Players in for very rough test

PHILIP REIDon the changes to Ailsa Course that will make players think more about course management

IMAGINE IF someone found an Old Master in the attic, and then added some touches of their own so that it turned out even better. Imagine this is what the RA – the custodians of the sport – have done with Turnberry for this latest edition in the oldest major championship of them all.

Or, as David Hill of the RA, has put it, “We’ve treated (the Ailsa Course) as a bit of a blank canvas with no preconceived ideas of how it should be set up.”

Which means, although it is the same course that played host to the famous “Duel in the Sun” in 1977 when Tom Watson triumphed over Jack Nicklaus while the rest of the field became as much observers as those spectators outside the ropes, and the same course where Greg Norman ran away from everyone in 1986 and Nick Price ambushed Jesper Parnevik in 1994, the players competing this time face an examination quite unlike any of the previous championships.

The reason? The Ailsa Course has undergone several adjustments since Price’s win in 1994 – the most extensive changes being on the homeward run, to the 10th, 16th and 17th holes – to ensure the course, which has been closed to the public since last November, will test and frustrate and thrill in equal measures and provide an examination fitting of this great championship.

Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R A, explained their philosophy and reasoning for implanting the changes: “Today’s professionals are bigger, stronger, fitter, and have more technology at their command. It’s very important we keep our great links courses relevant to the modern-day professional. We’ve been doing that at every Open venue.”

Of course, the Ailsa Course has had to make adjustments in the past, if for altogether different reasons. It was used as an airfield during the second World War, after which the architect Philip Mackenzie Ross was brought in to completely redesign the course, which opened again in 1951.

Despite the excitement generated by previous British Opens at the venue, most notably the 1977 encounter which earned its place in golfing folklore, Nick Faldo remarked “the real par is 67” when assessing the course in the 1994 championship, when there were 148 rounds in the 60s.

For the Open to return (which explains the 15-year gap since it last stage the championship), the course had to be given teeth. The task was given to Martin Ebert of the design firm Mackenzie Ebert, and the course was given added length – up to 7,204 yards (par 70) from 6,957 in 1994 – with new bunkers and a number of holes changed completely. Only the four par threes have been left virtually untouched.

What’s more, the rough has been allowed to grow . . . and grow . . . and grow. When Pádraig Harrington played the course earlier this year, he left believing a winning score of 16-under (or better) would be required. On Sunday and last Monday, he returned and changed his mind. His new belief is a score around five-under will win the claret jug.

“It is good . . . very, very good compared to what it was a few weeks ago,” said Harrington, who recounted the story of a ball that landed in greenside rough by the 18th green and was never located, despite the assistance of more than a dozen spectators. “It is lush, green. It is playing very similar to a US Open of maybe four or five years ago, maybe an Oakmont sort of thing. It is actually very close to Muirfield (in 2002). You couldn’t get away with missing the fairways there.

“While I don’t find it any fun and I am dreading the prospect of it being really tight, I know competitively I am as good as anybody else in that situation.”

As far as the changes are concerned, the most significant are on the back nine and especially on the final stretch. The 10th has been redesigned to bring the coastline into play and requires a carry over more than 200 yards over the rocks from a new tee perched atop the outcrop of rocks by the lighthouse. The fairway has been moved closer to the beach to tempt players to cut off the corner and three new fairway bunkers – which could prove controversial – will force players to make a decision between a shorter and safer tee shot with a longer approach to the green or a riskier and more aggressive drive.

The shape of the 16th hole has been altered significantly and now doglegs right from a new tee box around newly-created dunes and hollows. An additional 45 yards has been added to the hole, along with a new bunker on the left of the fairway. The bunker which used to guard the left side of the old fairway now protects the right edge of the new one, an indication of the dramatic change which has taken place. A new tee on the 17th has allowed the hole to be extended by 61 yards, with two new bunkers guarding the green.

Although there are fewer bunkers at Turnberry than at any of the other courses on the championship rota, the number of sand traps has increased since 1994, with 23 bunkers added on the first, third, fifth, eighth, 14th and 18th – with two removed at the third and 14th – making players think more about course management. It should prove to be a worthy test.