If you are a regular tour player there is a strong case for taking this week off. The British Open Championship comes at a busy and lucrative time in the Tour schedule. With a large proportion of tour players not exempt, the pre qualifying is the only means of securing a start, barring a top finish at Loch Lomond last week.
And so, most players beat a hasty path to the Dundee area for a quick look at their qualifying course. By comparison to their normal preparation for an event, the qualifying almost reverts to amateur days of less detailed reparation. Most contestants will not have had time for a practice round, the courses are unadorned by tournament accoutrements, the old shag bag will be dug out for practice sessions (no practice balls are provided by the R&A) and yardage books if there are any will not be as detailed as the regular tour book.
With the modern professional accustomed to routines, this swift change of playing circumstances can seem quite strange. There is a similar element of surprise for the caddie. Having been used to the spoon fed detailed yardage book and working off painted dots strategically placed on each fairway, there is a certain amount of trepidation when faced with a Strokesaver or worse still a book they have prepared themselves. Some of these courses may not have sprinklers to take yardages from which only adds to the confusion when trying to provide an accurate number for your man. A yardage given from the small tree lined up with the middle window of the red roofed house in the distance is not as confidence inspiring as the number recited from the yellow dot in the middle of the fairway.
The old art of compiling a useful yardage book is no longer a requirement of the modern professional caddie, unless of course you are involved with pre-qualifying for the British Open. Our regular tour numbers supplier, Graeme Heinrich, has made us all lazy and over-dependant on his product. Yet another old tradition has virtually become extinct. Thus the consternation in the caddie-shack when the task presents itself every mid July.
If a player was to be totally mercenary and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of trying to qualify for the British Open Championship, considering both the physical and mental energy expounded in doing so, he would probably surmise that it isn't worth the effort. Thankfully there are some romantics left playing professional golf, anyone who considers themselves to have half a game wants to take part in the best Major in golf. To hell with the expense, the optimists with a sense of history are battling it out on the links of Angus for a place in the 128th British Open.
Mac O'Grady is one of these romantics vying for his place at Carnoustie. Mac played the US Tour back in the eighties, won tournaments and tussled with the authorities. He lost form and started coaching which included Seve Ballesteros. Now in his late forties he's back and cuts just an imposing figure as he did when he was in his playing prime.
He would consider Panmure, his qualifying course, the cradle of golf. A traditional course dating back to 1845, - flat opening holes lead onto a duned undulating links. Simply sitting in the oak panelled interior of the clubhouse, with paintings and photographs of past captains instils a feeling of rich golfing tradition. It probably does not make sense for Mac to be here apart from the pleasure he obviously gets from striding the seaside terrain.
It's only when I look in his golf bag that I realise the extent of Mac's reverence for the traditional game. He's carrying three Apex Hogan persimmon woods, remember those. Hogan forged blades with steel shafts and leather grips. His left handed ping anser putter is the only piece of equipment that's not from another era. Dressed demurely in black and grey he would be hard to distinguish from Ben Hogan when he was here back in 1953. With an elongated and gaunt face his gaze could haunt you for life. He has an intensity that commands your attention, when waiting for his turn to play he moves far away from the teeing area to observe from a distance. He never lingers, he always seems to have a purpose. When its his turn to play the he does so swiftly and with precision.
His playing partner did not take a drop that he was entitled to, that would have greatly improved his lie beside the fifth green. Mac's first words of the day were uttered in response with a throaty West coast accent: "You're crazier than I am." A maverick in the increasingly dehumanised world of golf, he is a player worth watching not only for his eccentricities but also for his ball striking.
With an average of twelve players to qualify from each of the four courses and about 120 contestants at each course, it would seem to many that they have a better chance of winning the lottery. A three-ball of hopefuls at Penmure consisted of Peter O'Malley, Michael Campbell and Santiago Luna. Peter Senior was there along with Eduardo Romero and Mats Lanner. All serious contenders.
Some will be disappointed. If there is one contestant with a big advantage over the rest of the field its got to be Mac. With his persimmon and blades, he's got the equipment best suited to taming the old links. At least he thinks he does.
The 128th British Open Championship would have been a better tournament if Mac had teed it up on Thursday, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd shown up with a set of hickory shafted irons and a caddie wearing a tweed jacket.
Sadly, however, Mac is not going to make the first tee at Carnoustie after rounds of 71 and 75 he finished 11 shots behind the leading qualifier at Panmure but with the way they have set up the course maybe it's just as well he didn't, otherwise he would have had the mother of all run-ins with authority.
