The Open Makes 14th Visit to Royal St. George’s

By Landmark Media International

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP RETURNS to Royal St. George’s Golf Club this week, the only venue in southern England for golf’s most prestigious major championship. This is the 14th occasion the historic links at Sandwich has welcomed the Open—it was the first venue outside of Scotland to host an Open, in 1894—placing Kent, known as The Garden of England, in the world golfing spotlight.

(Photo: The 1st tee, with clubhouse in background, at Royal St. George’s)

Previous winners of the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s include Greg Norman (1993), Sandy Lyle (1985) and golfing legend Walter Hagen (1922 and 1928). American Ben Curtis was the winner of the most recent Open Championship at Sandwich, in 2003.

The club has made changes to the bunkering on its 18th hole to make it more demanding for the Open Championship, as well as adding five new tees and 100 yards of length to the course.

Royal St George’s Golf Club forms part of Kent’s “Regal Golf Coast,” which includes Royal Cinque Ports (venue of the Open Championship in 1909 and 1920), Prince’s (the Open venue in 1932), Littlestone (a Final Qualifying course for the 2011 Open) and North Foreland. Overall there are more than 100 golf courses in the county, which also features modern classics such as London Golf Club (a European Tour Destination and home of the 2009 European Open) and Chart Hills (designed by Sir Nick Faldo and ranked 82nd in Golf World magazine’s Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland).

“In many ways, there is an argument to say the Open should come down this way slightly more often than elsewhere because we are the only one in the south,” Royal St George’s Secretary Christopher Gabbey told Kent Golf magazine. “It means a lot to the county. When the Open is in your neck of the woods, it’s terrific.”

More than 200,000 spectators are expected to descend on the Kent coast during Open week, with tens of thousands more from the UK and nearby European countries anticipated to take golf breaks in the county in the months before and after the event.

(Photo: Courtesy of Landmark Media International)

Tom on Tour: Dissecting Ben Curtis

The media fly. Tom drives. The media sleep in hotels. Tom sleeps in his car. The media sit in the media center. Tom walks the course. It’s the PGA Tour, seen and written differently. Following are a few observations about Ben Curtis from Tom’s e-book on the 2010 Shell Houston Open.

By Tom Collins
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

DUE TO THE LAYOUT of the course—which is a nice way of saying it’s a long walk to get to 89 percent of the holes here—I wanted to follow a group teeing off of the first hole and simply walk with that group for the duration. When I reviewed the tee sheet and the clock on the wall, the decision was relatively simple.

I didn’t want to deal with the crowds following Phil [Mickelson] and I didn’t want to watch the ridiculously slow pre-shot routine of Michael Allen, so that meant following the group in the middle of these two opposing forces: Will MacKenzie, Chez Reavie, and Ben Curtis. Although I’m familiar with Curtis after his stellar play last week at Bay Hill and his 2003 Open Championship win, I didn’t know anything about MacKenzie or Reavie—and that’s just the way I like it.

Later ...

Ben Curtis has a half-moon cookie swing. That’s the best way to describe it. The backswing and follow through are two different colors of the same baked good. Whereas his backswing is crisp and his wrists set themselves quickly to bring the club back to parallel, his follow through is more of a lazy, sweeping motion. His swing almost slows down as it progresses, and he finishes high, almost to help the ball into the air. Obviously, when his timing is on, he’s REALLY ON. You can’t win an Open Championship, besting the greatest players in the world, without a good swing.

Later ...

Watching each player warm up to tee off of the 8th, I couldn’t help but wonder about the look that’s always plastered on Curtis’ face. As a professional golfer, his eyes and facial expressions make him look like a super-nice guy, perhaps even a bit of a push-over. He always looks like he’s just waking up or squinting like the Godfather. If he were a hitman making contract kills, the look he has on his face right now would be the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life.

And later still ...

Ben Curtis made a par, but I almost fell asleep when I tried to watch him. He takes as much time over his putts as Jeff Maggert does for every shot. Come on Ben, there’s no coffee around here for 1,000 yards.

Tom Collins is a former caddie who is following the PGA Tour in 2010. Learn more about his original e-books at TheReluctantJamBoy.com.

(Image: Cmiked/Flickr)