I was with Jamie Elson, Jon Bevan and Rohan Blizard today, and particularly with two of them being home-grown players there was just a huge amount of cheering and support on the first tee. With all the TV cameras and crowds you really get the feeling that the world is watching; it can be a bit nerve-wracking, but if the players feel nerves they certainly don’t show it. I was introduced to them on the first tee so that they know who I am if they need to ask anything about the Rules or have any problems on course.
Not once have I had a reaction from someone uncomfortable with me being female — if anything, I get the feeling that the players are usually pleasantly surprised, and perhaps they mind their Ps and Qs a bit more than usual! Some players are happy to chat during the round — for example, Jon Bevan took time to chat with the scorer, bunker raker, scoreboard carrrier and myself today — while others keep more to themselves, but that’s fair, they want to focus on their game.
As for the refereeing itself? Well, it has been described as being hours of boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror, and there’s definitely an element of that. It’s a funny mixture, because in some ways it’s good to get involved a situation where you can assist the players with the Rules, but on the other hand if it all goes smoothly then it’s likely you are watching the pros playing at their best, shooting pars and birdies, which is great to witness.
When something comes up, it can really get the adrenaline going. Last year at Carnoustie on the Friday morning I was acting as an observer with Tiger’s group when he pulled his tee shot out of bounds on the first hole. Before I knew it I had to rush across the fairway to confirm it was definitely out — my heart was pumping, and it felt like the world was watching. But after that, it felt like I’d got the moment I’d been dreading out of the way and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s an amazing privilege to be able to rub shoulders with the best golfers at the best championship in the world.
So far, so good…
By Peter Dawson, R&A Chief Executive — 8.30am, 15th July 2008 We’re less than a day away from the start of The Open — and so far, so good.
A lot of my time at The Open is usually spent trying to look after the players: have they all registered successfully, are the locker rooms okay, are they happy with the course. But I have to say that this year I’ve had so little by way of complaint from any of them that it’s been completely painless. They seem to love the course, all the logistics are running smoothly and everything’s going to plan — so far, at least.
Not that there aren’t other things to be keeping me busy. One of the main jobs over the past few days has been fixing the draw — and I use the word advisedly. We freely admit that the draw isn’t random, and it can’t be for all sorts of reasons. There’s crowd control, for example: we have to make sure that the most popular groups don’t follow on from each other or it could be mayhem on the course. Then we try to make sure that we split up the faster players and the slower players — it’s definitely a factor. And then, of course, there’s the reality that TV networks all across the world want to see their home players at times which are convenient for their viewers. There’s not much point having all the Australian and Japanese players teeing off at times that mean the fans would have to get up in the middle of the night to watch their favourite players.
Pin positions are another factor that we spend a bit of time looking at this week, and it’s something that’s been coming up a lot at my daily morning meetings with Chris Whittle, Birkdale’s Head Greenkeeper, and Richard Reed, Chairman of the Greens Committee at the club — it’s the first thing I do each day, at about 7.30am. The course is looking wonderful, even though the amount of rain we’ve had has made it perhaps greener than we’d have liked, and have kept the greens just ever so slightly on the slow side. They’re 10 on the stimpmeter at the moment compared to our target of 10.5, so we’d just like to speed them up that little bit. Anything faster than that and we could have trouble if the wind gets up.
I’ve been doing a lot of media interviews as well this week, and understandably a lot of people have been asking about Tiger not being here — though funnily enough, over the last week or so just as many people have been asking about Kenny Perry staying away. Tiger’s the big one though: I know he’s missing us just as we’re missing him, and we’re looking forward to seeing him back here next year. But he’d be the first to say that The Open is bigger than any one player, and considering that he’s won three of his 11 Opens there was a very good chance in any case that another player would have turned out the winner this week even if he had been here.
All in all, it’s been going extremely well so far. It’s funny: the last time The Open came to Birkdale was the year before I started working at The R&A, and as a member of The R&A’s Rules Committee I was here all week as a referee, yet when you’re doing that you just have no idea about all the work that goes on behind the scenes — no idea at all. And I have to add that I’d never have dreamed back then that I’d be here this week as Chief Executive.
The new Open website
By the Opengolf.com team — 4.17pm, 3rd July 2008
Welcome to the new Open website! We’ve been hard at work for months — since before the last Open, in fact — creating a brand new website for The Open to bring you the whole story from the greatest championship in golf. We’re still adding new features all the time, but hope that you agree that what’s available already is a major step up from our previous website.
There’s a whole raft of new features. This blog, for example, will be the first of many — though it’ll be the last one from the website team. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you a whole range of different guest bloggers, each of whom has some part to play in bringing golf’s oldest Major championship to life. The idea is to show you what goes on behind the scenes — the furiously-paddling legs of the swan, if you like — from the incredible amounts of pre-event preparation to the lighter moments that you never see on television or read about in the papers. Whether the blogger is a TV cameramen or someone behind the tills in the merchandise tent, a caddie for a top-10 contender or R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson, we hope that they’ll offer a unique insight into the championship.
Elsewhere on the site, there’s a new player database that lets you find biographies, statistics and pictures for all of this year’s field. There is also a wealth of historical information available, including full year-by-year results, reports, pictures and some player records.
There’s also a new video player which will bring not just interviews and highlights from the 2008 event, but also highlights from some of the incredible moments witnessed at The Open over the years. We’ve organised all our footage to make it easy for you either to find what you’re looking for, or else just find something amazing, from holes-in-one and albatrosses to official highlights films stretching back to 1923.
There’s plenty more besides: an interactive map (click the ‘World Map’ tab up on the right to open it up), an upgraded Open timeline (also accessible via the blue tab at the right of the screen), a new section about the 14 venues which have hosted the championship, a guide to the course with nuggets of wisdom from the Open Champion and the Birkdale head professional, an insider’s guide to spectating at Birkdale that’s come from a man who’s been a member for 50 years… and plenty more besides, but we’ll leave you to find the rest for yourselves.
We hope you enjoy the new website — either way, please do let us know what you think, either via the feedback links or via our new forums (another new feature!).
Many thanks for visiting — and, if you’re coming to Birkdale this year, we’ll see you there.
The Opengolf.com Team
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