GULLANE, United Kingdom: A year ago all the talk was of record English rainfall turning Royal Lytham into a soggy nightmare for the British Open golfers.
This year it is how two weeks of unblemished Scottish sunshine has turned Muirfield’s famed fairways into fast-running billiard tables.
The fluctuating conditions all need to be taken on board, digested and then acted upon according to Ernie Els the South African defending champion, who also was the last man to win at Muirfield in 2002.
Els missed the cut at last week’s Scottish Open further north at Castle Stuart, near Inverness, but he says that may have been a blessing in disguise as he was able to get in some much-needed practice at the Open venue.
“I only played two rounds but there’s a par-4, the third hole and it was just a little breeze and I hit three-iron through the green. It must have gone almost 300 yards.” he said.
“And until you have actually played it in competition, you might not believe that the ball is going to go that far.
“Those are the things that the guys will have to learn in three days’ time. We start on Thursday. They’re going to have to adapt to that.”
Recalling his own introduction to links golf back in 1987 when he came over to Britain to play with an unofficial South African team, Els said it had been a vast change from the golf he knew in Johannesburg, at altitude, where you played the ball mainly through the air.
“The sound is different. The divot into the fairways are different. The whole experience is different than anything else in the world.
“So it’s something you’re either going to really like or you’re not going to like. I was fortunate enough that I really fell in love with it.”
Having already won at Muirfield, which he rates as the best course on the Open rotation, Els is being touted as one of the favourites for this week.
His win at Lytham last year, profiting from Adam Scott’s four-bogeys finish, brought to an end a protracted slump in his form and this year he played well in the two first majors - tieing for 13th at the Masters and tieing for fourth at the US Open - as well as winning the BMW International in Germany last month.
But, asked to nominate a favourite for this week, he shrugged his shoulders.
“To name one, I’m going to have to name 20. That’s how close it is,” he said.
“I don’t know. A guy who likes the layout. A guy that likes the bounces. I’m not so sure.
“It depends on how you adapt. Any player is good enough.”
Meanwhile, a more experienced Shiv Kapur of India will not feel like a “kid in a candy store” when he makes his second appearance at the British Open.
Kapur qualified for the year’s third major championship at the local Final Qualifying event in nearby Dunbar, Scotland two weeks ago.
His first appearance at The Open was in 2006 and he still has a vivid recollection of his major debut despite missing the halfway cut by one shot.
“It was the most incredible week of my life. I was like a kid in a candy store and just soaked up the whole experience,” he said.
“Playing that year made me realise why there is such a hype surrounding the majors and it lived up to every moment,” he said to journalists. AFP
