Monty's Press Conference

From Monty's Q&A:

Q. A couple of the guys earlier today talked about the need for creativity and shot making here. I was just curious, the idea of that kind of being a lost art these days, particularly on the PGA TOUR in America.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I think it is. I think that is people say this course is dry and it's bouncy and everything, but that is part of golf. The ball does bounce into some places, and you've got to be able to control it and be patient. I think sometimes when you play in America that you hit the ball 157.6 yards and it scoots back 3.2 feet. This isn't like that. It's a more natural game and played on the ground.

And it will be interesting to see artistic shots more than you do possibly in the States. And I'm not saying that's right or wrong, it's just a different form of golf. And we have a different form here, especially with the weather as it is and it's forecast to be the way it is right now.

Ernie's Press Conference

Thought this exchange was interesting from Ernie Els's sitdown with the scribblers:

Q. Kind of curious just where you are in your overall life right now. We've seen with a lot of great players that they transition at some point; Nicklaus moves into the design business, Arnold Palmer moves into the business. Can you talk about that? Not the specific ventures that you're doing, but if you're finding it a challenge to balance that with your golf, et cetera?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, it's true. You get other interests at some point, and I would say the last two years those interests have become kind of a business, you know. You've got to be careful.

Golf is still my life. That is the core of my life. And without golf I couldn't see myself sitting in an office right now and doing those other things that we are busy with. I've got people in place that are running those different interests. I'm basically sitting back and they're reporting back to me, which is kind of a nice situation to be in. But before I got to this situation where I am now, you had to set it up. And it takes time and it takes a bit of concentration. I wouldn't say that it affected my game. I would say the time that I had off away from the game gave me a lot of time to do those different things.

So I think it's pretty well set up right now, and as I said, golf is everything for me now. I've got a good ten years to do what I've always wanted to do. I'm really just 100 percent playing golf right now.

Q. 100 percent golf?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah.
 

Tiger's Press Conference

Apologies if this is old news, but if you didn't see his comments, there are some interesting things said here that seemingly only could come from either Tiger or Ogilvy's minds.

Q. What were your memories about your dad and this Championship and links golf?

TIGER WOODS: He absolutely loved it when I played at Carnoustie, because it was one of the very few times that he thought I was able to use my imagination and create shots, because in the States we don't get a chance to do that very often because it's always soft and the balls are plugging. On links golf courses you have to use your imagination to create shots. It presents so many different options.

And he thoroughly enjoyed it, watching me go out there shaping shots and hitting all these weird shots. He always got a big kick out of that.

Q. On the same thing, do you think that need to use imagination to conjure up shots is going to limit the number of potential winners? Do you think it makes your test that much easier?

TIGER WOODS: I think playing an Open Championship you always have to hit different golf shots, because of the golf courses we play. We don't play golf courses like this each and every week. And then we certainly don't ever play a golf course this fast. There's only very few, rare occasions we do. And those times you have to be able to control your golf ball in the air, you have to control your spin.

It's not like you can go out there and hit a marginal shot and expect it to be okay. You come in with a wrong spin in the fairways or even on the greens, you're going to pay a consequence of that.

And...

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the imagination you need to use specifically here at Hoylake? Some of the guys were saying they couldn't keep their balls on the greens on the par 3s on the front.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, you know, some of them. Yeah, if you get downwind it's really hard to keep it on the green, unless you get a chance into the wind to use the wind as a backboard. But when it gets going downwind and the greens are this firm you have to to a front pin, it's going to be really hard to get it close. A lot of good shots here downwind are going to be 20, 30, 40 feet away and it's going to be a good shot.

That's one of the neat things about playing over here is that the galleries certainly understand that. You hear the types of applause; we play around the world and a lot of times the ball gets airborne there's always applause. Over here if you hit a good shot and they know it and it's 30 feet away, there's a pretty good roar, because that is a good shot. The people are very knowledgeable when we come over here and play an Open Championship.

Ogilvy's Press Conference

Forgive if you read this already, but ASAP was slow to post this and since this is my very own clipping library, I have to put these things up! Plus, he has some more interesting things to say.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Geoff Ogilvy, thanks for coming across, early in the morning, half past 8:00.

You won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Tell us how you find the course here compared to the one at Winged Foot.

GEOFF OGILVY: Well, it's about as different as you can get, I guess. It's a little bit wider off the tee, which is nice. It's a lot firmer, it's probably the firmest links course we've played in a long time. And they've only been running 30 yards, and these are 60 yards. It's perfect, which is the way it should be.

The rough is playable. If you hit it in the bunkers, you're going to be in that's a chip out in most cases, but the rough you have to be able to play from. So in some cases you're laying back with really, really short clubs, just to make sure you don't run out to the bunkers, to give yourself longer second shots, but it's better than being in the bunkers, so it's a fun course.

Q. This course has numerous places where there's out of bounds. Could you talk about how much that affects you and how you play this golf course? And also, could you talk about specifically the 18th hole and if that's as hard as it looks with that out of bounds so far on the right?

GEOFF OGILVY: Out of bounds, the two obviously would be the 3rd and the 18th. The 3rd you have to be cautious, because it's draining so much to the left, so it's probably more a play on the second shot, because you're going to have quite a long second shot in sometimes.

18 is a strange it's a funny kind of tee shot, especially if the wind is pushing it that direction, as well. It's the bunkers that you can't really carry. Yesterday you couldn't carry on the left, so you've really got to start it up the middle and it's quite a weird tee shot. It's one of the strangest holes I've seen but actually quite fun to play, I think. It's a fun hole.

We don't have out of bounds on the last hole on many golf courses. It's going to be interesting. I don't know, I've never really played them much. But it's not like last year at St. Andrews, you can poke it down there somewhere, you have to on the second shot, as well. I mean, it's in play with the second shot. Same with the third and 18th, out of bounds is in play, which is interesting. It's funny, somebody could come back with a 3 on the last or an 8 on the last, which is what you want, I guess, at the end of a tournament.

Q. Would you have thought the U.S. Open would have been your first?

GEOFF OGILVY: I thought the U.S. Open would be my last. Everyone has asked me, I don't know why. For my reasoning it didn't make sense. My reasoning is because I don't drive the ball very straight; that's probably the weakest attribute. But the more you play U.S. Opens, the more you realize that nobody hits fairways. Strikers are missing fairways, so people that hit it a bit wide have probably an advantage, because they're used to playing out of the rough. It's just that narrow.

If you look at the guys up there, Monty is a straight driver, but Phil doesn't hit it very straight. I don't hit it very straight. There's a good cross section of people. It doesn't seem to be only strikers that don't do it well. Maybe my reasoning was wrong, but that's the one I would have picked last. This one is the one I would pick first, because there's a large percentage of the field here that doesn't play or hasn't played much links golf. I always said I have played more than a lot of guys.

"An impossibly shabby old dame"

Barker Davis of the Washington Times on his accommodations this week:

The Rover is booked into a massive hotel in center city Liverpool (a stunningly dirty port town that should be renamed Cesspool) called the Adelphi. The once-grand Adelphi is one of the largest and oldest hotels in the city. And it's quite clear the owners haven't spent a shilling on upkeep since Bill Shakespeare stayed there.

It's simply an impossibly shabby old dame. The Rover's room is large enough for a basketball court, complete with 12-foot ceilings, intricate molding and gaudy candelabra lighting. But every stick of furniture in the room, all of it gloriously unmatched, is marred by a combination of cigarette burns and stains of dubious origin. The "king-sized bed" is two sagging twins shoved together. Better yet, both are fitted with single sheets, completely dispelling the illusion.

Not only are grime, cobwebs and dust omnipresent, the Rover arrived to find the following objects under a high side table: two cigarette butts, an empty pint glass and two soiled cocktail napkins. And after two visits from the maid, they're still there. Suffice it to say, it's the kind of room where one never removes his shoes, much less his socks.

Dawson: R&A Supports Drug Testing

A largely dull set of exchanges between the inkslingers and R&A head man today at Hoylake. Check out this rivetting opening exchange:

Q. You mentioned the fire engines. Were they going to be on the premises anyway, or have they been brought on because of the situation?

DAVID HILL: The fire station here is about two minutes from the course, and if we had normal weather conditions they would have stayed there because the chief fire officer was quite happy about that. But given the weather, it's prudent for them to come to the golf course, just in case anything should happen.

Q. Number of engines?

DAVID HILL: Two fire engines, which is more than adequate should anything occur. The chief fire officer is very happy with the current situation.

Q. I presume you heard what happened at Hillside yesterday?

DAVID HILL: Yes, we are absolutely aware of that and we've taken the advice of the chief fire officer.

Q. Have the players actually been warned about smoking?

DAVID HILL: Again, we've simply issued the same instructions as we have to the spectators to take due diligence as far as smoking.

PETER DAWSON: Just to be clear, this is not a smoking ban, just asking people to be especially careful.

Q. But they've been given it on a piece of paper, this due diligence, or just made aware of it?

PETER DAWSON: There are notices going on all the scoreboards. We're in the process of actually implementing it at the moment; that's why we're slightly deterring as to whether the players have gotten the paper, but they will be informed.

Jeese, if we couldn't only get them to ask that many questions about the distance issue. Dawson was asked if they had any interest in the winning score:

The score, it would depend on how windy conditions are. We don't particularly mind about the score, as long as we find the best champion. If the conditions stay as they are, I'm sure we're going to see a lot of birdies. And many of the most exciting and memorable Opens we've had have been low-scoring ones. And we don't have a particular problem with that.

Just like the USGA!

Q. One of the newspapers this week said that The R&A are coming under increased pressure to introduce drug testing. Do you particularly feel under pressure?

PETER DAWSON: I don't particularly feel under pressure, let me be clear. I did read some of the reports about this. Our position is that we don't think at the moment that there is much use of performance enhancing drugs in golf. There have been quite a number of drug tests, mainly in France, and the majority of the positive tests were for social drugs, which under The R&A code are just as important as performance enhancing ones.

But that said, we do support the introduction of drug testing in golf, just as we would do in any other sport; we would be anxious to keep the sport free of it. The issue is how do you do that effectively.

And these elite players are playing golf all around the world 52 weeks a year, so it's extremely important that the game, the administration of the game as a whole, professional and elite amateur, introduces drug policies, if not totally together, then close together. The thought that one event in one weekend in 52 can effectively do this I think is not practical, not least because The R&A Code calls for every competition tested at times of the year when players may not be tested. The R&A, while not feeling particularly under pressure in drug testing at the moment, you need anti-doping policies and drug testing to ensure that's the case.

Q. Wouldn't you be the pioneers and everybody would have to follow?

PETER DAWSON: We are pioneering it this year at the World Amateur Team Championships in South Africa. There is going to be drug testing there. The country and the players are aware of it. And we are, if you like, cutting our teeth on making sure that we can administer that properly, as our first step.

Q. Do you call that a dress rehearsal, then?

PETER DAWSON: It's a rehearsal. I don't know when you're going to see drug testing in professional golf around the world, but we would support it.

What better time than now to kill the rally?

Q. You mentioned some quite unprecedented level of interest in the practice rounds here this week. Does that encourage you to be more experimental or adventurous in your choice of Open venues, so The Open appeals to a non-Open Championship audience?

Back to the newsmaking...

Q. What is it that's so difficult about implementing an anti-doping policy, which all sports seem to be able to do so?

PETER DAWSON: There's nothing particularly difficult about it; it is administratively complex. Every sport you read about has disputes about drug tests, don't they? So there are a lot of administrative problems and also costs. But that aside, the difficulty in golf is that not all governing -- not all bodies, rather, in the game, seem to be quite ready to think it's a good idea.

Q. Taking that further, though, Peter, as the law making body for half the world, couldn't you get together these people and get talking about it, or are you already doing that?

PETER DAWSON: Well, we're certainly doing that in our area of what you might call jurisdiction, which is with all the national golf unions around the world who send teams down to the World Amateur Team Championships. There's 60 or 70 countries participating there, and all of those have agreed that there will be an anti-doping policy and drug testing in application there. We are not the governing body, if you like, for discipline on the professional Tours, in Europe, Asia, Australasia, South Africa, America, Canada or South America. That is not an area we could dictate or influence, because it will be influenced by discussion and participation.

Q. Are you planning on doing that?

PETER DAWSON: The conversations about this subject have been going on for quite some time.

Here's a brilliant question. And we can be sure it wasn't an American.

Q. Do you think if the hot weather continues like this that there's a danger the tournament may become a lottery?

MARTIN KIPPAX: Well, I'm not sure quite what you mean by that. I mean, the ball is going to bounce on the golf course, if that's what you're saying. But it's going to be the same for everybody. And they are true links conditions, as you all know. The situation is we've had a very hot period. The course is in good condition, and the fairways are, as we said they would be, perfectly fair. And the rough is the rough. We've had a very strong rough, which is now fading back, if you will, with the heat.

But the reality is that I'm quite sure there would be lottery; as such, it will be the person with the most skill that prevails.

PETER DAWSON: When the ball bounces this much, it's more skillful in some ways, not less skillful. When the greens are like they are, which is they will take a good shot from the fairway, then it's more skillful, not less skillful. This idea that it's a lottery is just the reverse of the truth.

Open Championship Wednesday Reads

If you aren't quite sure about Hoylake yet, take Golf Digest's interactive map tour which also appeared in Golf World, where Brett Avery provided the text.

Mark Soltau reports that Tiger may leave his driver out of the bag. His 2-iron has replaced his 5-wood. Oh come on Tiger. Don't you want to blow one 100 yards by Nick?

Speaking of our two lovebirds, Lawrence Donegan covers the Faldo-Woods tension fueled by Tiger's press conference. 

Asked about his relationship, Woods was brief. "We don't talk." Asked if they would be conversing much during their scheduled 36 holes together, he was more expansive but not by much. "I have only played with him two times since I turned pro and there wasn't a lot of talking then either." Asked what would be his response if Faldo tried to start up a conversation, he shrugged. "Surprised."

Mike Aitken included this fun little comment from Geoff Ogilvy in a story on the current U.S. Open champion:

"My weakest attribute is my driving. I don't hit it very straight. But the more you play US Opens, you realise nobody hits fairways because they're so narrow."

When the ASAP transcripts are eventually posted (gotta love the one day delays!), we'll see what else Tiger and Ogilvy had to say Tuesday.
 

Patrick Kidd writes about the heat and concerns about brush fires. Naturally we would have banned smoking on the course long ago here in the States.

Martin Johnson has great fun at Seve's expense.

Yesterday, armed only with an iron, the white-hatted Spanish golfing bird hooked one into the orchard, and a marshal who had dispensed with his hard hat on account of the heat hastily put it back on again.

When Seve's around, the twitter of birdsong occasionally becomes intermingled with the chirrup of someone saying: "Anyone seen a Calloway One?", and when he gave it up after a cursory search, it was pocketed by a teenage boy who found it under a hedge. Off he went, doubtless to tell his mates not to bother shelling out 30-odd quid for a box of 12 in the pro's shop. Just follow Seve around for an hour or two.

Ballesteros is playing in his first Open since 2001, and really only to give his caddie a feel for links golf. His caddie being his 15-year-old son Baldomero, who plays off a handicap of one, and who, Seve says, is "better than me that age". However, learning the art of links golf from the old man nowadays won't teach him too much other than how to calculate a yardage from the exhibition tent.

And the driver?

The master escapologist didn't even bother with that aspect of his game yesterday. He hooked two drives off the fifth, one into the rough, one into a gorse bush, and after telling his boy to go and pick them up, dropped another one on the fairway.

Even so, it is not terribly uplifting to watch the great man trying to get around a golf course these days. At 49, the loss of club-head speed left him miles behind his partners, and his relationship with the sweet spot has gone from a love affair to a mild flirtation.

Finally, thanks to reader Thane for the heads up on Ron Kroichick's Open blog.

Royal So What?

I devote my latest Golfobserver.com column to the debate over the cops and in-course O.B. at Hoylake, and the lack of exciting finishing holes in the Open rota.

Ogilvy On Hoylake Turf Conditions: "this is as fiery as any golf course I've ever seen"

From Chris Lines writing for The Advertiser:

"It's about as different as you can get (from the U.S. courses)," Ogilvy said.

"It's a lot firmer, it's probably the firmest links course we've played in a long time.

"This is as fiery as any golf course I've ever seen - it's going to be fun."

Thanks to reader Chris for the heads up on this Norman Dabell story, featuring another fun Ogilvy quote:

 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy echoed Woods's sentiments: "You'd never see a course as firm as this in the States. Their idea of firm is no mud on a ball running five yards."

Ogilvy suggested that only one third of the field of 156 would have any experience of this week's conditions.
 

H.S. Colt Dream 18

(click on image to enlarge)SI has given me the okay to reproduce the Golf Plus "Dream 18s" for your limited viewing pleasure here.

(Limited, because my copying and scanning and resizing skills aren't very good).
(click image to enlarge)

And trust me when I say that Gil Hanse's maps look better in print, but you get the idea here with his H.S. Colt style drawing.

For SI subscribers, the full text is available online. 

Hoylake Images

Golfonline has posted some nice Fred Vuich aerial shots of the 1st, 2nd and 18th holes.

What Would You Rather See?

Super fast, crunchy, brown...or sort of fast, sort of green, with fairways surrounded by dense rough?

I ask because I love what I'm seeing in the early photos out of Hoylake. We haven't seen the world's best play something this dry in a long, long time.

But if the scores are super low, will this taint the concept of "lean" conditions?

Open Championship Tuesday Reads

The Golf Digest blog gets off to a promising start, offering some information when major blogs are most handy--early in the week. When the GD writers finish their early week rounds, perhaps we'll get a few insights into how the course is playing. Some pictures and range gossip would be nice too. I know, asking a lot here.

Gary Van Sickle posts his odds while Doug Ferguson talks to Nick Faldo about his pairing with Tiger and reminds us that Tiger is not a fan of those who question his swing changes.

Ferguson also has an entertaining chat with Brad Faxon, who admirably made the trek despite being the 6th alternate.

And Alistair Tait hints at what a trusted soul predicted to me many months ago: Hoylake is going to be vulnerable to very low scores.  Tait says not enough length was added and that the current setup and weather points to a birdiefest. Several other stories covered the same ground, but Tait's is the best.

R&A Bites Back

David Hill, the R&A's director of championships, on Ron Whitten's Golf Digest critique of Hoylake:

"It would have been nice if he had played the course. We would then have had more respect for the comments he made," said Hill.

"I think the week of the championship will tell if his comments were inaccurate or accurate.

"We would not have come back if we didn't think it was of the highest standard. It's in first-class condition and the top-class players coming here will enjoy it.

"Obviously, we're hoping for the variation in the weather that is the main protection of all links courses and what makes them such great challenges."

And Hill's defence of Hoylake was seconded by BBC golf commentator and former leading player Ken Brown.

"Nearly all traditional links courses are old-fashioned. That's not derogatory in my mind, it's traditional - how golf should be played," said Brown.

"It's an unsung, wonderful links course."

You may recall it was Brown who confronted Tom Fazio at Augusta this year about the changes made there. 

Open Championship Monday Reads

Note in the lefthand column that I have posted links to Open Championship sites and information, with more to come as the week progresses. Click on the tee time link and you can see who has signed up for practice rounds. In other news...

James Corrigan reports on Tiger's early arrival.

This AP story would indicate that selecting Retief Goosen in your pool might not be the best idea.

Thanks to reader Chris for this Jeremy Watson story updating the latest whereabouts of the St. Andrews starter's house. Considering it was 122 degrees yesterday in Indio, it's a good thing that the building is still in storage.

Lawrence Donegan visits with Maurice Flitcroft, who, besides being a perfect character name for a Wodehouse story, fired 121 while trying to qualify for the 1976 Open.

Jack Nicklaus writes a guest column on his all time best players in various departments. What it has to do with the Open, I have no idea.

And Swati Pandey in the LA Times tells you more than you ever wanted to know about Penny Lane and the man it was named after.