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British Open's Royal Portrush Only Rewards the Smartest Golfers

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  • Dallasite
    07-15-2019 03:20:51 PM
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    Some golf courses are all about power golf. And golfers known for really long tee shots, strong drives and fast play on fairways, like Rory McIlroy for instance, get rewarded by these types of courses often.

    But its when the course is laid out more like a puzzle than a driving range challenge that the most intelligent golfers pull away from the pack. Now I'm not saying that Rory isn't a smart golfer, its just that his style of play isn't always ideal for all courses.

    Leads me to this article CBS Sports wrote about the 2019 British Open, and Tiger Woods' chances to win it. They make the case that Tiger Woods is the 5th best golfer in the world and its been that way for 2 years now. And the course for the 2019 British Open is a course that rewards smart golf play over all else, something Tiger is particularly adept at.

    The 2019 British Open will be a held at the Royal Portrush golf course. Here's a good video that shows the difficulty of some of the holes at Royal Portrush to get an idea of what these golfers are in store for. Keep in mind this course hasn't hosted a British Open since 1951, so that just adds to the difficulty as no one will be very familiar with the layout and the reads:

    This British Open major's leaderboard should be very top heavy with only the best and most intelligent golfers in the world. Be real curious to see how Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and Rory McIlory fair at this course.

    Interesting to note that despite the first article on Woods being primed for this course in particular, CBS Sports also reports that Rory McIlory is the odds on favorite to win. Happy .. There's a logic break somewhere there between reports.

  • JFoster
    07-18-2019 03:06:20 PM
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    Just gonna say watching the two guys in the video attempt the last 65 yards of hole 4 was enough to convince me of how tough this course is. It's a par 4 and 500 yards. I can definitely see the point why it favors smart play over power play. Then again I could see it benefiting Mcllory in the long game, and yet punishing him for it. Then I could see the reverse with Tiger because he tends to be more methodical.
  • Dallasite
    07-18-2019 03:52:28 PM
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    Well both Woods and Rory are most certainly completely out of it. They both did terribly in the opening round. Tiger shot a +7 and Rory shot a +8. While the leader, JB Holmes turned in a -5. Woods and Rory look like they won't even make the day 2 cut.

    This day 1 leaderboard is surprising to me. Given the hype of the tough course I expected only the biggest names and highest ranked in the world golfers to crowd the top. Not the case. The leaders right now are:

    JB Holmes -5
    Shane Lowry -4

    14 golfers are tied for 3rd at -3 under par. Notable names in that pack are Sergio Garcia, Webb Simpson, Tommy Fleetwood, Brooks Koepka, Lee Westwood and John Rahm. All the names I have seen before and am familiar with anyways.

    Koepka and Rahm were listed high in the odds to win, so those 2 guys are still very much in it. Will be fascinating to see if Holmes or Lowry can hold on to the top. Pressure at such a big major will likely get the better of them though.
  • Dallasite
    07-18-2019 03:52:54 PM
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    JFoster Wrote: Just gonna say watching the two guys in the video attempt the last 65 yards of hole 4 was enough to convince me of how tough this course is. It's a par 4 and 500 yards. I can definitely see the point why it favors smart play over power play.
    Right? Definitely agree.
  • PowerPlay
    07-20-2019 12:00:11 PM
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    Yeah, this course is intense. I'm happy to see it being used for this. It's way more interesting to watch the tournament when it's on a really tricky and historical course. I can definitely appreciate the skill involved in golf itself, but it gets a bit stagnant to see the same big dogs on the same courses over and over. It seems like the only time something actually interesting happens is when something out of the ordinary occurs, like Jordan Spieth winning a couple years back. Interesting courses and the known names getting knocked out fast are what makes it worth watching, at least in my opinion.

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