2012 Open Championship Round 3 Open Comment Thread

The sun was out, the wind is trying to blow and a key moving day at the 2012 Open Championship should provide for interesting viewing. Here's the current leaderboard.

The R&A's course setup notes and forecast:

Weather (provided on-site by the Met Office)

Fine and dry today with sunny spells and a gentle westerly breeze developing for this afternoon. West 5 to 10mph, becoming west to northwest later, Isolated gusts up to 15mph possible. High cloud amounts increasing this evening with a few spots of light rain possible overnight but no accumulations expected.

Cutting Regime and Green Speeds

The greens have increased in speed today. This morning, the greens were double cut at 3.25mm and they were rolled. The average pace this morning was 11 ½ feet on the stimpmeter, compared to 11.2 feet yesterday.

Bunkers
Many of the bunkers with casual water have dried out. However, despite pumping last night and again this morning, there is still casual water in approximately 8 bunkers, most notably right hand side of second green, left of 15^th green and left of 16^th green.

Total Course Yardage for Round Three (tee marker settings to flagstick)
7012 yards (as compared to the full yardage of 7086)

Hole-by-Hole Information
Hole 1 – Full yardage = 205y – Today = 198

Trickiest hole location so far for the first on left side behind front bunker

Hole 2 – Full yardage = 481y – Today = 482
Hole 3 – Full yardage = 478y – Today = 473

Mid right hole location should bring right hand greenside bunker into play

Hole 4 – Full yardage = 392y – Today = 384
Short left hole location that would have been used yesterday had it not been for the water in the bunkers left of the green

Hole 5 – Full yardage = 219y – Today = 208
Short right hole location may bring front right bunker into play

Hole 6 – Full yardage = 492y – Today = 496
Hole 7 – Full yardage = 592y – Today = 591
Hole 8 – Full yardage = 416y – Today = 405
Front right hole location may bring severe slope at front of green into play

Hole 9 – Full yardage = 165y – Today = 149
Hole 10 – Full yardage = 387y – Today = 377
Hole 11 – Full yardage = 598y – Today = 593
Hole 12 – Full yardage = 198y – Today = 200
Hole location on right hand tier for first time this Championship

Hole 13 – Full yardage = 355y – Today = 340
Interesting putting hole location at the front left of the green

Hole 14 – Full yardage = 444y – Today = 436
Hole 15 – Full yardage = 462y – Today = 465
Hole 16 – Full yardage = 336y – Today = 347
Hole 17 – Full yardage = 453y – Today = 450
Hole 18 – Full yardage = 413y – Today = 418
Back right hole location with a slope behind the hole will make for a difficult putt if the player is long