Muirfield has habit of producing great champs
Source: Agencies |
July 17, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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FROM behind the 18th green, Paul Azinger stared out at a golf course where he nearly won a major title, where so many greats of the game have carved their names on the claret jug.
Sure, it's a classic links layout - right by the sea, filled with inexplicable humps in the fairways, terrifying bunkers stuck in the strangest of spots and knee-high grass ready to punish a wayward shot.
But Muirfield is different.
There are all those quirky elements that make it worthy of a British Open. There's just - uhhh, how should we put this? - not too many of them.
"It's not a luck-fest out there," Azinger said on Monday, as the world's top golfers arrived en masse in Scotland to prepare for the third major of the season. "If you make the ball do what you want it to do, you'll play well."
Maybe that's the reason the roster of winners looks more like a who's who of the sport.
Harry Vardon. Walter Hagen. Gary Player. Jack Nicklaus. Lee Trevino. Tom Watson. Nick Faldo. Ernie Els.
And let's not forget Harold Hilton, James Braid and Henry Cotton.
Of the 13 players to win the Open at this course east of Edinburgh, 11 are enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
"That's not a fluke," Faldo said. "You have to have a good mind game. You have to know where you're going to land it, where the next bounce is and where the run is."
Of course, the ability to pull it off also helps. Muirfield is more straightforward compared to other British Open courses, with few blind shots. Its lay out of two loops of nine holes running in opposite directions also evens out the devilish breezes, assuming they don't suddenly change direction during a round.
Sure, it's a classic links layout - right by the sea, filled with inexplicable humps in the fairways, terrifying bunkers stuck in the strangest of spots and knee-high grass ready to punish a wayward shot.
But Muirfield is different.
There are all those quirky elements that make it worthy of a British Open. There's just - uhhh, how should we put this? - not too many of them.
"It's not a luck-fest out there," Azinger said on Monday, as the world's top golfers arrived en masse in Scotland to prepare for the third major of the season. "If you make the ball do what you want it to do, you'll play well."
Maybe that's the reason the roster of winners looks more like a who's who of the sport.
Harry Vardon. Walter Hagen. Gary Player. Jack Nicklaus. Lee Trevino. Tom Watson. Nick Faldo. Ernie Els.
And let's not forget Harold Hilton, James Braid and Henry Cotton.
Of the 13 players to win the Open at this course east of Edinburgh, 11 are enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
"That's not a fluke," Faldo said. "You have to have a good mind game. You have to know where you're going to land it, where the next bounce is and where the run is."
Of course, the ability to pull it off also helps. Muirfield is more straightforward compared to other British Open courses, with few blind shots. Its lay out of two loops of nine holes running in opposite directions also evens out the devilish breezes, assuming they don't suddenly change direction during a round.
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