Bryson and DJ Like Royal St. George’s; Brooks Doesn’t
Golfers don’t have to like a golf course to win a tournament on it, but it usually helps. Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson have given Royal St. George’s, site of this week’s British Open, two thumbs up. Brooks Koepka is not crazy about the track. It will be interesting to see who scores the lowest.
Johnson played the last time the British Open was held here, in 2011, when Darren Clarke won. He had a good chance to win it as his first major until he hit a shot out of bounds on the 14th hole in the final round.
At the beginning of play, he was just one back of Clarke, who was loved, but not favored to win because of his age. Clarke was 42 at the time.
Clarke built a four-shot lead at the turn, but Johnson cut it to two by the 12th hole. Two holes later, the unthinkable happened.
On the 14th, a hole Johnson had already birdied twice that week, he hit his second shot, a 2-iron according to Johnson, out of bounds. Double bogey. That put him four back with four to play.
“Out here you don’t really get too many opportunities to make birdie, so it was definitely a go situation,” Johnson said about the errant shot. “But if I had to do it over again, I’d hit a 3-wood instead of a 2-iron.”
This week he gets another try, a do-over if you will, at a course that he now says is his second favorite British Open course after St. Andrews.
Johnson obviously likes the course a lot, but Bryson DeChambeau is another fan.
“Royal St. George’s is an amazing golf course,” he said before this week’s tournament. “It’s pretty interesting. There was a certain amount of holes that you can kind of go after it on, and there’s a couple that you can’t.”
He has been trying to identify situations that will allow him to take advantage of his length, and he picked out holes where driver would be a go or a no go.
The 5th, he explained, is a layup hole if the wind is into him, and the 14th hole will be the same. Wind dependent. On the 5th, if he can’t go over the bunker at 338 yards, he will lay up.
On the 8th, he intends to lay up short of the right bunkers, after which he expects to have a wedge to the green.
“No. 3, it’s kind of over the big Himalayan — I think they call it the Himalayan bunker or something like that — I’m not sure,” he said. “But hitting it over that part, I’m not going to be hitting drivers too tight up in that little corridor.”
The greens, he explained, are severe and extremely large. Golfers could have 60-70-80-foot putts. The combination of the size, the slopes and slower green speeds, he hopes, will not lead to three putts.
“Not three-putting is going to be a huge key to winning this week,” he said.
One big hazard on the course is rough. He cited left of the 15th, where he could barely get a ball out during a practice round. Several other times, he had to just chip out to the fairway.
On the other side of the scale when it comes to this year’s British Open venue is Brooks Koepka, who played on the European Tour as a path to the PGA Tour. He has many other courses he likes more than Royal St. George’s.
“St. Andrews is probably my favorite place in the entire world to play. Portrush two years ago was — I don’t know, I love that place,” he said.
In fairness, he said he had not seen the entire course yet.
“Quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing. Fairways are quite undulating. I don’t know, it’s not my favorite of the rotation,” he explained.
Koepka just doesn’t find Royal St. George’s layout visually interesting. He cited shots blind shots where the target is obscured as the one of the reasons for his opinion.
Before he got to Royal St. George’s, Koepka had not played golf since the Travelers. He doesn’t think it matters.
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“I like the way I’m hitting it right now, and definitely more comfortable than I’ve been in years past coming over,” he said.
The four-time major winner knows he has work ahead of him this week if he expects to win. The keys, he believes, are hitting drives straight, avoiding bunkers and making putts. And of the three, straight drives are at the top of his list, because the rough, in his estimation, is the thickest he’s seen at the British Open in perhaps six years.