Videos: Muirfield's 3rd And 4th Holes

Counting down to Muirfield kicked off with the 1st and 2nd hole analysis by Golf Monthly with Strokesaver flyovers, so we move on to the 3rd and 4th holes.

At 377 yards the third features a tee shot that must be less than 289 yards to avoid the pinching bunkers. The left side opens up the best angle of attack for front and middle holes to a 44-pace deep green.

The fourth features a new and quite difficult tee at 227 yards from a new more leftward angle into the right-to-left shaped green. The old tee, now one of six on the hole, played more into the length of the green and hopefully wil be used if the wind is up since this exposed green complex would be difficult with a short iron approach.

A zoomed-in view from the new back tee shows the alignment of flagsticks at four, twelve green and the thirteenth.

A view of the approach shows why run-up approaches will be difficult if not impossible due to the slope taking balls to penal bunkers short right of the green.

Videos: Muirfield's 1st and 2nd Holes

Thanks to Golf Monthly and Strokesaver for these looks at Muirfield's first two holes, starting with the straightforward but difficult 448-yard opener.

And the 365 second hole, with a horrible new bunker added to the front of the cluster of three guarding the green to discourage players from driving the hole when downwind. That would be one of the R&A's "The Treatment" bunkers. The rough up the left side also negates a play to the best angle of attack at a green with a distinct right to left and back to front tilt. Other than that, I think it's a splendid preparation of a really nice hole.

Update on 2013-07-05 18:02 by Geoff

**A rear view of the second green hopefully showing the severity of the tilt from back right to back left.

"I guess the excitement/ adrenaline rush of getting another opportunity to play in the greatest golf event in the world clouded my judgement"

Kudos to David Higgins for authoring a first-person statement exclusively to GolfCentralDaily.com on his 15-club DQ during from Tuesday's Open Championship qualifying playoff.

I decided to go the range to warm up again and hit a few balls. I just took driver, mid iron and wedge. It was still raining really hard so I kept the rain cover on my bag.  My caddy for the day, Monty, a local man that knows north Berwick like the back of his hand, had done a great job all day and was up for the playoff.

We headed for the tee. I hit a good tee shot, and good second to about 15 feet. I was hunkered down reading my putt when the thought suddenly came into my head, "fu€k, did I take that other rescue out if the bag?"

I stood up and felt a bit sick in my stomach as I walked over to the bag to check. And there she was looking up at me! "Bollix"..........

"Gullane, North Berwick, Dunbar and Musselburgh were the settings for the kind of blazing shoot-outs that would have made the Gunfight at the OK Coral resemble a playful stooshie with water pistols."

It's hard not to get your Open juices flowing when reading about the 288 lads who made the valiant effort to qualify for the 12 Open spot up for grabs, especially when Nick Rodger is giving accounts of their efforts from Scotland's Golf Coast: North Berwick, Dunbar, Gullane and Musselburgh.

The Open can't come soon enough!

Oh and a special nod to His Montyness for a fine effort off playing in the Senior TPC Sunday and making it to East Lothian to open with a 69 only to understandably fade to a second round 76.

By the time he had completed 12 holes, the big man was five under and on a roll. His bid for one of the three Open tickets was motoring along nicely but the wheels began to shoogle with bogeys at 13, 14, 16 and 17. Despite a birdie putt of 15 feet on the 18th in a two-under 69, the face and the shoulders were beginning to crumple towards half mast and the mood would become increasingly sombre during the second round.

An average splash-out from the greenside bunker on the eighth led to him thundering the offending club back into the bag before he turned round and booted the rake into the sand pit. The silence was so tense that even that aforementioned butterfly was trying desperately to control its flatulence. In the end, a weary 76 for 145 meant he slithered down the field while the assembled scribblers steeled themselves to approach him in the same tentative way as you would edge towards a sleeping lion.

There would be no startled roar and savage bite, though. "Five-under and I threw it away; I played very badly," he groaned in a resigned, downbeat assessment before beating a glum retreat.

You can view full results from the four courses here.

Forecasters Think UK May Get Warm, Dry(ish) July

Encouraging news for the Scottish Open and Open Championship this year via The Guardian.

Also, defending Open champion Ernie Els has added next week's Scottish Open to his schedule, according to this Sky Sports report.

Update On Muirfield Conditions Heading Into The Open

3rd hole fairway view in 2012 (click image to enlarge)John Huggan played Muirfield recently, says the rough is not quite as horrid as rumored, but confirms the R&A's "Treatment" has included a beefing up of the 377-yard third hole to ensure that strategy is non-existent.

Traditionally, this semi-blind par-4 has required the tee-shot to be placed at least left-of-center to allow a look at the flag. Unfortunately, the ideal spot -- one your correspondent has been aiming at for the last four decades or so -- is suddenly covered in thick rough that reduced this mere mortal to a mindless hack back into play. By my estimation, around seven or eight yards of fairway have been eliminated, on both sides, left and right.

Punters Beware: Casey Wins Irish Open

Paul Casey's conveniently now at 40-1 and the former strong contender at the 2010 Open Championship ended a two-year drought in winning the Irish Open convincingly over Robert Rock.

Alistair Tait reports on Casey's mental and physical leap that has come after two years of struggle:

“Psychologically this is huge,” Casey said. “It feels like a first win again. I have struggled with the confidence and this is a huge relief knowing I am moving in the right direction.

“I have great golf in me for 10 years plus. This is a massive confidence boost.”

Ernie On Muirfield: “There is rough, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s unfair."

Comments were attributed to Ernie Els on Wednesday about Muirfield but he hadn't played the course until Thursday, telling PGATour.com's Sean Martin that setup looks good to him. And at 25-1 as the last man to win at Muirfield, that's good news to punters.

“I love the course,” Els told PGATOUR.COM on Friday. “I think it’s set up very similar to 1992 and 2002. The rough is good, the fairways are good, some of the holes have been lengthened.”

Rory Would Add A Tournament If Not For His Sponsor Obligations

Two weeks before the Open Championship, Ewan Murray quotes Rory McIlroy saying something he may regret.

"I have got a couple of commitments next week and the week after as well," McIlroy said. "If I didn't have those couple of things to do over the next couple of weeks, I probably would have added an event."

Update on 2013-06-28 23:34 by Geoff

**In Derek Lawrenson's account of the Irish Open and the huge hit sponsor's are taking by losing all of the homeland heroes, he mentions another obligation: a cousin's wedding. That helps a little but still likely leaves one of the two weeks as an event that could have been added.

This was McIlroy's last event before the Open at Muirfield in just over a fortnight's time and he admitted in an ideal world he would be playing in the French Open next week, or the final event before the season's third major, the Scottish Open. A couple of contractual commitments have put paid to that, plus a long-time promise to attend his cousin's wedding.  

FM Salmond Sending Junior Minister To Open Championship In Non-Protest Protest

The Telegraph's Simon Johnson with the devastating news that The Open Championship will not be visited by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond in a non-protest of the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers' membership policies.

This is awkward...

Asked whether it was right Muirfield was hosting the Open, he said: “The R&A should have had a good think about this and perhaps politely, behind the scenes, suggested to Muirfield the public profile of being a single-sex club would be difficult.

“I don’t think it helps the game to have the suggestion of a bias against women and the greatest tournament on this planet played on arguably the greatest links golf course should have this impression that ladies, women should be second-class citizens.”

Pssssst...First Minister, the R&A can't ask that because their sister club...err...crazy uncle known as the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has the same policy!

Oh Joy: Muirfield Rough Said To Be Ridiculous, Knee-High

Sean Martin on comments Ernie Els made to Rory McIlroy after seeing Muirfield's "ridiculous" rough recently.

“He said it was like waist-high,” McIlroy said from this week’s Irish Open. It remains to be seen if the rough will be that penal come championship week.

Pretty much the same as last year when I was there (photo below). Hopefully we'll still get to see the ancient wall bordering the property! #Bringbacktherabbitsandsheep

Update on 2013-06-28 18:56 by Geoff

**I've since heard from someone who recently played the course that the Els reference may have been in regard to the last Open and that the rough may not be too severe. We'll know soon enough!

Open Championship Qualifying WD-Fest Reaches New Low!

Or is that a high, as in the most WD's ever? 29 members of the white belt-wearing set couldn't be bothered to finish the Open Championship International Final Qualifier's 36 at the Sunningdale's New Course, not exactly one of the cow pastures of the game.

Congrats to American Brooks Koepka on medalist honors.

Longtime readers know that this is an annual mystery of the game that seems rather easy to remedy and for whatever reason has not been dealt with by the governing bodies.

Royal Cinque Ports Is Hosting The Amateur This Week...

Which is not really of interest to most except that this is one of my very favorite places in the game. And the British Amateur is a perfect excuse to show some photos of the place three years ago when things were drier in the UK and I was there to investigate Freddie Tait's cross country play a century ago.

You can follow The Amateur at the R&A site, and there was this account of the first day of matches.

I've included photos of the links and the town of Deal, which would make wonderful hosts of the Open Championship (again).