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Top Reasons to Watch the Open Championship this Morning

STRAWBERRIES AND CREME – IT’S NOT JUST FOR WIMBLEDON

Top Reasons to Watch the Open Championship this Morning

GOLF FOR BREAKFAST

Don’t you just love it? Wake up to the greatest golf tournament in the world. The heck with playing; it’s high summer, there’s plenty of time for 18 holes after the Open is over. Think of this weekend as golf’s proper rejoinder to breakfast at Wimbledon. And speaking of such…

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM FOR BREAKFAST

It’s healthy, it’s authentic, and it’s delicious. It’s been a tradition of mine ever since the Open interrupted Saturday morning cartoons at Gramma’s house. On a whim, I used a blend of nutty oat milk and creamy vanilla greek yogurt, and scored a birdie. But hey, go full British if you want. Eggs, bacon, sausage, fried peppers and tomatoes, baked beans, toast and potatoes, both boiled and fried. Just hold the blood pudding, and trim the trichinosis off the bacon please. Got it ready? Good. Now it’s time for the golf.

SEASIDE GOLF

To a kid growing up in suburbia and playing public courses, seeing golf played on cliff edges like at Turnberry, or amidst ancient cobblestone edifices like at St. Andrews, or amidst the timeless dunes of Muirfield or Troon, the Open Championship is a dream. It’s exotic. The venues materialize out of the mists of history, the gleaming Claret Jug is hoisted aside a shimmering sea, and then they vanish again only to reappear once more like the reverie they are a year later.  It plants a seed of wanderlust in a kid’s heart, a yearning to see golf at its most primal, authentic, and glorious.

THE AILSA COURSE AT TURNBERRY – AN INSTANT CLASSIC SINCE IT’S ROTA DEBUT IN 1977

THE ROTA COURSES

Actual conversation with my old girl Britt yesterday:

Britt:  We’re watching the U.S. Open on TV!

Jay:  No, the U.S. Open was last month. This is the Open Championship.

Britt:  Is that like the British Open?

Jay (uncomfortably): Err…umm…yes.

Britt:  So it’s at St. Andrews?

Jay:  No, It’s at St. George’s

Britt:  But that’s Scotland? They play it in Scotland?

Jay:  No, It’s in England. Southern England. Kent, in particular, if you’ve heard of it.

Britt:  I’ve heard of Kent, but never been there. So they play the British Open in England now? Why not Scotland?

Jay:  They move it around; it’s like the U.S. Open. Remember? You came with me to Congressional that one time ten years ago…

Britt:  OH! THAT TIME I GOT ON TV!!

Anyway, for any golf fans who dream of travel, unlike the U.S. Open, which is primarily played on highly exclusive country clubs, every single one of the courses on the Open Championship rotation are accessible by the general public. If they are not located in wonderful resort towns, they are in historic venerable cities, so the pilgrimage is in imperative for any serious golfer. Next year, the Open returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews for its 150th playing. After that the Open goes to Royal Liverpool in 2023, where both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have won the Claret Jug in recent years, followed by Royal Troon in Scotland, scene of the Second Duel ion the Sun where Phil Mickelson opened with 63, but Henrik Stenson closed with 63, becoming only the second golfer to shoot 63 on Sunday to win.

The other, of course, is Johnny Miller, but you knew that already. Even Martians know that.

GARGANTUAN HIMALAYA BUNKER AT THE PAR-4 FOURTH

BUNKERS WITH NAMES AND OTHER ODDITIES

This year we have the “Coffins,” and the “Himalayas” monstrously deep bunkers at the long par-4 fourth, we have “Bjorn’s Bunker” guarding the right side of the 16th green where Swede Thomas Bjorn left the Claret Jug for American Ben Curtis to pick up, and we have the “Spectacles” peering out from in front of the ninth green. There’s also the “Maiden,” a giant dune guarding the par-3 sixth and the “Suez Canal” bisecting the 14th fairway. It even scared off Bryson Dechambeau from trying to carry at off the tee. It’s just a 369-yard poke to reach the other side, that’s all.

NEW GUYS WHO WILL BECOME TOMORROWS SUPERSTARS

Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke – they were all grinding it out on European Tour for a while before breaking through and winning majors. Plus it’s the most international field in golf.

HEAVING SEA FAIRWAYS, HIP HIGH ROUGH, AND NO TREES ON THE GOLF COURSE

Fescue, heather, marran grass, even giant hogweed:  they have all types of nightmarish vegetation at Open Championship venues. They also have rumpled uneven fairways (except at Royal Birkdale), and wind-blasted fairways. There is exactly one tree on the entire golf course at St. George’s, and there are zero at most others on the Rota..

BISCUIT BROWN TURFGRASS

Cue Britt again:  “It’s all burned out! Where did all the grass grow? Is there a drought? They should water that place!”

No they shouldn’t! And that’s not burned out, it’s called “biscuit brown” and that’s exactly what you want, that gorgeous golden amber. In fact, it could be faster and firmer.

The R&A has the course dialed in the way they want it, they just need the wind to pick up a bit. St. George’s holes wind around themselves as you progress during the round, so there are crosswinds seemingly everywhere. But only half a day of wind, and with modern equipment and players focusing on fitness and strength more than ever, Sandwich’s relatively modest length – 7,189 yards – has short irons in players hands often enough to set record setting lows over the first two days.

WEATHER

***singing*** Wind and rain…now tell my whyyyyyy…summer fade…and roses diiiiiiie. The answer caaaaame…the windand raaaaaaaain…

They don’t stop playing golf at the Open for trifles like squalls. They just Open the brolly, grab another Pimms cup, and wait for the next guy to hit it. It’s definitely fun watching that in the confines of your mancave, less so when you have to go out and do it in the rain yourself. Still, I highly recommend trying it anyway. If you’re going to make the required trip to the U.K. or Ireland, you’ll play in wind and rain, so you better get used to it, like it or no. And that means buy a good rain suit too, lightweight, yet water proof…not water resistant, water proof.