Think St. Andrews is easy? There's a hole or two in that theory
If you are one to simply look at some of the recent scores at Open Championships at St. Andrews, you might think this golf course is easy. You probably see St. Andrews next up in the rota and think, "Uh oh, another teen Open."
That is, as best I can put it, not true. During the summer of 2006, me and a buddy of mine, Will Froelich, flew over to the home of golf with a hope of landing some caddie jobs, and land them we did. Both of us spent a summer looping around the most famous property in all of golf, and got a real feel for the shots that were playable for the amateur golfer and shots that were nearly impossible.
Of course, amateurs and pros are two different beasts. While an amateur might have trouble over any shot he's not confident with, the pro has a game plan for most holes and a way to execute his idea. But that doesn't mean some shots won't be giving every professional in the field this week some fits, and here are the three I think will be on their minds long before they reach them.
Tee shot, Par-3 11th, High In
A unique characteristic of the Old Course is how few par-3s and par-5s that are natural to the development of this place. A lot of major courses these days will convert par-5s into par-4s to make them longer and more defendable to par, but the Old Course is that way all year long.
The par-3 8th is your first look at a short hole, the 11th your second, and then it's a turn back to the city and a long walk with just one hole that doesn't play to a par of four.
But the tee shot on the 11th is easily the toughest of the two par-3s, and depending on the wind, can be one of the most brutal on the property.
Playing just under 180 yards, the tee looks over a green that is shared with the par-4 7th, and the first thing that catches your eye is the nasty Strath Bunker, in my opinion one of, if not the toughest bunkers on the entire property (not just the Old, but all seven of the courses).
A pot bunker right in middle of your view of the 11th green, Strath can be as penal as the Road Hole Bunker if your ball rolls anywhere close to the lip. While you're looking directly at Strath, Hill Bunker, that sits just left of the green, will be more in play this year than at past Opens because of some reconstruction to the green that will allow the R&A to put more hole locations on the left side, meaning any pull for a right-handed player off the tee will find Hill.
So, you're thinking to yourself, "Bail out long, right?" That would be the logical miss. If two bunkers are short and left, and right means a nasty uphill putt that can be some 150 feet or so depending on where your ball ends up, why not just go long? The issue with this marvelous hole is that long means a pitch from a collection area to a green sloping from back to front, which could result in players pitching, or putting, their balls from long off the green into Strath.
The par-3 11th is a perfect example of why long par-3s don't always mean great par-3s. For players downwind, it can be a pitching wedge. For players playing into a nasty wind, it could be a three or 4-iron.
And of course, we can't mention the 11th without mentioning what Bobby Jones once called, "the most inglorious failure of my golfing life," when in 1921 he came to the 11th in the Open Championship, and after taking four shots to get out of Hill Bunker, the then-19-year-old picked up his ball and walked off the green. It was the only WD in Jones' historic golf career in a major.
Tee Shot, Par-4 17th, Road Hole
It's the most famous golf hole in the world, no doubt, and it's also the most unique shot you'll ever play in your entire life as a golfer.
The first time you play the 17th, you not only have no idea where to hit your tee shot, but some think their caddie is lying to them when they pick a letter off the old railway shed and tell the player to give it a rip.
What makes the 17th so unique for the Open Championship is how important the R&A makes finding the fairway. With a new tee built for the 2010 Open, the 17th takes fairway woods out of a lot of players' hands and forces them to go with driver, which makes it even tougher to find this skinny fairway.
Right is out of bounds, of course, so most players will bail left, but the rough left of the fairway is always some of the toughest on the golf course, and means not only a potential lay-up to the par-4, but most certainly a bogey.
But that tee shot ... that look, with no real idea where to hit it no matter how many walks around this place you've been lucky enough to have over the years, is not only one of the toughest in all of golf, but one of the most trustworthy. Players have to trust their memories, their caddies, their lines, their experiences ... it's not only a blind tee shot, but a blind tee shot over a building with a massive hotel looking right at you.
And if you can safely navigate your tee ball on 17, you're just in time for ...
Second Shot, Par-4 17th, Road Hole
I could have picked the tee shot on 16 as one of the toughest at St. Andrews. The second shot at 14 is no easy bargain, and plenty of places at the Old can play tough if the wind is howling, but the Road Hole lands two of the three toughest shots at this Open Championship because the hole deserves that much respect.
Ben Crenshaw famously said the Road Hole is one of the best par-4s in the world because it's actually a par-5, and he's probably right. The second shot makes that. It's the most "hit and hope" moment of your entire round at St. Andrews.
Say you're lucky enough to find the fairway off the tee. A 6- or 7-iron can be your weapon of choices from that point forward, but much like the 11th at Augusta National, players know exactly where they don't want to hit it, and will bail out wider than they usually would because of all the history that accompanies a miss.
The Road Hole Bunker has been the site of plenty of failed Claret Jug journeys, and finding that means a 200-yard walk simply hoping you won't be making the lowlight reel that is always played late on Sunday.
A miss long and left is always an option, playing it over by the 18th tee and hoping for either a lengthy two-putt from off the green or a pitch and a putt. The issue with that is something jumpy or something pulled can end up on the road, a part of the course that offers no relief.
But that's all if you've found the fairway. A miss in the left rough means surely a pitch out to a safe distance and then a hope of finding the fairway with a wedge, which isn't easy by any means. A false front on the 17th brings all short shots back off the green, and is one of the toughest putts to manage on the property. And still, even with a wedge the Road Hole Bunker is an issue.
If you make a par on the 17th, you walk to the 18th with a bounce in your step, no doubt, and the knowledge that the final par-4 at the Old Course is a birdie opportunity for any player with any wind. But pars are hard to come by on the Road, and even a bogey won't exactly lose you much to the field.
This is where the Open will be won or lost, as it has so many times in the past. Stacy Lewis, playing the Women's British Open here in 2013, hit one of the greatest second shots I've ever seen on Sunday to set up an unlikely birdie on her way to a birdie-birdie finish and a two-shot win, but it can also produce explosions that not only ruin your scorecard, but your bid for champion golfer of the year.
