Four to fight out British Open?

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 52

Four to fight out British Open?

NZPA Troon. Scotland Watson. Nicklaus, Ballesteros and Stadler are the only players with the nerve and skill to win the tilth British Open golf championship at Royal Troon this week, according to the defending champion, Bill Rogers. Rogers, who is also the present Australian Open champion, made his assessment yesterday after surveying the course on the Firth of Clyde in Ayreshire. Two rounds have convinced the 30-year-old Texan that it is a course which can change its complexion in a matter of hours, depending on the wind. “Whoever wins will have to get off to a very good start and ( hang on all the way in,” he said. Rogers believes Troon will yield the 1982 trophy to the player who chips and putts well. The greens are in perfect condition — a little slow at present, - but they should pick up speed after being shaved for-the championship. But Rogers said the approach shots would be the big problem: "We’re going to have to play the ball short of the greens, little bitty 80 or 90 yards shots on the first four or .five holes, where you barely lay the club head on the ball and pray it will run on," he said, adding that he was concerned about his long shots.

Troon is on the whole a flat course, but the narrow fairways dip and climb alarmingly, and are flanked by gorse, spiky broom, and bushes. ■

The rough is not as severe aS at Minefield, where it caused nightmares in the 1980 championship, but it will be hazard enough for most of the players this

week. Rogers said he had lost a little distance on his long shots because he had this year started playing his shots left to right, instead of right to left as he had done for the previous two years. He made the change because he had begun feeling uncomfortable addressing the ball. But Rogers’ self-deprecat-ing remarks had a familiar ring. Before the 1962 Open at Royal Troon, Arnold Palmer, of the United States, declared: “My back hurts, my drives are straying off to the right and I don't know if I’ll ever learn to putt again.” His compatriot, the great Sam Snead, retorted: “He’s just trying to sweet talk that tough old course into lyin’ down and playin' dead.” Palmer went on to smash the Open record with a total of 276, six strokes ahead of the runner-up, the Australian Kel Nagle. The championship has been played at Royal Troon only four times before. Arthur Havers, of Britain, won in 1923 followed by Bobby Locke, of South Africa in 1950, Palmer in 1962 and Tom Weiskopf, of the United States, in 1973. Weiskopf equalled Palmer’s record 276, which stood until Tom Watson carded 271 at Muirfield in 1980. Rogers said that the winner this year would come from the select group: “It’S pretty obvious who is going to play well this week. You won’t have a fluke winner here, no question,” he said. So, according to Rogers, it will be Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, and Craig Stadler, of the United States, or Severiano Ballesteros, of Spain.