| INSIDE THE ROPES
Bunkered at Lytham HK Golfer publisher Charles McLaughlin gets to fulfill a childhood fantasy by playing this year’s Open Championship venue in truly major-like conditions
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s a child, one of the few things guaranteed to keep me indoors and not outdoors swinging a golf club was the BBC’s monumental coverage of the Open Championship. For hours on end I would sit glued to the TV watching the drama unfold in grainy black and white and then later in oversaturated colour. My first real memories of the Open are from the late sixties and early seventies. This was the time when Tony Jacklin became the first British winner in 18 years when he hit a cracking drive down the 18th at Lytham; colourful American Doug Sanders missed a “tiddler” at St Andrews and then lost the ensuing play-off with Jack Nicklaus; and the crafty Lee Trevino repeatedly chipped-in at Muirfield to take the Claret Jug away from a visibly shaken Jacklin. Living in a country where it didn’t get dark until after 10.30pm, there was plenty of time each evening to attempt to reenact the key shots of the day, my own internal monologue taking the place of Henry Longhurst, Peter Alliss and Mark McCormack, the commentators of the day. “This chip to break Jacklin’s heart” ... “He makes it look so easy” ... and so on. Fast forward 40 years and I’m no different. I watch a lot of golf and I’m fortunate enough to see more and more of it from inside the ropes. But I still dream of reenacting the action I’ve been watching – “This putt for the Open!”
The author plays his approach to the famous 18th at Royal Lytham & St Annes to complete arguably the finest playing experience of his life 56
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I’ve also managed to play a number of courses that have hosted some of golf’s greatest events and there is no doubt that a large part of the enjoyment in doing so comes from recalling the moments have become part of championship lore. Finding myself in the Road Hole bunker at St Andrews or coming a cropper at Carnoustie’s Barry Burn would be two obvious examples. However, it has become clear to me that the set-up of these types of courses is very different when a major comes to town. Yes, you can play the same layout as your heroes, but the conditions are likely to be rather more benign. Imagine, then, my reaction to a call from a friend earlier this year asking if I’d like to play Royal Lytham & St Annes immediately after the Open. We would play the same tees as the pros, my friend said, the pin placements would remain as they did for the final day of the championship and the grandstands (minus the spectators of course) would still be in place. Wow! I was going to be at Lytham in any case covering the event. It was one of the easier decisions I’ve ever had to make. During the Open itself I followed the world’s greatest around what was an unquestionably demanding yet magnificent test of golf. Lytham, as we all know, bore its teeth that weekend, with poor Adam Scott coming a cropper over the closing stretch when the Claret Jug was all but in his grasp. I spent the night prior to my round going through each and every hole in my head. As far as goals went, I had two: avoid the bunkers (easier said than done at Lytham with its 206 dastardly pits) and try and better Scott’s final four-hole score of four-over-par. I didn’t get much sleep. The next morning I arrived at the clubhouse to find workers dismantling the tented village that had housed the concessions, the merchandise stands, the sponsors pavilions and the media centre. However, even with the trucks and teams of workers milling around, there was still a sense of reverence and almost a hush as they went about their business. A stroll past the Dormy House and putting green to the Pro Shop of Eddie Birchenough (the club pro for the past 25 years) and then on to the first tee situated just behind. I’ve played Carnoustie in remarkably calm conditions and I’ve also played HK Golfer・SEP 2012
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it in remarkably foul conditions and that made it clear to me that if I’m playing any visually terrifying hole with out-of-bounds stakes course, I want it to be in “typical” conditions. I once played Machrihanish, that all the way down the right and a railway line wonderful links at the Mull of Kintre, with the wind blowing in the exact opposite beyond. From the elevated tee there appears to be direction to what it normally does. It was a soulless experience. I spent much of bunkers everywhere. This was the hole that the morning wondering why there were so many irrelevant bunkers and swales as derailed Phil Mickelson in the first round, and I I boomed shots over them or landed well short of trouble. Luckily, the wind can now see why. After erring on the side of switched around during lunch, and I found myself buried in the self-same hazards, safety (read: pulled way left into the rough) I but knowing I was now getting the authentic atmosphere that had been missing carved one into the furthest right of the three earlier. Alright, so we finished that day in weather worse than the bishop bunkers that lie short of the green. Blasting out encountered in Caddyshack but what a magnificent experience. heroically I watched in horror as the ball rolled As I stepped onto the tee at the 206-yard 1st – the only par-three opener on the back into the middle pit, from where my only Open Championship rota – a breeze was blowing right-to-left and slightly against, option was to hit backwards. Airmailing the and there was moisture in the air. I had got green with my next, I was what I prayed for – typical local weather! fortunate to get down in two for a I spent the night prior to With the grandstands still in place behind triple. The course had slapped me my round going through the green, it was a surreal experience to have round the head for the first but not my friend impersonate – rather badly, I the last time. each and every hole in might add – the legendary starter Ivor A par at the 9th, a little gem of my head. As far as goals Robson and announce my name as I teed up a par-three, meant I had played my ball. I said the silent prayer that every what is considered the easier of the went, I had two: avoid the golfer knows – “just let me get this first teetwo nines in seven-over. Not a bunkers (easier said than shot away” – and somehow managed to disastrous score for my 11 done at Lytham with its 206 handicap by any means but I felt connect – thank you, Lord – pretty sweetly with my 3-iron. For 80 per cent of its flight, dastardly pits) and try and like I had been striking the ball as the shot looked perfect, but then the wind as I have ever done. better Scott’s final four-hole wellAnother took hold and pushed it left. The ball hit the bunker visit at the score of four-over-par. green and scurried into the third of four 11th cost a shot but that was bunkers guarding that side of the putting nothing compared to the trainI didn’t get much sleep. surface. So much for my game plan of wreck that was to be the 12th. avoiding the sand. Television really doesn’t do this Lytham’s bunkers are rightly infamous. As mentioned, there are over two hundred lengthy par-three and its extremely contoured of them, and they’re all fiendishly placed, each with near-vertical faces. The sand itself green justice. My unintentionally aggressive is pretty thick and cloying. You simply have to get the ball up quickly. In the event I 3-iron found yet more sand and three hacks and blasted out to six feet and made a bogey after missing the putt. two putts later I walked off with my second triple This was to become a routine. bogey of the round. Ernie Els birdied this hole on With one exception, finding a bunker resulted in at least one dropped shot, and the Sunday but his tee shot was only a couple of often more. As the day progressed, I became more and more convinced that Tiger feet from finding the same bunker. Fortune Woods’ much-criticised strategy of laying up short of them with irons off the tee favours the brave, I suppose. had been correct. Obviously he didn’t win but in my mind, having now played the By now, I was becoming more and more course and studied his performance, it wasn’t his tee shots that let him down. A worried about the closing stretch, which my bit more luck (particularly at the 6th in the final round when he took two to get media colleagues were forever describing as the out from a vicious lie in a greenside bunker to make triple bogey) and a rather toughest finish in golf. warmer putter and he would have been right there. Anyway ... After a par at the benign 13th – how on earth By the time I reached the 6th tee I was already four-over – three dropped shots did Tiger bogey this in the final round? – a by a result of being in the sand. now routine bunker find at the next hole led to an The 6th is a 500-yard dogleg par-five (but which played as a par-four during acceptable bogey. On 15, the first of what I will the championship). It may also have the narrowest fairway. The group ahead of us call the “Adam Scott” holes, I hit my first truly had knocked several balls into the heavy stuff on the right and waved us on. wild shot of the day – a ghastly pull into the Having the honour, I launched a solid drive perilously close to the bunker and grandstand. I took a drop on some well-trodden mound on the left, and was delighted to find I had skirted both and was in good turf and got away with a bogey. Had the shape in the fairway within 5-wood distance of the green. To a round of applause grandstand not been there I would probably have from the ball-seekers, I then hit my shot of the day, a high draw over the intervening lost my ball, such was the severity of the rough. clutch of fairway bunkers and between a group of five more surrounding the At any rate, my five was good enough to match green. My eagle putt ran six feet by and I was happy to sink the come-backer for Scott’s own five in the final round. The state of my only birdie of the day. Whilst there I took the opportunity to drop a ball in our imaginary game: level pegging. “Tiger’s bunker” and attempted to get out. I hit myself! I then tried to recreate the The 16th, a short par-four that features a blind shot he played from his knees and nearly pulled my groin just getting into position. tee shot, was made famous by Seve Ballesteros Needless to say I failed miserably. who played his approach from an overflow car A good bogey arrived at the next hole after finding some of the thickest rough park on the right after an errant drive and made imaginable around the green but the wheels well and truly came off at the 8th, a birdie. Scott wasn’t so lucky. He found the 58
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The 16th, a short par-four that features a blind tee shot, was made famous by Seve Ballesteros who played his approach from an overflow car park on the right after an errant drive and made birdie. Scott wasn’t so lucky. He found the green in two but three-putted from 20 feet for bogey. green in two but three-putted from 20 feet for bogey. I somehow avoided all 15 bunkers on the hole and made a par to take a slender lead over my handsome young opponent. The 17th is a real beast, even by Lytham’s exacting standards. A long, dogleg left par-four pockmarked by 20 bunkers, it was here where Scott hoiked his approach left of the green into the gnarliest of rough leaving him absolutely no chance of getting up and down. I, on the other hand, came up short with my 8-rion (after a very satisfying drive down the middle) into what felt like my 50th bunker of the day. A pitch on and two putts meant I headed to the 18th with a one-shot lead. Before getting there, however, each of our group attempted Scott’s horror chip from the side of the green. Our combined best effort was a duff into the swale just a few yards ahead. Brutal. The 18th, where Jacklin hit what Longhurst described as a “corker” down the middle of the fairway to sew up the Open 43 years ago, is not a long finishing hole by modern standards, but with 17 bunkers encroaching into what is an undeniably slender landing area, it demands accuracy. Scott, as we know, found a dreadful lie in one of the many traps up the left side after trying to hit a soft cut that didn’t listen. I did precisely the same thing, following him into the exact same bunker. Fortunately for me, my ball was sitting in the middle of the steepsided pit and I was able to advance it forward. Scott in fact did brilliantly to even get his ball out, something which was overshadowed by the hubbub of his scarcely believable implosion. HKGOLFER.COM
Scott, of course, would fire a good approach to 12 feet but pulled his putt a fraction to miss out on a play-off with his good friend Els. Once again I hit a needlessly aggressive approach but this time I got away with it, my 9-iron holding its line to end up between the pin and a yawning greenside bunker just five yards away. One putt later and I had made one of the best pars of my life. I had covered the back-nine in seven-over for a total of 85. And just as importantly – to me at least – I had nipped the desperately unfortunate Scott by two over the closing holes. Walking back to the clubhouse (after failing an attempt at holing the putt Els did to really win the Open) I realised I had played 18 holes of one of the hardest courses on the planet without losing a ball – something I have never achieved at Kau Sai Chau. I was delighted. Playing Lytham in such conditions and at such a time was literally a dream come true. The great golf writer Bernard Darwin once described the course as “a beast of a course, but a just beast” – and I have to agree. It was perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had playing and I can only pray I get the chance to do so again one day. Adam Scott's escape from the fairway bunker at the fnal hole was nothing short of miraculous given the situation he was faced with. Sadly it wasn't enough to prevent him from losing his "match"w with the HK Golfer publisher HK Golfer・SEP 2012
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