SOUTHPORT, England — Do not adjust the color on your TVs while watching the British Open this week. The Royal Birkdale fairways are actually as brown in person as they appear on TV.
With unusually dry and warm conditions on the Northwest England coast, the course is firm and dry, and that should result in some crazy bounces and added excitement to the tournament.
Strategically, it should make for some fascinating decisions by players deciding whether to hit drivers off the tee or irons. Tiger Woods, for example, famously hit only one driver all week en route to winning the 2006 Open at Hoylake, which was dry, dusty and firm.
“I think you’re really going to need a good caddie to tell you how far the ball is rolling out,’’ U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark said. “Then you’re going to have to hit shots and really be strategic. I mean, you might hit a 4-iron that goes over 300 yards, and then you’ve got to look at a bunker and go, ‘It’s 320; how do we stay short of that because we can’t cover it?’
“But that makes it fun. I like courses similar to Shinnecock where maybe there’s a lot of strategy and you have to be on certain sides of the fairway to hit into the green, miss in certain areas. I personally enjoy majors like this.’’
Scottie Scheffler said, “The ball’s just going to run forever pretty much. The fairways this week are really tight, so if you get a lot of cross-winds they can be difficult to hold just because they’re so fast and they’re so firm.
“There’s a lot of thinking off the tee on whether or not you want to just hit driver up there somewhere and kind of play from the rough most likely, or do you want to start hitting some irons, getting it in some fairways and hitting some longer shots into the greens?’’
Jon Rahm called this week “weather-wise, a very unusual week,’’ adding that he’s “looking forward to seeing what the challenge presents, because I think we’re going to see a bit of everything — 6-irons off tees, drivers and long irons into par-4s. It should be a really fun one.
“Knowing how the ball is going to react and where you need to land it to give yourself a putt is going to be very, very important. They’ve changed a few things as well (on the course). They’ve made it narrower. They’ve added bunkers, moved fairways closer to hazards, added longer tees. On a golf course that was already difficult, they’ve made it more difficult.’’
Rahm cautioned players who boldly hit driver off almost every tee on par-4s and par-5s.
“From what I’ve learned in the past, if you start pulling out drivers in an Open Championship, you can do a good job short term,’’ he said. “You can maybe get away with it for one round. Over four rounds, you’re going to start finding spots you don’t want to be in, and you’re going to pay the price.’’
Rory McIlroy reveled in the conditions because of what they present.
“When you give professional golfers options and you can create a little bit of doubt in their minds in terms of should I play this shot or that shot, that’s when things start to get fun, especially for the viewer,’’ he said. “Not so much for us but that, to me, is the sign of a good championship test.’’
Tommy Fleetwood also loves what he’s seen at Birkdale this week.
“I feel like it’s a really old-school Open,’’ he said. “You do get that brown look to it and firm style of play.’’
