"I'm delighted with the way things have worked out and believe we have a good test there. It's narrower, longer and tougher."

Take a guess which course R&A secretary Peter Dawson is talking about? Only that lowly Turnberry, which hosted all of those exciting Open Championships but has become outdated thanks to all that heavy lifting the boys have been doing.

Mike Aitken reports:

"The Open hasn't been back to Turnberry since 1994 and in that time the links, which is a resort course that caters for visitors, was in need of attention for a major championship," he explained.

"Work needed to be done and we're very pleased that the people at Turnberry were willing to allow us to undertake these improvements. I'm delighted with the way things have worked out and believe we have a good test there. It's narrower, longer and tougher."

Isn't it great, one of the governing bodies touting the narrowing of a course. That's good for the game.

"Perhaps the most noticeable change is at the 16th which is now a dog-leg left-to-right. It's an alteration which (changes the angle] and makes the second shot to the green over the burn much harder. That change has also allowed us to take the tee back on the par-5 17th quite significantly.

And why did you need to do that? Oh right, the working out.

"Another difference is a new tee on the third which is much further back on the top of the hill. There's also a tee which is 20 yards back of the one we used last time on the 18th. Perhaps the most spectacular alteration, though, is the new tee at the tenth where the players are going to have to hit their drives over more of the water. One of the great advantages of having an Amateur before an Open is that you can see if what you've planned works. So, some late tweaks could be possible, but I don't anticipate much changing now.

Who knew the R&A provides architectural services?

Let's see now, making course changes but not addressing changes in equipment. Good thing they know how best to attack the problem.