The course on Day 1 made a statement to the players that they best keep their ball out of the bunkers. After plenty of build-up about the greenkeeper’s use of the hay rake, which with wider teeth can cause the ball to nestle a little further down in the sand, the players found the sand traps to be penal hazards indeed.
Perhaps more noticeably challenging on Day 1, was the way in which the bunkers have been dug flat, with balls getting trapped in the corners and up against the faces. With 81 traps in total on the links, we saw plenty of players finding trouble in the sand and I found it very interesting to watch.
It’s proving to be a conversation that splits opinion, amongst the pros, the media and the patrons in attendance this week, but I think it has been tremendous fun seeing the players navigate them as proper ‘hazards’.
We’ve been lucky enough to see the action on the practice chipping green right outside the media centre, and the first thing I saw this morning was Keita Nakajima hurling balls into the bunker’s face and back lip. Trying to recreate the lies and stances he’ll find on the course, he had limbs in and out, knees on the turf and hands up and down the grip of the club.
We’ve seen Richie Ramsay and Danny Willett up close also doing the same, and we were struck at just how good they were at escaping those tricky lies. Although some, as Bob McIntyre has, will say they were ‘brutal’, it looked to me as though the players were enjoying the test of the tricky lies and stances. But perhaps that was just Danny Willett’s jovial nature.
Those in the school of thought that believe they were too hard yesterday will cite Tony Finau’s layup putt from edge of bunker to middle of bunker as the most conspicuous case of bunker woes from Round 1. But there will be many that simply rebuff that point by highlighting the zero fairway bunkers that Tiger Woods entered during his remarkable win in 2006. They would add that bunkers are hazards, especially in links golf, and they should be respected as such. So, do your best to steer your ball away from them.
Interestingly, however, as play on Day 2 is underway, the R&A have instructed the greenkeepers to make the bunkers a little more concave. I did wonder if that was the case after seeing a shot early in the coverage this morning where the trail of the ball showed it had clearly wriggled a little closer to the bottom of the bunker. Having since wandered around the course it looks as though the sand has been moved up one revet on the faces to add a little extra concaving, so seeing how that affects strategy will be compelling.
With the temperature noticeably colder today, plenty more stiffness to the breeze and cloud-cover that will be exciting Jimmy Anderson down the road at Old Trafford, perhaps it will prove to be a clever setup decision with the conditions naturally making the course tougher. Hats off once again for the greens crew for putting in all the extra work this morning regardless. They are doing an outstanding job.
Either way, it’s causing discussion and for me adding to the level of fascination of the week. We’re seeing a classic test of links golf this week and we’re revelling in it.
