| | Settling in at the Home of Golf | | By Max Adler July 7, 2022 |
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| | By Max Adler July 7, 2022 |
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| | | | Settling in at the Home of Golf | | Don’t listen to any spoilsport who tells you the coming Open at St. Andrews is actually the 149th and not the 150th as touted. True, the inaugural playing at Prestwick in 1860 wasn’t technically open because only professional “cracks” were invited. It wasn’t until the next year that amateurs could come, swelling the field from eight to 18 contestants. Semantics. What’s indisputable is that after two world wars and a pandemic, a 150th name will be etched on the claret jug this July at the Old Course. Let’s go with that. | | Could it be Tiger Woods? He would be the first player to win three Opens at the birthplace of golf (Bob Martin, J.H. Taylor, James Braid and Jack Nicklaus all have two at St. Andrews). Woods’ average score during his dominant 2000 and 2005 laps was 67.875, and the auld flat links might be the easiest walk in majors. To be hobbled is also to be humbled, and with all the quirky bounces, bunkers, weather and luck, there is no greater test of psychological resilience than an Open. For that alone we like Tiger’s chances. | | Our July/August Issue both previews the 150th Open and examines that key golfing trait: humility. Cover star Max Homa proclaims, “even ugly pars are beautiful” and demonstrates some tricks to play your best without your best stuff. You can meet a modest man in Jamie Kennedy’s profile of Gordon McKie, who is just the ninth superintendent since Old Tom Morris. “The Protector of the Old Course” is chuffed to be part of this lineage and is up early every morning thwarting the modern threats of rising driving averages and sea levels with his own ideas. Although the 18th hole at the Old has already lost the battle to distance, this birdie-yielder is and always will be the greatest finishing hole in the game for reasons that don’t include a blade of grass. Or so writes some blowhard. | | As for your ego, how about admitting it’s time to try a 7-wood? The newest generation of 7-woods has ignited a hot trend on tour, and many elite pros will be using one to battle the fescue at St. Andrews. Equipment editor E. Michael Johnson breaks down everything you need to know. | | | From the Golf Digest archive (available to Golf Digest+ subscribers) we’ve also selected portraits of two champions who won Opens at St. Andrews and whose charismatic mixtures of humility and bravado made them fiercely beloved by fans. John Daly will be at the Champions Dinner in a few weeks (only served when the Open is at St. Andrews) if he acquiesces to wear a jacket, and the late Severiano Ballesteros, of course, will not. Both grew up in working-class families and developed their supernatural talents in unorthodox ways, yet their differences would fill a book. Read Bob Verdi’s interview of Daly at age 39, when Big John had just ended a nearly nine-year winless drought filled with personal travails, or Jaime Diaz’s account of visiting a terminal Ballesteros in his home a year before his death. Both are distinct moments in time. How these larger-than-life champions matured for better and worse over their careers is a reminder that change isn’t a possibility, but a likelihood for us all. | | Enjoy the Open, | |
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