THERE's a resilience about the past champions at Royal Birkdale which suggests courage and determination are the truly indispensable qualities which will again distinguish the winner of the ninth staging here on Sunday of the oldest major.
In the absence of one of the most fiercely competitive hearts ever to beat on the British linksland – the closest Tiger Woods and his wounded knee will get to the 137th Open championship is in front of a plasma TV screen at his home in Florida – the
windswept dunes of Birkdale are again preparing to reward true grit.
Among the fabled list of success stories in Southport – Peter Thomson's narrow win over Bobby Locke in 1954, Arnold Palmer's re-invention of the championship in 1961 and Johnny Miller's crushing six-shot victory over Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros in 1976 – Tom Watson's heroic clinching of a fifth Open title sticks in the mind, if only for the fearless manner in which the man from Kansas shrugged off the inconvenience of a potentially catastrophic double-bogey 6 on the first hole in the third round.
Coping with adversity is a key element of any champion golfer's armoury. No matter the quality of his short game (Nicklaus always praised his friend's "wonderful imagination" around the greens) and the imperious flow of his long irons, Watson won eight majors because he matched skill with desire. Like all great champions, he had the knack of erasing what had gone before in order to move forward gracefully.
As competitive among his peers as ever – he's won three Senior Open titles in his 50s – Watson is philosophical about what sets the special ones apart. "The thing you learn in life," he reflected, "is that what has gone over the cliff, you can't get back. You can't do anything about the luck of the bounce. You never give up. Jack was the best at it."
Although there were more than a few at Carnoustie a year past who wondered how Sergio Garcia would cope with the disappointment of allowing a six-shot advantage over Padraig Harrington to evaporate over the closing round before losing the Claret Jug in a play-off, the Spaniard has proved himself to be impressively buoyant.
"Sunday night and Monday (after last year's tournament] were a little bit tough," he recalled. "Then you think about the week and you did the best you could. It wasn't that big a deal. There are a lot worse things than losing an Open in a play-off."
The bookies' favourite at 10-1, Garcia, like the rest of the field, is going to have to cope with testing conditions and the inevitability of set-backs. The Lancashire skies are expected to be grey and, during the first and second rounds, the breeze will be strong. The wind is expected to gust from 20-25mph today and 20-30 mph tomorrow. If wind is the primary defence of every links, then Birkdale could turn out to be a citadel.
Ten years ago, Woods might have inscribed his name on the old jug but for being blown of course on Saturday when the skies darkened and he carded 77, five more shots than Mark O'Meara. The weather was so punishing that Tiger recalled needing to pick a 3-iron out of his bag to hit the ball 160 yards when he's usually reaching for a 9-iron.
If similarly blustery conditions crop up this week then the players who need to make the fewest adjustments will be the purest ball strikers.
Apart from Garcia, it will be worth looking out for a Melbourne golfer and a Texan on Birkdale's flat fairways. The eight previous stagings of the Open in Southport have all been won by Americans (Palmer, Lee Trevino, Miller, Watson, Mark O'Meara) and Australians (Thomson twice and Ian Baker-Finch). If history repeats itself then Justin Leonard and Robert Allenby could be among the contenders on Sunday.
A past winner at Troon in 1997, Leonard has returned to form this year. He won the Stanford St Jude by defeating Allenby and Trevor Immelman, the reigning Masters champion, in a play-off earlier this summer and can count four top-five finishes on the US PGA Tour. At 36, the Dallas golfer is still adept at taming the winds which frequently complicate the challenge of golf in Texas.
Allenby was 18th at Birkdale ten years ago and he, too, knows how to harness the wind after learning to play the game on the great Melbourne links. One of the most consistent Australian golfers who earn a living on the PGA Tour, the 37-year-old has posted six top-ten finishes in America this season, including a second and third place in two of his last three events.
No one, of course, has coped better with blustery conditions at the Open in recent years than Ernie Els. The winner at Muirfield in 2002, the South African signed for 72 when the storm moved through the East Lothian links during the third round. Woods, who carded 81, and Colin Montgomerie, 84, were among the many victims that day.
With only four representatives from the home of golf – Monty, Sandy Lyle, Paul Lawrie and Barry Hume – and a South African-born player, Doug McGuigan, in the process of changing his allegiance back to Scotland, it's difficult to make a case for a Tartan hero.
Birkdale hasn't been a happy hunting ground for Scots over the past half century or so. Eric Brown was fifth here in 1961 and Raymond Russell was tied for fourth ten years ago, though the Prestonpans man never heard a note of the acclaim which descended on Justin Rose, who finished on the same mark while still an amateur aged just 17.
Recalling how O'Meara won the Open in 1998 almost as unexpectedly as he'd bagged the Masters, Immelman (another expert ball striker) likes his chances of completing a major double on a course he described as "the toughest I've played on the Open rota."
The combination of partially blind tee shots to slivers of fairway, billowing rough and the strength of the crosswinds has convinced the South African that this will be some examination paper. "With the weather that's forecast, this is going to be a great test. The guy who wins this championship on Sunday is going to be very deserving of it."
No one, of course, ever suggested the process of joining the immortals was easy, but winning the Open changes dreams. After he duelled with Nicklaus at Turnberry and came out on top, Watson knew he'd arrived as a champion. The same incentive beckons golf's next paladin at Birkdale.
The full article contains 1123 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
