The St. Andrews Old Course is famous for its seven double-greens AND for offering the most putting acreage of any major championship. One example is the green shared by the 5th and 13th holes which measures 101 yards from front to back.
In a New York Times story, Tom Watson, a five-time British Open champion, was quoted saying:
“Lag putting here is crucial. You are going to have a lot of long putts on these greens. You can’t play to the pin positions. You can’t play at them. You have to play to the sides of them, and a good shot is 30 feet to the side, and that’s perfect distance. You won’t be that perfect distance on links golf.”
That same article quoted reigning Open champion, Stewart Cink who talked about the need for imagination. He was speaking in reference to Tiger Woods who, based on his victories at The Open at St. Andrews in 2000 and 2005, is considered one of the best lag putters in the sport.
“Tiger is really good,” Cink said. “And the reason is it’s almost all imagination. You have to have a lot of imagination to be able to predict the speed and the way the ball is going to roll off these humps.”
Imagination… definitely. A sense of humor would help too. This time around Tiger struggled. One video clip catches Tiger’s frustration.
The following video captures the highlights (lowlights) of Open play over the weekend.
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Special honorable mention goes to Miguel Ãngel Jimenez and his amazing “off-the-wall” shot:
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