Boring St Andrews ?

[Snelly]

We all got bored because there was no contest, not because of the course.
Sticking a swale round 18th green wouldn't have prevented Oosthuizen winning by miles.
It was a poor open because the home challenge fell away, nothing else. If Casey had holed out and played better and shot 67 instead of 75 things could have been much different.

I agree completely. Good point, well made.

That said, I do think that letting the rough grow in to narrow the course should be done for the Open at St Andrews.

 

[SyR]

For me Casey was the only man capable of catching him with the golf he was playing until he drove into the gorse....Because the iron shot after that was also terrible....The door closed after that!

I have to say the putting by Paul Casey was terrible today, if he'd made some of the 8-10 foot putts he had for birdie today it could have been his name on the trophy. Luis had no real challege today so played very safe golf.
Casey's putting alingment seemed very iffy at times...

 

[JustOne]

We all got bored because there was no contest, not because of the course.
Sticking a swale round 18th green wouldn't have prevented Oosthuizen winning by miles.
It was a poor open because the home challenge fell away, nothing else. If Casey had holed out and played better and shot 67 instead of 75 things could have been much different.

I agree completely. Good point, well made.

That said, I do think that letting the rough grow in to narrow the course should be done for the Open at St Andrews.

Nah, I was more than happy for Oosthuizen to win. Fairways as wide as the M25, giant greens and no rough - just boring.
If you played like that on my local muni you'd be 50 over par. Even if the wind came up (which it did for 1/2 day) it was still boring, nothing to see except long putts on giant greens. The course is dull, featureless and is out dated. Sticking a stream just short of the 17th, & 18th might spice it up, also include a roundabout/helterskelter/windmill in there somewhere

Once again it proves that links stinks

 

[brendy]

Noone is biting jouk, links is a great test of golf, sometimes unfairly though for example, hitting the middle of the fairway off the tee only to watch it bumble it's way 50 yards along the ground and take every bump and borrow ending in a bunker or sliding off the green.
When all is said and done though, I don't remember anyone saying they went looking forward to the open at st Andrews before the tournament started. anyone calling it boring are only upset as their man didn't win or they are masochistic and wanted another Carnastie, which certainly makes for better tv but can produce unexpected winners, just like last year etc.
I thought the whole event right until the 10th hole or so on Sunday was quite entertaining as I had all four of my picks still fighting for a top ten finish.

 

[USER1999]

I thought the pin positions on the final day were poor. Tiger was quoted as saying there was only one birdie opportunity on the back 9, so it wasn't hard to work out that no one was going to catch the South African (and might explain why Casey was chasing after that driver so hard). Why could they not have had some more accessible pins, to encourage a bit of a sprint finish?

As for Casey's second on 12. I heard the caddy say he had 105 to the pin, and next thing he has played a full shot and is 50 yards short of the green. How the heck?

 

[Imurg]

There seemed to be some real confusion as to where Casey should drop. The Officials saying here and Casey saying there.

Should have had a Skycaddie

 

[Kellfire]

Why could they not have had some more accessible pins, to encourage a bit of a sprint finish?

If you were leading after three rounds, you'd be annoyed that the position you'd got yourself into was threatened by ignoring the accept practice of making the Sunday pins hard when you've done everything right up until now.

By having tough pins, it forces the leader to be nervous about holes he maybe played well in over the the previous three rounds. It wasn't Oosthuizen's fault that he started the day so far ahead to render that point moot.

 

[birdieman]

When Tiger won in 2000 at St Andrews, with a lower score than Ossthuizen and a simlar margin of victory, no-one was bemoaning the Old Course as being not up to it or boring. They were all too busy brown nosing wonderboy and trumpeting the fact he never found a bunker the whole week. Go figure.

 

[mjsw13]

We all got bored because there was no contest, not because of the course.
Sticking a swale round 18th green wouldn't have prevented Oosthuizen winning by miles.
It was a poor open because the home challenge fell away, nothing else. If Casey had holed out and played better and shot 67 instead of 75 things could have been much different.

I agree completely. Good point, well made.

That said, I do think that letting the rough grow in to narrow the course should be done for the Open at St Andrews.

Nah, I was more than happy for Oosthuizen to win. Fairways as wide as the M25, giant greens and no rough - just boring.
If you played like that on my local muni you'd be 50 over par. Even if the wind came up (which it did for 1/2 day) it was still boring, nothing to see except long putts on giant greens. The course is dull, featureless and is out dated. Sticking a stream just short of the 17th, & 18th might spice it up, also include a roundabout/helterskelter/windmill in there somewhere

Once again it proves that links stinks

YAWN

 

[Tommo21]

When Tiger won in 2000 at St Andrews, with a lower score than Ossthuizen and a simlar margin of victory, no-one was bemoaning the Old Course as being not up to it or boring. They were all too busy brown nosing wonderboy and trumpeting the fact he never found a bunker the whole week. Go figure.

Well done....that saves me from upsetting a few people on here.

 

[Smiffy]

Well done....that saves me from upsetting a few people on here.

Early days.
You've got the rest of the week to go Tommo

 

[Chrimbo]

St Andrews is a fantastic course with a long and noble tradition …….. however the professionals of today have the ability and equipment to conquer it all too easily as was seen this weekend ……….. the only time the course had ‘teeth’ was when the weather conditions deteriorated to such an extent that it was almost unplayable.

Perhaps it’s time for the R&A to stop using it as a venue for The Open …………

 

[JustOne]

Noone is biting jouk, links is a great test of golf, sometimes unfairly though for example, hitting the middle of the fairway off the tee only to watch it bumble it's way 50 yards along the ground and take every bump and borrow ending in a bunker or sliding off the green.

You make it sound like a ball won't run off a fairway on any other course

The Old Course is at the bottom of my list of courses to play, just above Tilgate

 

[Fyldewhite]

Interesting views. Just to be clear I wasn't having a go at links golf, far from it, I'm a big fan. Just thought that the way the course is set up meant that any comeback on the last day was extremely unlikely and overall resulted in a pretty forgettable open from start to finish.

I played Southerness a couple of weeks ago in a strong wind and I doubt if the final round would have been the sterile procession we saw yesterday had it been at any other decent links.

 

[19th]

"I played Southerness a couple of weeks ago in a strong wind and I doubt if the final round would have been the sterile procession we saw yesterday had it been at any other decent links".

For the record, unlike all great professional golfers including Nicholas, Palmer,Player,Seve,Watson, etc, ...Flydewide does not consider ST Andrews a DECENT LINKS!!

Southerness??? St ANDREWS!! As they say up here....NAE CLASS!!

 

[USER1999]

The issue with St Andrews, and possibly what makes it boring to watch, is the fact that you can miss the pin by 100 yards, and still be putting. Surely this should be wrong. Since most of them can 2 putt from anywhere, this is going to lead to dull boring golf. It is only when someone holes a long one it gets interesting. They weren't exactly peppering the pin, were they.

Big margins for error lead to big errors, except here they aren't punished.

 

[funkyfred]

When Tiger won in 2000 at St Andrews, with a lower score than Ossthuizen and a simlar margin of victory, no-one was bemoaning the Old Course as being not up to it or boring. They were all too busy brown nosing wonderboy and trumpeting the fact he never found a bunker the whole week. Go figure.

Well done....that saves me from upsetting a few people on here.

Sorry to say that I said it in 2000 and 2005. where Woods was driving 100 yards off course and still was hitting 9 irons and wedges into the greens, surely that cant be right.

I cant remember where it was when the players had difficulty in reaching the fairway when the wind was blowing straight at them and OOB one side, thats what you need, a hard challenging course. Of course you want to see birdies but you also need something that penalises bad shots.

 

[funkyfred]

The issue with St Andrews, and possibly what makes it boring to watch, is the fact that you can miss the pin by 100 yards, and still be putting. Surely this should be wrong. Since most of them can 2 putt from anywhere, this is going to lead to dull boring golf. It is only when someone holes a long one it gets interesting. They weren't exactly peppering the pin, were they.

Big margins for error lead to big errors, except here they aren't punished.

Sorry Murph we must have been thinking the same thing at the same time. My works phone probably stopped me sending my post at the same time.

 

[freddielong]

St Andrews is one of the best courses in the world she is beautiful and she has teeth, you cannot blame the course for the lack of ability under pressure in the chaseing pack yesterday

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It's a good shout about these shared greens making it less of a challenge. Daly even chipped on one on the first day to get it close so there is no punishment at all. Easy (for them) to push or pull any shot and just make sure you avoid the deep greenside bunkers and then try and 2 putt from 100 feet. You don't get away with such errors on other courses on the Open rota