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The post Pro shoots 52 at St. Andrews — on the back nine appeared first on Golf.

Less than a month ago, Alexander Knappe won the B-NL Challenge Trophy. It was the German pro’s second Challenge Tour victory of 2022 and boosted him into first place on the tour’s order of merit. He’s assured a promotion onto the DP World Tour for the upcoming season, where the 33-year-old will hope to for his best year yet.

All that is to say that Knappe is a very talented golfer who has been playing in top form. You just wouldn’t know it from his scorecard on Friday at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Before the second round at the Dunhill Links, Knappe put up a post on his Instagram showing off a series of pot bunker shots.

“Pot bunkers can be quite nasty,” he wrote in the caption. “I’ll be quite honest now: I would prefer to be able to avoid them today.”

Spoiler alert: He didn’t. Nor could he avoid the wind, rain, or O.B. stakes protecting the linksland on Friday. Inside-out umbrellas were the order of the day. The Dunhill is conducted across three courses — Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and the Old Course — and players at all three went off in an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start in an attempt to dodge the worst of the wind and rain. But some conditions are just inevitable.

Knappe was in a reasonable position after his first round at Kingsbarns, where he shot even-par 72. In Friday’s shotgun start at St. Andrews, his first hole of the day was the par-5 14th. He missed the green some 40 yards right of the pin but pitched it to 12 feet and made the putt for a terrific par. Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got.

At No. 15, Knappe drove it into one of those nasty pot bunkers. He advanced it just 50 yards from there. He hit his third shot to 35 feet. And he three-putted. Double bogey.

At No. 16, Knappe actually found the fairway — but his second shot sailed right, making its way over the boundary fence. O.B. His fourth shot sailed right, too, settling in almost exactly the same spot. His sixth shot sailed right, too, but settled on the fairway just right of the green. A chip and two putts later Knappe walked off with a quintuple-bogey 9.

The pain wasn’t over. Knappe stepped to the 17th tee — the iconic shot where you’re forced to hit it over the Old Course Hotel — and fired one O.B. right. He hit his next tee shot in play but found a bunker on his approach, chopped it out, hit it on the green and two-putted for a quadruple-bogey 8. Three holes. 11 over par. Yikes.

Knappe settled into his round after that, making par at 18 and then shooting even-par 36 on the front nine, including a birdie at No. 3. But when he made the turn, Knappe ran into the wind again. He missed the green at the par-3 11th and took two chips and two putts to get down for double-bogey 5. He found another pot bunker in the middle of the fairway at the par-4 12th, chopped out, missed the green from there and made another double bogey. On his final hole, the par-4 13th, Knappe’s drive traveled just 200 yards. He did well to recover for a closing bogey, wrapping up a second round of 88 consisting of a front-nine 36 and back-nine 52.

It was hardly the only eye-popping score of the day, particularly on that back nine. Renato Paratore shot 46 on the same nine, including a 9 on No. 14. Jack Singh Brar shot 34-45 for a 79. Steven Brown shot 45. Per DataGolf, eight of the nine holes on the back nine averaged over par for the day, and the average score was 40.59. Holes 13-17 each averaged more then 0.68 strokes over par. Richard Mansell fired the round of the day at the Old Course, miraculously navigating the back nine in one-under 35 en route to a four-under 68, a full 9.4 strokes lower than field average. He leads the event at its halfway mark.

The Old Course isn’t always this nasty. On Thursday, by comparison, the same nine averaged 35.18 strokes. This summer, Cameron Smith won the Open at the historic venue at 20 under par, tying the all-time low major scoring record. And on Thursday at the Dunhill, Romain Langasque equaled the course record with an 11-under 61. Pros have overpowered the Home of Golf, sparking debates about the course’s defenses and its relevance in the modern game.

Friday served as a reminder: Rather than length or hazards, St. Andrews’ best defense is the weather. So if you get a chance to tee it up at this bucket-list course, see if you can beat 52 on the back so you can tell your buddies you scored lower than a pro.

They don’t have to know the rest of the details.

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The post Pro has record day at St. Andrews that he will ‘remember for rest of my life’ appeared first on Golf.

The post Pro has record day at St. Andrews that he will ‘remember for rest of my life’ appeared first on Golf.

Romain Langasque had himself a day on Thursday.

The Frenchman opened the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in stunning fashion on St. Andrews Old Course. Thanks to eight birdies and two eagles, Langasque tied the scoring record at the famed links and took the early lead in the annual DP World Tour event.

“I never thought I would have the course record at St. Andrews,” said Langasque, the No. 272-ranked player in the world. “But now my name is on the board.”

He shares the feat with Englishman Ross Fisher who posted a 61 in 2015 in the final round of the Alfred Dunhill.

News

Langasque’s round not only tied the Old Course scoring record, but it also marks his career-low round on the DP World Tour. His previous low round had been 63 back in 2020.

The dazzling performance included six birdies and an eagle on his second nine (the front nine) as he posted 28 on his inward half. He was also seven under over his final six holes.

“The end of the course was amazing,” he said. “I holed a few long putts. The game was great but didn’t feel I shot 11 under.”

Langasque might not have felt like he had gone that low, but the rest of the field surely did. Just 10 players are within four strokes of Langasque’s lead as he turns the page to Round 2.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I didn’t realize that I have the course record here now, and I think it’s something I will remember for rest of my life.”

More scores like Langasque’s seem unlikely over the weekend. St. Andrews is slated to get pummeled by heavy rain and winds in excess of 40 mph on Friday.

In an effort to dodge the worst of the weather, tournament organizers have opted for a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. local time.

Langasque made history but he knows he still has long way to go.

“I’m really happy about this,” he said. “But it’s only the first round, so I’m also going to stay really focused for the next few days.”

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The post 2022 Open Championship: St. Andrews Old Course scorecard, yardage book, course map appeared first on Golf.

The post 2022 Open Championship: St. Andrews Old Course scorecard, yardage book, course map appeared first on Golf.

The Old Course at St. Andrews is perhaps the most famous golf course in the world — and for good reason. With a founding that dates back nearly 500 years, the Old Course has a history longer than many countries. No course has seen more than these links.

This week, the Home of Golf steps into the spotlight yet again as it hosts the 150th Open Championship. And while player fitness and equipment technology have evolved over the last century and a half, the Old Course should still present a proper test for the best in the world.

Check out below for a look at the Old Course’s scorecard, yardage book and course map.

Scorecard

Yardage book

No. 1 — Par 4, 375 yards

No. 2 — Par 4, 452 yards

No. 3 — Par 4, 398 yards

No. 4 — Par 4, 480 yards

No. 5 — Par 5, 570 yards

No. 6 — Par 4, 416 yards

No. 7 — Par 4, 371 yards

No. 8 — Par 3, 187 yards

No. 9 — Par 4, 352 yards

No. 10 — Par 4, 386 yards

No. 11 — Par 3, 174 yards

No. 12 — Par 4, 351 yards

No. 13 — Par 4, 465 yards

No. 14 — Par 5, 614 yards

No. 15 — Par 4, 455 yards

No. 16 — Par 4, 418 yards

No. 17 — Par 4, 495 yards

No. 18 — Par 4, 365 yards

Course map

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The post Course Rater Confidential: What stands out most about the Old Course? appeared first on Golf.

The post Course Rater Confidential: What stands out most about the Old Course? appeared first on Golf.

GOLF’s Top 100 course panelists are among the most respected and well-traveled course evaluators in the game. They’re also keen to share their opinions. In this GOLF.com series, we’ll unlock their unvarnished views on all questions related to the Old Course, host of this week’s Open Championship. The goal is not only to entertain you but also to give you a better understanding of how to understand and appreciate the architecture of the home of golf.

The Old Course, host of this week’s 150th playing of the Open Championship, is also the top-rated course on GOLF’s first-ever ranking of Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland. People say it’s special for a lot of reasons. The history. The subtleties. The quirks. The way it sits right in the heart of town. We acknowledge that books could be written on its virtues (in fact, they have), but tell us what stands out most about the Old Course to you?

Philip Gawith: It is in a class of one — the feeling that you are treading golf’s holy ground, entering some eternal golfing order whose roots stretch back into the mists of time. On top of this, the thrill of playing some of the game’s most iconic holes, on a course full of subtle links challenge. 

Tim Gallant: I was lucky enough to play the Old this past winter in 65 mph winds. There is no hyperbole there. The gauge in the R&A told us as much. And even in that wind, which makes standing a chore, the course was not only still playable, but also incredibly strategic. Because there’s so much width, and the greens are so large, one can ride or fight the wind to get the ball near hole. After the round, I had a bit of epiphany: regardless of the conditions, the course is always immensely interesting. I can’t think of another course where that is the case. 

Will Davenport: To me, the Old Course is the epitome of how the game is meant to be played — friendly, playable and accessible, but still worthy of hosting golf’s greatest championships. To challenge the elite player, present tremendous variety, and still be one of the most pleasant and relaxing experiences for the average player is a feat rarely achieved. Not to mention, the history of the Old Course is perhaps peerless and does a great deal to add to the enchantment. 

Christian Faergemann: There is a historical element to the Old Course that we all know. For me it’s sort of a live history lesson of the game of golf. Being there, feeling it, is special and hard to describe. Looking back from the fairway on the 12th and seeing all the bunkers that you couldn’t see from the tee and realizing that the hole — and, in fact, the entire course — was designed to play in reverse. In addition, I actually did not know before playing it the first time that you cross over and play the opposite side of the double green at 7th and 11th. 

Need help unriddling the greens at your home course? Pick up a custom Green Book from our sister company GolfLogix.

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The post Securing Victory: What top players get out of their Old Course practice rounds appeared first on Golf.

The post Securing Victory: What top players get out of their Old Course practice rounds appeared first on Golf.

At a historic venue highlighted by blind shots and firm greens, practice rounds are the ultimate tool of preparation. Ahead of the 150th Open Championship, we’ve partnered with CDW to understand how the world’s best get ready. GOLF’s Sean Zak and Dylan Dethier discuss what they’ve been seeing from pros on the grounds at St. Andrews.

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The post St. Andrews, Scotland: More than the Old Course appeared first on Golf.

The post St. Andrews, Scotland: More than the Old Course appeared first on Golf.

These shots from the sky of the Scottish shoreline, the Old Course, and the town surrounding it will make you feel like you’ve traveled to The Open yourself. Plus, we’ve added a few fun facts about St. Andrews that you can impress your friends with.

The post St. Andrews, Scotland: More than the Old Course appeared first on Golf.

The post Course Rater Confidential: After the famed Road Hole, what’s the best hole at the Old Course? appeared first on Golf.

The post Course Rater Confidential: After the famed Road Hole, what’s the best hole at the Old Course? appeared first on Golf.

GOLF’s Top 100 course panelists are among the most respected and well-traveled course evaluators in the game. They’re also keen to share their opinions. In this GOLF.com series, we’ll unlock their unvarnished views on all questions related to the Old Course, host of this week’s Open Championship. The goal is not only to entertain you but also to give you a better understanding of how to understand and appreciate the architecture of the home of golf.

Even casual golfers have heard of the Road Hole, but what’s another hole you love, and why? 

Philip Gawith: I would go for 18 at risk of being accused of having “airport thriller” taste. It is a near matchless experience to tee it up with what seems like the whole world to aim at out to your left, the feeling that maybe you can make birdie, the Swilcan Bridge ahead and the Valley of Sin upfront, and likely a few members of the public watching curiously as you approach the green. It is pure fun, huge anticipation, informed by history, laced with some nervousness (don’t slice it!) and seasoned with anticipation.

Tim Gallant: Which hole to choose from! I adore 16, maybe even more than 17. The line right of the Principal’s Nose bunkers is so narrow, but playing left leaves an almost diabolical approach shot. The humps and bumps in the fairway need to be seen, and running a shot into the green along the ground is as fun as golf gets. 

Will Davenport: I am very partial to the par-3 11th. The permutations of pinable locations and wind are nearly endless, and I have always appreciated a hole that puts a premium on weight as much as line.

Christian Faergemann: I’m with Will. I think the 11th is one of the best par-3s in the world. Trying to hit the crucial yardage to avoid flying the green and being sucked into the Strath or Hill bunker. That’s where I would find a seat to watch players come through at The Open. 

Need help unriddling the greens at your home course? Pick up a custom Green Book from our sister company GolfLogix.

The post Course Rater Confidential: After the famed Road Hole, what’s the best hole at the Old Course? appeared first on Golf.

The post Justin Thomas’ caddie has an intriguing wedge suggestion for St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

The post Justin Thomas’ caddie has an intriguing wedge suggestion for St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

Open Championship week at St. Andrews is upon us. And as an overzealous golf geek with a love for links courses, this feels like the days leading up to my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. 

With links golf presenting a unique challenge compared to traditional PGA Tour setups, there is a lot of chatter about players changing the way they organize their golf bags, from adding driving irons to removing fairway woods and high bounce wedges.

During a practice round with friend Tiger Woods, we caught a brief conversation between Justin Thomas and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay where Bones suggests they carry two lob wedges with the same loft and drop the 3-wood. His reasoning was to have one wedge with low bounce to hit off tight, firm turf, and the other with more bounce to help get out of a pot bunker if the situation comes up. 

With a dry Old Course playing fast and firm, a 3-wood might be just as useful as a pair of alignment sticks holding a towel and a second specialized lob wedge could mean the difference between saving par or getting stuck in a bunker.

You can listen to the full discussion in the video below from the practice round thanks to The Open’s YouTube channel. The clip is found at the 00:42 mark.

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The post On Sunday at St. Andrews, Tiger Woods was the best bargain in golf appeared first on Golf.

The post On Sunday at St. Andrews, Tiger Woods was the best bargain in golf appeared first on Golf.

When you think about it, “the Old Course” is an awfully strange name.

It is, of course, the oldest golf course in the world — established in the early 15th century before it was officially ratified by the archbishop John Hamilton in the mid-16th. That was some 460 years ago, long before the age of 460cc drivers, organized golf tournaments, or Claret Jugs. Long before a man named Tiger Woods, too.

But everyone in St. Andrews knows the Old Course’s secret: even for those who see it every day, there’s always something new.

Two weeks ago, on a stereotypically Scottish wet-and-dry afternoon, a walk down the front nine revealed a golf course still shaping into major championship form. Contractors were hard at work on the last of the grandstands, while security personnel were interspersed throughout the course to protect the maintenance team’s efforts on a few precious locations. That was new, as were the ropes that cordoned off the area surrounding Swilcan bridge in a last-ditch effort to protect the turf on either end.

Travel

If you quit after eight holes, you might have missed the other big change. The Old Course wasn’t the only one readying for the Open. There, on the ninth tee box, was Justin Rose, squeezing a practice round into his schedule in the busy weeks before the 150th. Rose had a security guard alongside, but he didn’t need one. The locals out for a mid-afternoon stroll hardly turned to watch as the man with 24 professional wins bombed driver over their heads. Another day, another new development at the Old Course.

On Sunday afternoon, there came the latest new development at the Old Course. His name was Tiger Woods, and for the first time in three years, he was playing a practice round in advance of an expected start at the Open Championship.

The 15-time major champion has won twice here, in 2000 and ’05, but those are far from his only fond memories here. Woods has long maintained that the Old Course is his favorite track on earth — even better than Augusta National — and he has built the last several months around his appearance this week.

He is famously private. This works well in advance of most major championships, in which phone-wielding Zapruders and helicopters are the only ones capable of capturing his presence. At the Old Course, though, privacy is not a right. The course sits on public property, which means that on days in which tournaments are not being contested, the public has the same claim to the land that Woods does.

Some new developments are enough to stir the interest of the St. Andrews faithful, and evidently, the appearance of Tiger Woods is one of them. By the time Woods had made it to the turn, a hefty crew of a few hundred followed outside the ropes. By the time he reached the Road Hole, that number had swelled to a few thousand.

Later this week, tickets to see Tiger Woods play golf at the Old Course will run well over $250. On Sunday, the price was more modest: free.

Plenty have already weighed in on the state of Woods’ game since his practice round: he looked good, he looked gimpy; he hit a stinger, he made birdie. Plenty more will share their own prognostications for the week to come. Ultimately, neither will capture the essence of Sunday, because it has precious little to do with gaits or gap-wedges.

Rather, the significance of Woods’ round is in its simplicity. In the gift of seeing a legend, at a legendary place, with no pretense or predetermination. At the home of golf, this is how golf’s greatest player was meant to be seen.

On Sunday, the Old Course provided us with something new again. That wasn’t a surprise. In St. Andrews, not much is.

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The post The clubs LIV golfer Louis Oosthuizen used to win the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

The post The clubs LIV golfer Louis Oosthuizen used to win the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews appeared first on Golf.

Winning the Open Championship is a feat to be celebrated. Winning it by seven shots on the Old Course at St. Andrews is beyond impressive. Well that’s exactly what Louis Oosthuizen did in 2010, and you might be surprised by some of the clubs he had in his bag.

Driver

Ping Rapture V2 (9°) with a Project X X6B7 shaft

The Ping Rapture V2 followed in the footsteps of the original Ping Rapture driver — which to this day remains the only driver Ping has ever built with a carbon composite crown. The V2 went back to a titanium construction and was a dramatic shift in geometry with a flowing crown and flat sole that placed tungsten weights at the extreme rear of the club to boost MOI while lowering spin.

The Rapture line marked the first time Ping offered a full line of competing “premium” products under a different name in the marketplace against the traditional “G” and “i” lines at a higher price point. The Rapture line was followed by a full line of Anser clubs in 2012, and one of those hybrids was used by Phil Mickelson when he won his Open Championship in 2013.

Fairway Woods 

Nike SQ Sumo 3-wood (13°) and 5-wood (19°) with Project X X6B7 shafts

If there were ever clubs that would stand out like a sore thumb it would be Nike fairway woods in a Ping staffers golf bag. No offense to Nike, but beyond staff players including Scottie Scheffler — who just recently replaced his old Nike VR 3 wood, there weren’t many golfers in this era using any Nike clubs without a contract. 

The other standout element of Louis fairway woods is the fact that he used the same weight shafts in his 3 and 5-wood as he did in his driver — the original Project X Series X6B7. This is not a common way to build fairway woods since most players will use a shaft that weighs 10-20 grams heavier compared to the driver.

Irons

Ping S56, (3-9-iron) with True Temper Dynamic Gold X-100 shafts

The Ping S series irons marked a dramatic shift in design philosophy for a company that never really pushed the envelope into the blade-like iron category. The original model was the S59 released in 2007, followed by the S58, S57, and eventually the S56 used by Louis. 

Even with their smaller shape they still offered a relatively high MOI thanks to a tungsten weight positioned in the low toe of the club — just like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the Ping engineers “find a way”.

Wedges

Ping Tour S Rustique: 47°, 54° & 60° with True Temper Dynamic Gold X-100 shafts

For Ping, this era marked a lot of firsts for the company, with another making its way into the bag of the eventual Open Championship winner — rusty wedges. After enough consumer and tour player demand, when the Tour S wedges were released they were offered in both a chrome and oil-can type finish that would intentionally wear and rust over time. 

Ping has since moved on from raw wedges completely in favor of there hydropearl chrome which helps increase friction and maintain spin in wet conditions.

Putter

Ping Redwood Anser – Long Neck Prototype

To offer some background for those that don’t possess the sometimes crippling amount of nerdy equipment knowledge that roams around in my brain, the Redwood series was the first time Ping offered a one-piece milled stainless steel putter to the general consumer. Think of the Redwod putters at the grandaddy to the modern PLD series. 

Louis’ putter was a prototype long plumbers neck verion of the Redwood Anser, which helped make the head more face balanced and it was never released to the public. 

Before the Redwood, Ping offered a milled titanium and tungsten putter line in 2002 called the JAS but the hefty price tag of close to $500 created by the manufacturing processes and materials it never became a mainstream success.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.

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