Random Open musings. Oh, and my dad is a genius!

[Mike Thomas (sunmart)]

How many Trackman's did you see this week?

 

[leon]

How many Trackman's did you see this week?

None, although I wasn't really looking. Mike Jacobs posted some great flightscope pics on his site and had I seen them before I went I would have been looking more. I know they had at least one last year in one of the tents.

Also, if looked like BBC were using one or the other for shot tracking. Only saw it once, but they did put up some spin & launch angle numbers for a pair of tee shots.

 

[faux_maestro]

Where I play sneaky long=foot wedge

 

[birly-shirly]

Had a great day at Lytham Friday. My favourite quote of the day, from my dad. We were sat behind the practice ground, watching the morning big names and trying to get used to picking the ball out against the grey sky of British summer. I ask my dad if he's getting them and he says he's just watching the players swing. Then he pauses and says "they're all different". I just smiled.

Other random thoughts:

McIlroy hits the ball really high. No wonder he doesn't like the wind.
Bradley bends way over. Looks like he's playing with kids clubs (and in clothes he borrowed from his dad).
Sandy Lyle had the funkiest swing. Full on full swing yips. Still stripes it though.
I hope I've got as much energy as Tom Watson when I'm 62.
Tiger Woods may be the best golfer of his generation, maybe ever. But he's just a guy. In fact he looked less imposing than a lot of other players. All the talk of a buff athlete is way off. In fact it occurred to me he's a similar size to me, my age, and with my hairline. He does have a bit more money though
Smooth is long.
Not many pros moving much off the ball taking it back.
A LOT of normal going on.
Lytham is a beauty. Needs more drainage though. Bits of it were like Glastonbury.
£4.50 is not vfm for a Cornish pastie. Not even if it was table service with naked supermodels for waitresses.

Just back from a family holiday - and we went to Lytham on the Thursday.

To add my comments.

Lytham looked great. After the amount of recent rain we've had, we wondered if the course would be playable. The mud I saw was where heavy vehicles, not just heavy foot traffic, had been - and it seemed to be drying out on Thursday evening.

On course catering? Hmm. Rucksacks are ace.

VFM. Going there - I thought the ticket price was a tad steep. Once there, my kids (who got in for free) and my wife (who doesn't golf) had a great time. Neither of my boys have done anything golfing yet but fool around with plastic clubs - but both are stoked to play now. Kudos to the marshalls, who were great with them, to Michael Thompson's caddie who slipped a Pro V over the ropes to one of the kids, and to the R&A who actually laid on a really good set of kids activities in the village. Having the spare capacity to provide mini-lessons to kids who walk up without booking in the late afternoon is pretty impressive.

Players wise - I agree with Leon that my general impression was of players staying very centered over the ball. I expected to see more head movement on the backswing, and saw much less.

Course was tight. Lots of fairways had maybe 8' - 10' semi-rough and then deep shit. Fairways looked 20 - 30 yards wide. Field was generally straight driving. I saw Rory going OB - but most groups were driving long and hitting fairways. Admittedly, the wind was light and fairways were not running, but very impressive all the same - and not the slugging gouge-fest that many internet debates would have you expect.

Most drives were landing like darts. Course had to be playing about as long as it ever will.

Not a statistical study - but I reckon I saw WAY more slight, slight fades off the tee than draws. Rory blew his way right down 15 - but I saw nothing resembling a bad hook.

Best shot of the day was Westwood from a fairway bunker on 14. We saw nobody else get close to the green from where he was. Majestic strike.

Take all of this with a hefty pinch of salt. Barring the off-course entertainment - you see it all much better on the telly!

But Muirfield is local, and I think we'll all be back next year.