Hail Brittanica

Isn’t the BritishOpen supposed to be the Holy Grail of Golf? Isn’t it supposed to be the romantic history of this silly game we all wish we could play? Well I used to believe that, but now I’m not so sure. Yes the Scots invented the game and yes they should be given credit, but now the Open championship seems to be determined more by the weather than the competition... I’ve always enjoyed the fact that a little wind and rain presented a challenge and made golf more romantic in its endeavor. The Open was different for that reason and therefore truly unique and storied. That’s fine, but where do you draw the line. 40 mph winds and torrential rains is not romantic or competitive.

Player’s scores are determined more by their tee times than how they play. I’ve watched Tom Watson play in a monsoon in the morning and Mickelson play in 60 degree sunshine in the afternoon. That certainly is not a level playing field. How sad it was to watch Sandy Lyle a past Champion walk of the course a few years ago because the conditions were so severe. Basically he said playing in those conditions was ridiculous.

Most recently Rory McElroy had similar comments. It’s not that weather can never come into play as I said weather is part of the Open, but the R&A needs to know where to draw the line. They seemed obsessed with never halting play no matter how bad the conditions. The biggest problem is the credibility of the tournament. You can’t have people playing 2 extremely different weather related courses, and consider it a fair and level playing field. The winner of the “Holy Grail” should not be decided by his Tee Time