91Èȱ¬

I am sorry if I am being dense, but I don't see why it matters what the "par" is....71 or 70 or 85, it's a strokeplay tournament: all that matters is how many times you hit the ball!

Er, Rob:

"Statistics might count against him this week - the last player to claim consecutive US Open/Open triumphs was Tom Watson in 1982."

So Tiger Wood's wins the US Open at Pebble Beach and Open Championship at St Andrews in 2000 (both by record margins, I might add) don't coun do they? The fact that you can't remeber legs one and two of arguably golf's greatest winning streak (he followed it by winning the 2000 PGA and the 2001 Masters) is astonishing!

And while we're at it...

" Luke Donald...is the first Englishman since Faldo in 1983 to go into the Open as world number one."

I assume you've got your years wrong. In 1983, Nick Faldo probabaly wasn't even the Number One ranked golfer in England, never mind the world! Perhaps you meant '93?

Wish i could get a job where i could make the stats up as i went along. The golf rankings didnt start until 1986.

Also very interestingly, this is the first time since 1835 that the british open has not been held on the isle of white, Greg Norman being the last winner after shooting 57 over par on the final day. Obviously when tiger woods beat Nicholas and mcilroy in the 1924 playoff we had the largest attendance at sandwich - interestingly cows were made to dress up as people to boost the attendance that year as the heatwave had made it impossible for anyone over the height of 5ft 4 to go out the house for 10 mins at a time. That was before rocky balboa did the clean sweep of the majors though, and also won Wimbledon in the famous 2010 classic

Rob, you say in your bio that you do this to avoid getting a proper job. It seems from the above posts that you should do the decent thing, resign, and let someone who WOULD treat writing for the 91Èȱ¬ as a "proper job" have a go.

Comment number four had me in stitches. Good work that chap.

Rob,

no need to apologise...you were right on both counts. Ross should practice his/her reading skills!

Nice blog, setting the scene for one of the most eagerly awaited Opens. Europe have a great shout at winning this one. Nice touch inviting Bjorn and as a winner this year, he may not be a bad outside bet. I had forgotten his blow up in '03....did he fluff an easy chip or something?

er. Ross1980 the blog does say "before Woods in 2000".... Wow - it dangerous to write anything nowadays with the aggressive criticism (i hope the spell check works!!)

I would like to ask whether the thought of the piece is that the undulations of this course might mean that the golfer who plays the best may not win bringing a greater amount of luck into play than would normally be the case?

Or that the interest in the game is increased by the lack of a single dominant entity so making the pool of "bookies favourites" larger?

To be fair to Ross1980, I think the blog has been amended. Mr Hodgett's post would appear to confirm that. Don't like the inherent criticism of blogs that people seem to come on here to write, but in this case he was correcting genuine inaccuracies.

And so to the Open. For no good reason that I can think of, Sandwch is my favourite links on which the claret jug is competed for. As the blog suggests, picking a winner is nigh on impossible but I'm going to plump for Donald (how original!). He has the short game to get him out of some tricky positions and seems to be peaking at pretty much the right time. A weekend on the sofa awaits.

Comments 8 & 9. I think you'll find that Rob edited his original piece to amend his errors.

it always amuses me when commentators say that certain places you play are nto suited to some players and that Sandwich isnt target golf,etc,,, well I thought the object of the game was getting the ball in the hole from a point some distance away. to me that is the definitionin every case of playing to a target, ie the flag stick, if it was not a game of aiming at a target why have a flag at all.. ALL golf is a game of hitting a target ,, end of.. it always amuses me when some say that links golf has a bigger element of luck to it than say playing an inland course.. funny how you read the list of Open winners. there are about 4 surprise names on there, but funny how the nicklauses , watsons, players, faldos and woods's keep reappaearing.. maybe as gary player once said , the more they practise the luckier they get... amusing...

@12 To be fair, the phrase target golf is generally reserved for courses (mainly parkland) that allow for flying the ball right at the flag. If the players try that this week they will find themselves through the green is some tricky positions!

Unless it rains like Castle Stuart last week which turned into target golf and was reflected in the scoring.

Does anbody know if Maurice Flitcroft is playing this year?
He broke all records in previous Opens.

Ricky Fowler got rookie of the year in US last year ahead of Rory,,, good call that!! 48 starts no wins and older than Rory. who pummelled the field with a 62 at quail hollow to WIN. was 3rd in the Open, one shot off the playoff in the USPGA, good call PGA of America!! one arguement was that rory wasnt really a rookie,,,???

you wll see a lot of balls flown thru the air,, thats what golf balls do...they will land on the greens and stop.. thats what spin is for. the bet players hit the ball very high and can stop it on formica.. take a look at the highlights of rory's first round 63 from last years open.. watch the iron he hit into the road hole.. watch it stop,,,dropped from 28,000ft stone dead. shot of the year last year he looks to be playing better this year.. winner by 14...

@16 Not saying that it can't be done, just not on every hole like a typical US course. There's a difference. Agree on wee Rors though, made the breakthrough, now watch him go.

As usual the anti-British Broadcasting Corporation is advancing its pol;itical agenda by trying to split our United Kingdom into bits. It's a wonder that the usual let's be separate colonies of the Evil Empire agenda wasn't there as well

I note the current forecast says Saturday will have a light shower,to my mind it wii be a windy and very wet day-more like January than July and this will make selecting a winner even harder. It would be great to see Lee Westwood win his first major and the conditions I predict may well work to his advantage.

I've been digging about in the archives for information on the 1894 Open at Royal St. Georges. Let's hope the weather is better than it was that year when the tented village was swept away by a freak whirlwind. After that an infestation of slugs caused severe damage to the greens making putting virtually impossible. Also during that tournament German Golfer Norbert Dickel III was trapped in a bunker for several hours after a landslip caused by the extreme weather conditions which induced a phobia and fear of sand which ended his promising golfing career.

hahaha I think Rob was hungover when he wrote this aricle in 5 minutes while he was waiting for his coffee :) a lil more professionalism please. This is the 91Èȱ¬.

Donald all the way for this major...he is in the form of his life and the course suits his game down to the ground. If he cant win this week then I wonder can he win anywhere.

Donald to be the 2nd English major winner in over 40 years! By crikeys England are over due a major winner!

Though I'd love to see Westy make the breakthrough I'd say it's far more likely that we'll see another Irish major champ this week than an Englishman. 6 European majors in the last 13 years and 5 of them won by Irishmen, absolutely incredible!

@20 Please, please let these things be true!

I don't really care if it's an Englishman that wins the title and neither should the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation show that kind of favouratism. I'm sure it'll be very exciting and hopefully a BRIT can win the Open for the first time since a Scot won it in 1999 some 12 years ago. Thought that might be worth a mention as that seems to have been forgotten by the media....

It seems these days that the majority of people leaving comments on the 91Èȱ¬ sporting blogs (and probably the other ones too) are all aggressive these days! The 91Èȱ¬ aren't being biased towards the other nationalities within the British Isles, but it seems perfectly fair to point out how long ago it is since an Englishman last won the Open, or any major for that matter. It's not as if there isn't plenty of discussion on McIlroy (a Northern Irishman) in the golf part of the website.

I would be content for any Brit to win the Open this year, but it would be nice to see an Englishman do it again. It's been a while since anyone from Wales did well too, so it's time for someone from that part of the UK to do the business as well.

And as for all the stuff at the beginning. Instead of aggressively pointing out the errors and shouting for a resignation, etc, why don't you do it in a more polite fashion? How would you feel if your boss shouted at you everytime you made a mistake at work? Would you find that motivational and constructive?

If some of you hate the 91Èȱ¬ so much why on earth do you persist on visiting the website and being Mr Angry's all the time?

Why dont people comment on the golf rather than what errors are been written.
It will be another miss for Lee Westwood who seems to be another Monty and various other golfers who never made it to the open arena.

Come on Rory

i read my e-mails a few times before i send then and as soon as it's out there i realise that i've made a stupid mistake.

i enjoy reading Robs blogs but i wouldn't fancy being in his shoes knowing that the hounds are just waiting to rip you to shreds

Robert Garrigus this week. He hits the ball a country mile, has just finished third in the US Open, got into this championship as an alternate, he'll get the benefit of calm weather on Thursday night to finish his first round, and no-one over here has ever heard of him.

Fits the bill for an Open Champion in just about every respect.

Its a sad sign of the times and technology that we can be as angry and as insulting as we like on sounding boards such as this since no one knows who we are and couldn't get within punching distance of us to rectify matters.

And while we are at it: "Sandw(i)ch is my favourite links on which the claret jug is competed for". Surely Sir(or Madam), you meant to write: "...for which the claret jug is competed"?

Apologies to Ross! I didn't know that the Bloggers could update their blogs once they were out there. Can us mere members of the public have the same facility?

As regards criticisms, I welcome having my errors pointed out to me and I'm sure all professionals do including Rob. Part and parcel of being a blogger I would suggest?

Most people in England find it difficult to understand what the difference is between GB and the UK. Being from NI, I don't get offended. It's just ignorance generated by a sub standard education that is received by the kids in England.

Bring on the Open and let the wind blow, please!! Should favour a European.

"It's just ignorance generated by a sub standard education that is received by the kids in England."

Amen to that these days.

So, are you rooting for Rory? He's a nice chap by all accounts.

Ofcourse it matters what par is, what if a player shoots the lowest ever ala Rory in The U.S Open ! I don't see your point, par is what the Club decide is what you should reasonably get round in.

There's got to be a good chance that McIlroy will do it again (I sense he really is a cut above everyone else right now) but the conditions are forecast to be challenging, so perhaps we need to look for a more experienced player and one with proven bad weather links golf pedigree. If Els has a good putting week, for example, I can see him contending and possibly even winning.

@25 Here here!
What do you think of it so far?.......
This a sporting blog not a stat stand off or a forum for the mis-interpritation of every post as being nationally biased!
Some folk are too sensitive.
Anyhwow the Open Championship, looking forward to it starting in the morning. I'll throw my hat into the ring and say Harrington has a great chance. Coming into a bit of form and his putting is improving.
Cracking course and a wee bit of inclement weather will make it even more interesting. As far as the weather I predict......bring me sunshine, every day.......

The course might be ready but the traffic control was shambolic. It took 2.5hrs from joining the queue on the A256 until reaching the course. I planned to arrive at 09:30 but eventually got there at 12:15. Ruined my day.

come off it Phil;Mickelson used to be one of my well regarded players but to sugest it's not fair because the weather played it's part today puts you in a different light now