Getting Ready For Three Weeks Of Links Golf

Thursday's kick-off of the Ricoh Women's British Open and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open will be followed by The Open and finally, the Senior British Open.

With the Ryder Cup headed to an inland Jack Nicklaus design, this is our first and only chance to soak up links golf. I set up the next three weeks in this Loop post and add some pithy lines from the great Bernard Darwin to whet your appetite. I also added this short post on the wackiest entrance drive I've ever seen, the one-lane road to Royal Aberdeen's next door neighbor, Murcar.

As for Royal Aberdeen's Balgownie course, it's a sensational links with a brutal outgoing nine and a more reasonable incoming nine that is marred slightly by a modified 12th green (Martin Hawtree) and a bland 17th hole. The penultimate hole is not poor, it's just that the club's shorter Silverburn course's sporty 17th sits next to the Balgownie 17th and easily could be confused as the hole you are supposed to go to after the 16th. I've included it at the tail end of this slideshow from 2012 when the course was especially lush from spring rains.

Coverage of the Scottish Open starts Thursday on Golf Channel in the U.S., with 90 minutes each weekend day airing on NBC.

Factory Worker Cleared For Vacation Time To Play The Open!

Open Championship qualifier and factory worker John Singleton has been given the two weeks off he needs to prepare and play in The Open, reports Rob Pattinson of the Liverpool Echo.

Even better, Singleton's co-workers will get the day off to cheer their man on during Thursday play at Royal Liverpool according to his boss.

Mr Tweddle said: “Because we cut John some slack we thought we ought to cut everybody else some. We gave them a day’s holiday and said if they want to take it on Thursday and go to the Open we would buy them tickets.

“I think John’s still got his feet on the ground, he’s such a nice guy, he really is.

“We have the same passion, if only I could play as well as he can!

“It’s just amazing. Who would ever think that the guy from the shop floor would make it to the pinnacle of his chosen sport? I just hope he enjoys it.”

We talked about Singleton on Morning Drive Monday and what a fantastic story this is in the day of dwindling opportunities for genuine open qualifiers.

R&A Holds Firm On Ticket Prices...

...even though the weekdays at Muirfield in 2013 were easily the worst attended of any major and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Well, perfect to some, because as Martin Dempster notes, the "heat wave" (high of 75 degrees) remains the reason retirees on fixed incomes stayed away.

Raising ticket prices by £5 from Lytham the previous year £15 more than Sandwich in 2011 – for this year’s event coincided with almost 18,000 fewer people watching Phil Mickelson win at Muirfield than saw Ernie Els 
triumph in East Lothian in 2002.

Attendance figures were down for all four championship days as a total of 142,036 entered the gates compared to 160,595 11 years ago. The R&A countered claims ticket pricing was behind the drop, saying a heatwave had been the reason for the event failing to hit its projected target of 170,000.

“More than 142,000 people attended the Open,” said a spokesman at the time. “That is almost 90 per cent of the figure in 2002 and we are pleased with this attendance. Advance ticket sales were very strong and we believe the warm weather put off some of our pay-at-the-gate customers."