The 150th Anniversary Open Championship gets underway on Thursday at the home of golf, St. Andrews, and reigning champion Stewart Cink will be looking to retain his title in the face of stiff opposition.
Cink won last year at Turnberry, beating crowd favourite Tom Watson in a four-hole play off. Watson would have won his sixth Open and, at 59, been the oldest champion, but he missed out by six shots to Cink.
Every big name in golf you can think of will be vying for the Claret Jug on one of the toughest links courses in the world. Woods, Harrington, Mickelson, Els, Montgomerie, Lyle…I could go on and on. There are 156 professional and amateur golfers in total, all looking to topple Cink and each other over four days of what promises to be fabulous golf.
The Old Course at St Andrews has hosted golf matches for 600 years and is home to the longest running tournament for the 28th time this year.
Par is 72 over the 7305 yards that make up the 18 holes. There are only two par 3s and two par 5s, one of each on the front and back nines. The longest hole is the par 5 14th, stretching 618 yards but with a strong wind from the east, it’s doable in three. The shortest is the par 3 11th at 174 yards. The green is steep so you have to get your distance right or risk rolling off the green at the front or dropping into a gully at the back.
The Open Championship will start at 6.30am tomorrow with Paul Lawrie, Thomas Levet and Steve Marino teeing off on the first hole, Burn, as it is known.
All eyes will be on Tiger Woods no doubt as he attempts to win his third successive Open at St Andrews, but with his off-course personal troubles and a putting game that his own caddie has described as “sub-standard” he’ll have his work cut out. Tiger tees off at 9.09am alongside in-form Justin Rose and Camilo Villegas.
Other notable tee off times for us Brits and Irish include:
- 7.36am: Sir Nick Faldo
- 8.42am: Ian Poulter, Ernie Els, Stewart Cink
- 9.20am: Padraig Harrington
- 9.53am: Darren Clarke
- 12.25pm: Sandy Lyle
- 12.47pm: Luke Donald
- 13.31pm: Paul Casey
- 13.42pm: Lee Westwood
- 14.20pm: Colin Montgomerie, Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen
I’ll be keeping a close eye on Justin Rose. He has recently won two tournaments on the PGA Tour and is bang in form. How he’ll handle the links is a big question, as is how he’ll feel playing alongside Woods for the first two days. I really hope he does himself justice.
Who do you want to win and perhaps more to the point who do you THINK will win? Let me know in the comments.
