Chip it out and start again is the order of the day

THE QUIP in these parts is that the links at Royal Lytham and St Annes has the same number of bunkers as there are bones in the human body, a number that crunches up to 206 on both counts. And, if the wailing and crying from players has mainly focused on the penal rough, the real hazard – once play gets under way tomorrow – is likely to focus on the sand traps.

Although the bunkers don’t have the same iconic names as counterparts on other courses, like the “Church Pews” at Oakmont or “The Road Hole” on the old course at St Andrews, the sum of their parts is such that they will make or break players over the four competitive rounds in his 141st edition of the British Open.

The bunkers are impressive not just for their numbers. The sand used in the traps is the same as that which is funnelled into sand castles on the tourist beach a mile down the road and which has been used on the club’s links since it was founded in the late 19th century. The faces of the bunkers have been revetted, one sod piled atop another like a bricklayer’s work of art.

“The rough is certainly in play but it’s pretty far off. But the bunkers are definitely in play,” said Tiger Woods. “If you happen to pull or push something, it will roll up against the face. So that is going to be a great test this week trying to get the ball in play.”

Luke Donald, the world number one, claimed there was a “claustrophobic” feel to many of the holes such was the number of bunkers, all of them strategically placed to gobble up balls of players who play too aggressively or who are simply wayward.

“At some Open championship courses, you have bunkers at 280 (yards) and past that you’re okay. But here there’s another one 20 yards further, and another 20 yards past that,” said Donald, who, given a moment to think about it, grinned and added: “I like it. I like that it just favours the guy who can hit it in the fairway.”

As Pádraig Harrington put it of their penal nature, “they might as well have red stakes around the bunker because you’re going out sideways. It’s like hazards all the way around. It’d be very rare to hit it in a bunker here and have an approach shot into the green. Most of the bunkers are genuine hazards.”

Graeme McDowell concurred: “It doesn’t matter how good your game plan is, you’re not going to execute every shot perfectly and you’re going to hit it in a few fairway traps and you may as well beat a five iron into that fence and get it over with because there is no point reacting that way when it does happen. You have to just chip it out and start again. I think accepting it early is a key to this week. If you keep doing it, you have got a problem.”

Famously, Woods went around all four rounds of his victory in the 2000 Open at St Andrews without ever finding a bunker. That’s unlikely to happen here.

Yet, David Duval is proof that you can be damaged by the notorious sand traps and survive. Although he made a pact with himself before the 2001 Open never to go for the green from one of the fairway bunkers, Duval temporarily threw the gameplan out of the window when faced with just 110 yards to the green from a trap during his second round. It took him two shots to escape, led to a double bogey and taught him a lesson and he reverted back to the original plan for the rest of the tournament which proved to be a wise move as he captured his one and only Major title.