As always it was great to be at the Open Championship. This year the championship was back at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Lytham is in fact only 8 miles, as the crow files, from Southport where I live. Despite that it actually takes 40 minutes to drive there as you have to drive around the estuary. However the drive was a small sacrifice to stay at home during a tournament. With all the travel I do and with all the different hotels and different beds it a nice feeling to travel home at the end of a working day when at a tournament.
I travelled up on the Monday, and as it has been all summer, the weather was pretty awful. In fact the forecast for the week was really bad although that didn’t quiet materialise as it turned out. However Monday saw very little action. I walked a few holes with Thomas Bjorn before surrendering to the conditions and heading back to the clubhouse.
On the Tuesday I walked 9 holes with Ross Fisher and 9 holes with Thomas Bjorn before heading to the putting green to work with Michael Hoey. The greens were really good at Lytham. In fact the whole course was in great condition. The course was playing long due to the wet weather and the main features of the week will be the bunkers. There are a lot of them around Lytham, not quite sure how many, but its not just quantity its quality as the bunkers are really deep and well riveted making them proper hazards.
On Wednesday I did some work with Ross, Michael and Thomas on the green and also Matt Baldwin who had qualified for the Open at Sunningdale in the world qualifier. Matt is from my home town of Southport and I have helped him since he was an amateur. This is his rookie year on tour, on which he has done really well so far, securing his tour card last week at the Scottish Open. The Open will be a great week for him and his family.
On Wednesday I also met up with Brandan Grace and we did a little bit of work. I have worked with Branden on and off over the years and we recently started back again which I will enjoy as he’s a great guy to work with.
As usual at such a big event there is either a lot of work to be done or very little. This week the guys all seemed really happy and it was more a case of fine tuning their preparations ready for the event.
Well after the preparations were done, it was a case of sitting back and watching and hoping. Last year was a great experience being able to see a student, Darren Clarke, achieve their dream. It was also nerve racking, but a career highlight to have coached a player to a major victory. Let’s hope this year presents no 2!
