Carnoustie, Scotland: Gary Player has a hunch it will be Rickie Fowler’s week at the British Open but his “big wish” is for Tiger Woods to end a 10-year major drought by holding aloft the Claret Jug for the fourth time.
The 82-year-old South African, who won the second of his three British Opens at Carnoustie 50 years ago, believes world golf needs Woods back at the top of his game.
Gary Player |
“Tiger is responsible for all these guys playing for a million dollars every week,” Player told reporters on the eve of the championship.
“I think Tiger is what has captured the young people, which we need in this game desperately at the moment.
“He brings more people, the sponsors are delighted, the public are delighted, you media are delighted because you are still in awe of him. My big wish would be that Tiger would win.”
Player, who collected nine major victories in total, said Woods’s career first began to unravel when he left long-time coach Butch Harmon in 2002.
“What I never understood is, when you win the 2000 US Open by 15 shots, we’re not talking about five shots we’re talking about 15, within two weeks he’s having a lesson,” said the super-fit, silver-haired veteran.
“From there on he was never the same force. He then went to another coach and he got confused. That was one of the sad things I saw because this man was doing things and getting people excited.”
Fowler, like his fellow American Woods, has proved he has the game to thrive on exposed seaside links courses like Carnoustie.
The 29-year-old Fowler has twice finished in the British Open’s top-five without managing to secure a breakthrough major victory.
He also won the Scottish Open on a links at Gullane in 2015 and was tied sixth in the same tournament last week.
“If you get a feeling about somebody winning, my feeling is for Rickie,” said Player. “He’s been very close at majors.
“He played so well last week and he’s in a good frame of mind. He’s a marvellous putter and he hits the ball pretty straight.”
Meanwhile, some players had to give up their drivers — at least temporarily — when British Open officials decided to test them to see if they were in violation of the rules.
The checks came in the midst of a distance debate that previously had been centred on golf balls, not clubs.
“We take our governance role very seriously, not just on the rules of golf and amateur status, but also equipment standards,” said Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R & A.
“And we felt it was an appropriate next step to more actively seek to test players’ drivers straight out of the bag.”
Both the R & A and the USGA measure what is known as “characteristic time,” or CT, to determine whether drivers conform to limits on “spring-like effect” that determines how far the golf ball can be hit. But the testing lately hasn’t involved a list of players asking them to bring the clubs from their bags.
“We’ve always had an equipment test capability down on the range, certainly since I’ve been involved in the Open,” Slumbers said. “It’s been an option for players or the manufacturers to take their equipment in and have it tested.”
Slumbers said all the players who had clubs tested were cooperative, and that the testing did not uncover any violations.
Rory McIlroy said his driver wasn’t tested, but that he saw the list of clubs tested and most of them were from the manufacturer of his driver, TaylorMade.
“I understand why they’re testing equipment,” McIlroy said. “If there is some drivers out there that have went a little bit over the limit, then, obviously, guys shouldn’t be playing them. I think the manufacturers are smart enough to know not to try to push it too much. I’d be very surprised if they found anything this week.”
