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VOTE: What's the best Open Championship venue?


atursky

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Muirfield tends to historically produce the "best" champions - Nicklaus, Trevino, Watson, Faldo (twice), Els, Mickelson

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St Andrews simply because if I had one opportunity, it would be the home of golf at St Andrews.

 

In response to this and the other "Old Course" votes; you are right, of course. Nothing can compare. And if you wanted support, Tom Doak will supply it. From an old issue of The Guardian, here is Tom Doak's personal ranking of the Rota, sans Royal Portrush, which hadn't even been planned when this was written:

 

1 The Old Course, St Andrews Quite simply, there is nothing else like it in the world of golf. You must have a mental map of the course in your head - and the better you know it, the more fascinating the strategy of play becomes.

2 Muirfield The best fairway bunkering in the world and the best set of par fives, plus beautiful views of the Firth of Forth thrown into the bargain.

3 Royal St George's, Sandwich The third course on the rota, after St Andrews and Muirfield, with interesting short-game play throughout. Has a wider variety of holes than the rest, including blind shots, pitch shots to elevated greens, and plenty of uneven stances.

4 Royal Lytham & St Annes Most people consider the urban setting to be a detraction, but I enjoy it because it's different. Lytham is memorable for its relentless bunkering and it also has my favourite finishing hole in the world.

5 Turnberry (Ailsa) The Ailsa course is probably the No 1 favourite of American visitors to these isles, because of the coastal scenery. It's a great course, but to me it feels more like Pebble Beach than a true, bumpy links.

6 Royal Troon (Old)

7 Royal Birkdale Rather like Turnberry, Birkdale is generally rated much more highly by the players and by American visitors than by me personally. It's a sturdy test of golfing ability, but there is not much variety in the holes: they all play down the valleys between beautiful dunes which seldom come into play.

8 Carnoustie These links have always been the ultimate test of golf, even without the ridiculous set-up which was installed for the Open of 1999.

9 Hoylake The Royal Liverpool club oozes history, thanks in no small part to the trophy case full of medals from Harold Hilton and John Ball, but in truth only a handful of holes located out by the Dee Estuary are really memorable. I'll be very interested to see how it plays, after a 39-year hiatus, in 2006.

 

 

Muirfield and The Old Course are two of just 14 courses in the world that got the coveted "10" on the "Doak Scale."

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^Apart from GCAers, I don't think anyone else would covet the # put beside a golf course in those books. Certainly not the R&A.

[url="http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTOZNxdsDKajrKxaUCRjcU8eB7URcAMpaCWN-67Bt6QG8rmBUPYW3QAQ7k87BlYizIMKJzEhuzqr9OQ/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true"]WITB[/url] | [url="http://tinyurl.com/CoursesPlayedList"]Courses Played list[/url] |  [url="http://tinyurl.com/25GolfingFaves"] 25 Faves [/url]

F.T.

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After quoting Doak above, I went back to my 1996 copy of The Confidential Guide to see what his detailed reviews of some of the Open Rota courses said. As noted just above, The Old Course and Muirfield were the only 10's. Carnoustie was an 8, and Tom's criticisms were somewhat apart from the course itself, which he felt was very good. Tom (rightly) noted that the bunkering at Carnoustie tends to rise up in revetted walls, whereas at the other Scottish locales, they are more naturally sunk into the landscape. That's a fair, and true, remark.

 

What shocked me was to be reminded that back in the 80's and 90's there was some serious talk of removing Carnoustie from the Rota because of the limits of the town and the mediocre conditioning of the golf course. Tom hoped it would not happen, and noted what a tragedy it would be for the town. I had completely forgotten how Carnoustie had declined, not having the cachet of St. Andrews (even Doak remarked that almost every time he played Carnoustie, he was staying in or near St. Andrews), or the elite international membership of an HCEG or Prestwick or Hoylake or Sandwich.

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Played with an ex Euro Tour player two days ago (he played in 3 British Opens)

 

His answer was Muirfield

 

(It was fun hearing some old Seve and MAJ stories)

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Ping G400 7w 19.5* Ventus Red 6x 

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Ping i210 6i & s55 7i - PW Steelfiber 110s

Ping Glide Wrx 49*, 54*, 59*ES, Tour W 64* SF 125s

EvnRoll ER9
 

 

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Turnberry

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Current bag:
Titleist TS3 Oban Kiyoshi Purple 65 [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Titleist TS2 GD Tour AD-MT 7[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Titleist 818H1 19, 818H1 23 GD Tour AD-DI 85[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Epon AF-705 5-AW MRC OT-I 95
Vokey Wedgeworks SM7 Raw 54M, 58D[/font][/size]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Scotty Cameron 009[/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Taylormade TP5x[/size][/font]

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I like them all.

Driver: Callaway Paradym 9 set to 10 Draw

3W Callaway  Epic Flash

5w Callaway Epic Flash
Hybrids: 4-5 Epic Flash    
               6-7 Big Bertha 

               7 Ping G430 played as an 8 

Irons: PXG Gen4 XP 9-GW

Wedges: PXG 0311 52 56 degree Forged

Putter: Odyssey Rossie Pro 2.0 

 

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I like Dornoch the best, and it should be in the Rota but it's not. Muirfield is great too.

 

Well, that's a wonderful idea, and the players would be totally thrilled. And the whole world (what little is left that doesn't already know it) will find out that Royal Dornoch is one of the ten best-and-most-important golf courses in the world.

 

Problems: It's 6800 yards and Par 70. And probably just not equipped to deal with modern tour distances.

 

But oh what a course. I think Tom Doak's (Dornoch is a Doak "Perfect 10") description is really wonderful: "The most significant feature of Dornoch's design is its greens. Most of them are sited atop good-sized natural plateaux, and all are open to the front to allow a carefully judged approach to bounce on, yet carefully conceived to receive that shot only from a particular spot in the fairway.

 

For anyone who'd been there; isn't that a great, concise description?

 

I'm not sure that we can or should rule out Dornoch based on location; but it would be the most remote British Open ever conducted. Inverness is an hour away.

 

And as always, I think I might hate what the R&A might feel is needed in terms of alterations to the course in order to conduct an Open. I honestly have lost track of what elite-level competitions that they even do at Dornoch anymore. I think that they have some junior events there (which is a wonderful idea) but I don't think that they even use it for Open qualifying. Do they have qualifiers for the Scottish Open at Dornoch?

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St Andrews simply because if I had one opportunity, it would be the home of golf at St Andrews.

 

In response to this and the other "Old Course" votes; you are right, of course. Nothing can compare. And if you wanted support, Tom Doak will supply it. From an old issue of The Guardian, here is Tom Doak's personal ranking of the Rota, sans Royal Portrush, which hadn't even been planned when this was written:

 

1 The Old Course, St Andrews Quite simply, there is nothing else like it in the world of golf. You must have a mental map of the course in your head - and the better you know it, the more fascinating the strategy of play becomes.

 

2 Muirfield The best fairway bunkering in the world and the best set of par fives, plus beautiful views of the Firth of Forth thrown into the bargain.

3 Royal St George's, Sandwich The third course on the rota, after St Andrews and Muirfield, with interesting short-game play throughout. Has a wider variety of holes than the rest, including blind shots, pitch shots to elevated greens, and plenty of uneven stances.

4 Royal Lytham & St Annes Most people consider the urban setting to be a detraction, but I enjoy it because it's different. Lytham is memorable for its relentless bunkering and it also has my favourite finishing hole in the world.

5 Turnberry (Ailsa) The Ailsa course is probably the No 1 favourite of American visitors to these isles, because of the coastal scenery. It's a great course, but to me it feels more like Pebble Beach than a true, bumpy links.

6 Royal Troon (Old)

7 Royal Birkdale Rather like Turnberry, Birkdale is generally rated much more highly by the players and by American visitors than by me personally. It's a sturdy test of golfing ability, but there is not much variety in the holes: they all play down the valleys between beautiful dunes which seldom come into play.

8 Carnoustie These links have always been the ultimate test of golf, even without the ridiculous set-up which was installed for the Open of 1999.

9 Hoylake The Royal Liverpool club oozes history, thanks in no small part to the trophy case full of medals from Harold Hilton and John Ball, but in truth only a handful of holes located out by the Dee Estuary are really memorable. I'll be very interested to see how it plays, after a 39-year hiatus, in 2006.

 

 

Muirfield and The Old Course are two of just 14 courses in the world that got the coveted "10" on the "Doak Scale."

 

Coveted by Doak. Maybe by nobody else.

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This might be a better question after next year. I voted St. Andrews, but Royal Portrush will take that over.

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3wd: Srixon F65 10.5° Aldila Rogue Silver 110 70g 
3h & 4h Srixon Z-U85 20° & 23° Recoil 95 F4
Irons: Titleist 620CB 5-pwTT AMT Tour White S300 
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM8 50° 56° 60° KBS TT AMT Tour White S400, bent to 51° 55° 59°
Putter: Ping Redwood Anser 34" w/Element 29 from Putter Lounge & Carbon Ringo w/Misted Stainless Steel 
Grip: Lamkin UTx
Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV
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As a viewer, I'd have to go with the Old Course at St. Andrews

 

As someone who attended last year's Open, and also played three open courses while out there...I can tell you which one would NEVER EVER get my vote, and that's Royal St. George's. That course didn't wow me at all...and I'm a bit biased when I factor in how poorly we were treated as guests.

Callaway Rogue ST Max LS w/Tensei Orange // Callaway Epic Flash 3W w/GD Tour AD IZ-7 // Adams Idea Pro a12 w/UST VTS //

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