Muirfield: golfers’ favourite Open course

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 26

Muirfield: golfers’ favourite Open course

NZPA-Reuter Muirfield, . ■ Scotland If the world’s leading 'golfers could pick one course to stage the British Open every year they would almost certainly select Muirfield, where the 1980 championship begins early tomorrow (N.Z. "time). Generally regarded as the finest seaside course in Britain, it is also universally accepted as the best— and more importantly fairest — test of golfing skill the game can offer in Britain. The American star, Tom Watson, twice winner of the event and high on the list of favourites this

time, was the latest to lavish praise on* the course' when ho arrived to begin his preparation last week-end.

“I’m in love with it already,” said the leading United States money-win-ner this year. “It’s the fairest of all British chain-: pionship courses. It’s a pleasure to play here. Every hole has a tremendous amount -of character.

“Now Muirfield and I have to get married,” he said. . . ~ >- The Texas-born Ben Crenshaw, whose love of the game and its history has made him a favourite of British followers on his previous visits to the

Open, classifies Muirfield as “an absolute gem.” Jack Nicklaus, the 41-year-old American whose career was given a new lease of life when he* won this year’s United States Open last month, is a three-time winner of the British Open, including the 1966 event at Muirfield. He was also second to his compatriot, Lee Trevino, when the event was last held at Muirfield in 1972. “I think it is the best golf course in Britain,” said Nicklaus. “It is the best conditioned, it requires the most shot making and a lot of , discipline.” Muirfield lies next to the Firth of Forth east of

Edinburgh , and. overlooks the river estuary. The site provides expqsiire to the elements typical* of British Open courses. Oh the ’I course ’ 'itself, there are no trees ■ and no water. But' there are narrow fairways, requiring great accuracy off the tee, and subtle, sloping putting surfaces, calling for careful approach shots and a good touch on the green. The wind at Muirfield can be a varying and vexing problem. Even if it is not changing direction on the day, the compass direction of the course changes virtually with every hole. Only once, on the front nine, do as many as three successive holes

run in the same direction. But the main hazard for the competitors could come-from the 151 pit-like bunkers which guard the greens and dot the fairways. ’T

Brian fßarnes, a top British 5 golfer who has never won the event, calls them the-“winning and the losing of the Open at Muirfield. They are the most severe bunkers in the world; Go in them and nine times out of ten it is a shot dropped.” They | are exceptionally deep, with layered turf faces and high front walls and Nicklaus thinks they are the? most carefully crafted: bunkers in the world, ■ -

The wise-cracking Trevino once joked that you needed a stepladder to get in and out: “There have to be some dead golfers in those traps,” he said, “because if you fall; into those sand pits how the hell do you get out again?”

The course measures--6337m and because Nicklaus and Trevino have both won there before, perhaps they will be favoured when the action begins.'. ■ ‘ Both have success to vindicate their approach, and their rivals will do well to follow their example tomorrow.