Golf: 149th Open Championship - July 15-July 18

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I forgot to post the tweet I referenced above.



Aside from his off course antics that are now weekly, I watched his full round this morning and I couldn’t believe his stubbornness. He kept trying to hit the same sky high tee shot with the driver every time, and he kept missing in the thick rough. He had absolutely zero regard for what the course asks of a player. For someone who prides himself on being innovative and cutting edge, his golf IQ is low. If he tried to play the course in front of him and took advantage where he could of his big distance advantage, he’d be much better than he is.

 

[JetsWillFly4Ever]

Morikawa is the best ball striker in the world by so far that he can be 170 plus in strokes gained putting and still be a top 5 player in the world.

Man, imagine if he ever figured out the putter, it would be insane.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Firm up the course. This is playing like a tour event. I’m not saying it’s been a travesty, but I don’t think we want -20 winning.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Any time Cam Tringale is sniffing the front page of the board at a major, something's gotta change.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

Could a Brit Finally Win a British Open? Several Contenders Have a Shot at 2021 Open Championship - Morning Read (si.com)

 

[PanthersPens62]

For me, Opens are just brutal to watch when the weather plays no factor. Thankfully its rare when you have 4 days (as is the forecast) of calm conditions, but when it happens the R&A needs to step in and do something to make the course a bit more of a challenge. The only thing keeping my interest is that J.Spieth is in contention.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

 

[Say Hey Kid]

Compare the population of England to China and India. Incredibly stupid tweet.

The media is always so pro McIlroy and Spieth it's sickening.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Big Randy is absolutely not pro-Rory, so there's that. And nothing that guy tweets is ever fully serious.

That being said... from Westwood to Donald to Casey to Poulter to Fleetwood to Fitzpatrick to Hatton, he may be onto something.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

Big Randy is absolutely not pro-Rory, so there's that. And nothing that guy tweets is ever fully serious. That being said... from Westwood to Donald to Casey to Poulter to Fleetwood to Fitzpatrick to Hatton, he may be onto something.

Learn what separate paragraphs are and mean.

Your "England should be better at golf than large countries" opinions are pre-Revolutionary War.

 

[BMOK33]

The course may be playing ever so slightly harder today but its not easy to gauge just yet as its mostly players who have been bad for 2 days out there. Louis/DJ/Rahm/Smith/Brooks are the 5 I like. Obviously for Smith or Rahm or Brooks to win it Louis has to come back somewhat. He showed signs of nerves in the last 3-4 holes yesterday which was troubling to me. I won't buy into Spieth until he shows me he can put together 3 solid rounds in a row which he has not done in ages at a major. If he does that today I add him to the list for sure of possible winners.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Compare the population of England to China and India. Incredibly stupid tweet.

Thats completely missing the point. They have all these good golfers, and they don't get the job done in majors.

China and India aren't mentioned because collectively they don't produce good professional golfers. England produces the second best population of pro golfers.

 

[MMC]

Current betting favorite?

 

[DueDiligence]

Firm up the course. This is playing like a tour event. I’m not saying it’s been a travesty, but I don’t think we want -20 winning.

It's not the course it's the weather. No wind, "warm" temperatures and sunny skies take the bite out of any links course.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Jordan trolling hard.

 

[GKJ]

I hate that this has been falling on my vacation for years, but - again - hope Oosthuizen can hang on

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I think it's a four man race. The top three all have a chance, and then I'll say the rest of the field is the fourth man. If someone in the next few spots shoots 63 or 64 tomorrow, and the leaders struggle, maybe someone else has a chance. I think Louis and Morikawa will both have a lot of pressure tomorrow for obvious reasons.

Forget Louis finishing second in so many majors. The guy has not won a PGA Tour Event in 11 years. He has never won in the USA. This event isn't in the USA, but it shows that he hasn't actually won any events with even a good strength of field other than the Open 11 year sago. His last win was nearly 3 years ago, a co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour/European Tour event. His last full European Tour win was over five years ago. This guy might get a lot of runner-up finishes, but he does not win. He's like if Finau was five years older, South-African, and racked up a lot of wins in Web.com Tour level fields. What must he be thinking? Tomorrow might be different, but he has shown that he struggles to win.

Morikawa hasn't done bad in big spots so far in his career, but he has never contended in a major with fans. It's different winning one coming from way behind without any fans in an event where there are 10 guys in contention and no pressure on you. Now he's one back and expects to win. He struggled a lot early today in a big spot. Will he do it again tomorrow?

I still think Jordan gets it done tomorrow. I think he's due for a big putting round in a big spot. Thats all thats been missing this year in the majors and in other tournaments he's been in contention. Thats the difference between this season and 2015 and 2017. There's less pressure on him because he's three back and no one is expected to win at three back, but to play as well as he has this year and to have only one win? It's time to make some putts when it matters.

It'll be interesting to see what the winning score is. I'm thinking -14 is a playoff, and -15 wins it outright. The forecast for tomorrow is a little warner, and winds as light as there will ever be at the Open. Will we get a difficult set up again like today or will they let it loose with some easier pins?

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Comparing Louis to Finau is unfair to Louis. Finau gets a lot of uncompetitive top-10s, while Louis actually has a good chance in most of them. That to me says that he's just getting unlucky a lot of the time rather than not playing well enough. Plus, theres the obvious fact that he has actually won the big one, even if it was over a decade ago. And Finau can't putt in his dreams as well as Louis has been putting this year.

There really aren't any comparables to him. He's shooting past Angel Cabrera Land and into his own realm of weird career territory. I find him an easy guy to root for, so it would be cool to see him win, but part of me feels the same way I felt about Westwood a few years ago: I think he'll be more remembered if he comes up short once again rather than if he breaks through. Look at Sergio - that guy's done nothing of note since breaking through. Before, he was this strange, enigmatic figure who had all the talent in the world but combined it with a ten cent brain. Almost like if Greg Norman had never won his majors. Now, he's... just one of those guys who had a great career and won one major. Lumped in with the Roses and Stensons rather than being in his own category. (yes, I realize Sergio prefers being a Masters winner to not being one)

I'm sure that's a minority opinion but I'm going with it. I'll take Spieth as the winner as well, although all of them have almost equally as good of an argument as the next guy.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

@Dr John Carlson, I see your point that there are some notable differences between Oosthuizen and Finau. My main point is that these guys play every week to win. And when you are a top 30-50 player in the world you show up every week with a realistic goal to win. Yes, he’s won before, but his main goal, winning, is something that he’s terrible at in semi-big fields. Over ten years without beating the best or close to it. It has to bother him. People give him too much credit for his demeanor thinking he doesn’t care about his results. He could win, but I don’t think there’s any doubt he’ll feel the pressure, more so than almost anyone would in a situation like this.

 

[GKJ]

Koepka gonna f*** around and put up a top 5 despite being like 25 groups ahead of the final pairing

 

[BMOK33]

Looks like its a race between Morikawa and Louis for sure.

 

[GKJ]

Greens are fooling a lot of guys

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Jordan has ceased trolling.

 

[MMC]

Louis

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Morikawa in the catbird seat as Azinger would say.

Louis playing some truly terrible golf right now.