Course that has bred champions stirs the blood

EVEN after all these years, it succeeded in stirring the blood of the great Jack Nicklaus. "This is what I came to see - the bounce of the bail and the dust kicking up off burnt fairways," he said yesterday, as a celebrated links was gradually adopting those classic characteristics for the 125th British Open Championship, starting this morning.

Though it never bestowed its favours on Nicklaus, Lytham has proved to be a course which breeds great champions. That, and sustained sunny weather, brought a record attendance of 38,000 here yesterday, with the prospect of further records being broken over the weekend.

So as to facilitate spectator movement over a tight, landlocked site, the police plan to use a helicopter to monitor the situation, particularly towards the westerly end of the links. Crowds are flocking here to watch the world's finest players face the challenge of hills and hummocks hollows and bumps, to the sloping, devious greens. And bunkers. Lots of bunkers.

This is an arena where accuracy and bold shot making, rather than raw power, will he rewarded. "It is a thinking man's golf course," said Peter Thomson, who captured the fourth of his five British Open titles here in 1958, the year when Christy O'Connor Snr came so near to making a play off.

It is a course where Davis Love, who missed the cut in 1988, is once more making a sentimental visit. In 1969, his father who was then an unknown 35 year old club professional in Georgia, took a holiday to play golf in Britain for the first time. And with an aggregate of 285, he shared sixth place with no less a figure than Nicklaus, five strokes behind the winner. Tony Jacklin.

On the same day. Peter Alliss, in one of his last tournament performances before embarking on a career as a commentator, shot a final round of 66 to earn the first £1,000 cheque of his career.

Once described by the London Times golf writer, Bernard Darwin, as "a beast. but a just beast," modern equipment has now made Lytham more a tactical test. particularly if the wind blows.

"Any time this course plays fast, it plays difficult," said Nicklaus. "With so many bunkers out there (191), you are attempting either to outdrive them or come up short of them to miss them any way you can.

That goes some way towards explaining why Seve Ballesteros. on his way to a glorious finish of 65 in 1988. used clubs varying from a driver to a four iron off the tee at the driving holes. The majesty of that performance was recalled yesterday by his closest challenger, Nick Price, who described it as "one of the three best rounds I've ever seen.

The rough is now much more severe than it was eight years ago and the fairways have been tightened in like a bottleneck, at distances of around 270 to 290 yards off the tee. Meanwhile, the blades are about to be lowered on moderately slow greens, which will have quickened appreciably before the first putt is struck.

Admired, feared but never loved, Lytham's signature hole is probably the 467 yard 17th. It contains no fewer than 18 bunkers and beside one of them is a bronze plaque commemorating the famous mashie (five iron) shot of 175 yards, which Bobby Jones played out of it to the green, on his way to victory in 1926.

Lytham has an overall length of 6,892 yards and 2,146 of them have been invested in the closing five holes. The normal manner of splitting a course into halves is through the front nine and the homeward journey. A more realistic way of breaking up the Lytham challenge, however, would be through the first 13 and the last five. "You must pick up strokes going out and then hang on," said Ballesteros.

Another significant factor is that, statistically. it is the most difficult course on the British Open rota, producing an average score of 74.38, compared with 73.07 for second placed Royal Troon.

It is certainly expected to be more difficult than St Andrews last year when, in an astonishing climax, Costantino Rocca sank a 65 foot putt on the 72nd to force a play off. albeit unavailing, with John Daly.

A climax of a different nature was on Rocca's mind yesterday. however, when he disclosed that he would be travelling to Atlanta to carry the Italian flag at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games - a measure of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow countrymen.

Recent winner of the Volvo PGA championship, Rocca said: "This is a great honour but l must first think about what l do this week". He went on: "When I watch the video of last year, my skin tingles. I have watched it with my wife, boys and my mother. Watching it gives me confidence in myself".

Confidence is, in fact, a key ingredient in the battle for this coveted title. It is what has changed Ballesteros from a once proud champion into no more than a hopeful challenger. Yet there are those, myself included who believe that the Spaniard will somehow find a way of leaving his stamp on this week's proceedings. Perhaps not by a victory march, but with something special nonetheless.

No American professional has won at Lytham, but as Transatlantic challengers point out, that is little more than a statistical quirk.

Nicklaus would have won the title in 1963 had he not bogeyed the 71st and 72nd holes while miscalculating the positions of Bob Charles and Phil Rodgers coming behind.

As it happened, one stroke kept him out of a play off which Charles won. "In all the majors I have played (146), that is the only one I feel I gave away," he said yesterday.

The American entry looks to be formidable on this occasion, though it is somewhat surprising that the bookmakers should choose Fred Couples as their top challenger, given his recent back problems. Indeed, when playing a Shell Wonderful World of Golf Match against Greg Norman in Scotland last weekend, he had a masseur in constant attendance.

But he insisted yesterday: "My back problem is over for the moment and I feel great". Then he added: "I wish I could have had another tournament before this, but I haven't, so I'm a little nervous and edgy about my game".

He went on: "I feel rusty at the moment and you cannot compete in a tournament like this where you have eight good holes, then a bad hole, maybe seven or eight good ones and then another bad one . Unless, of course you happen to possess the recovery skills of Ballesteros at his best.

As I indicated earlier this week I much prefer the prospects of Steve Stricker as a likely American winner. And there is no doubt but that the superb short game touches of Phil Mickelson should yield a rich dividend on such difficult terrain.

Meanwhile, in his assessment of Lytham, Thomson went on to say: "Nick Faldo thinks better than most". And the illustrious Australian added: "He's a rare bird who thrives on the pressure of a major championship. that's why l think he'll win". I wouldn't dare argue with such an authority.