Tweaking at Royal Lytham

Arising from last Saturday's piece about changes to the long sixth hole at Royal Lytham and whether they will work, I've had a note from Steven Reid, who was club captain for the 1996 staging of the British Open there. Typically forthright, he wrote: "The good news is that the tweaking is not `USGA penal' reducing holes to silliness. The changes are the outcome of much considered thought, having studied the play of the hole in the last two Opens."

With Phil Mickelson reducing the 491-yard par-four 16th at Southern Hills to a drive and a pitching wedge, it is interesting that Reid wanted his colleagues at Lytham to make the 494-yard sixth a par four. There was quite a degree of support, but not enough. In this context, it should be noted that there is no longer a 474-yard upper limit on a par four: the main consideration now is how the hole plays.

He went on: "The selected option is both cunning and subtle. The player who used to fly the solitary drive bunker on the left at 240 yards, found his ball got a delightful kick onwards leaving an absurdly short second shot. Now the rough on the sloping area beyond the bunker will kill his ball dead, leaving a grim next shot. I believe the result is a cracking hole."

Referring to this and other adjustments, Reid added: "The Carnoustie equation is not present here and the course will once again be fair but testing. What will be interesting will be the calibre of the top 10 names in the frame after round three and again after round four. The diametrically opposite thinking in the way US Open courses are prepared, produces leader boards that tell their own tale."

As we saw at Southern Hills last weekend.