GOLF: PHILIP REIDlooks at the British Open venue which has evoked harsh words and severe criticism in the past

QUIRKY IS one word to describe the Royal St George’s links. There are others. Bumpy. Humpy. Unfair? For, of all the courses on the British Open rotation, this moonscape is one that frustrates players. In fact, the RA stayed away for over 30 years – keeping it off the championship rota from 1949 to 1981 – as they tired of player complaints about several holes with blind shots and, on its last staging here in 2003, Fred Funk – normally a polite and courteous soul – remarked: “I shouldn’t say I hated the golf course, but I hated the golf course . . . it is nearly impossible to keep a ball in play.”

It is what it is, however, and this year’s 140th edition of golf’s oldest Major championship – coming on the back of a lengthy dry spell – promises more of those bounces where the ball careers off in a tangent to the fairway. On this occasion, though, the dry weather means the rough is unlikely to gobble up balls in the way it did eight years ago where one of the victims, off his opening drive, was a certain Tiger Woods.

He lost a ball off the first in running up a triple bogey seven. His fellow-American, Jerry Kelly, fared worse, running up an 11.

In fact, the fairway on the first is one of the changes made by the RA for this week’s return to Sandwich. In 2003, less than 30 per cent of balls off the first tee stayed on the fairway and, as a consequence, the landing area has been widened by 12 yards.

The change to the first is one of a number of user-friendly alterations: the 17th and 18th fairways have also been widened. But what the RA gives with one hand, it takes with the other.

The course has actually been lengthened by 105 yards and, despite the increase in its distance, the course’s par has dropped from 71 to 70.

The most significant added length is to the par-three third hole, which will play 30 yards longer this year. The par-five seventh has had an additional 32 yards put on – increasing it to 564 yards – whilst the main alteration on the homeward run has been to stretch the 15th from 475 yards to a 496 yards par four.That hole was the start of Thomas Bjorn’s collapse in 2003 when he went from three ahead with four to play to eventually finish a shot behind Ben Curtis.

Although the 15th was tough enough as it was, playing above its par to an average of 4.387 in 2003, the RA’s Peter Dawson explain the new tee was designed because “there was a corner of the golf course there that was a natural spot for a new tee, and it’s just to do with the keeping up, if you like, with the distance these guys are hitting it today”.

One of the key factors this week will have nothing to do with the added length or the course’s reduction by a stroke in its par; it will be the lack of rough. This part of England has experienced one of its driest springs in a century. Although there was 2.6 inches of rainfall in June, it came too late to beef up the rough. There was only 1.3 inches of rain from March to May (against the norm of 5.8 inches) and the result will be firm fairways – with the infamous bumps coming ever more into play – and for greens to play hard.

Curtis, the man who conquered the links in 2003, talked yesterday of the challenges that players face. “You’ve got to be able to control the flight of your ball and you’ve got to figure out how much roll you’re going to get after the ball lands . . . a little bit of preparation, playing (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), just getting used to seeing how far each club in the bag would roll downwind, into the wind, side wind. You have a pretty good idea by Thursday, and then you still learn more as you go on and on.

“That’s probably the biggest thing, and obviously course management – you’ve got to stay out of those bunkers! But the biggest thing is controlling the flight of your ball, especially if the wind gets up. If you can’t keep the ball down or control your flight or hit the shots you want, then you’re in trouble,” remarked Curtis.

And, it would seem, that’s how it has always been on this links in Kent, the so-called “Garden of England”. This is the 14th time that Royal St George’s will play host to the British Open and, historically, it has the distinction of being the first outside of Scotland to stage the major championship. The links was discovered by a Scottish surgeon, Laidlaw Purves, who had actually visited England’s south coast with his brother Alexander to see when the Roman emperor Claudius had landed in AD43. The history lesson became secondary when Purves, a keen golfer, found himself on a stretch of untouched linksland. And, in 1887, Purves – along with his friend Henry Lamb, a wine merchant, and another London-based Scot William Anderson – founded St George’s Golf Club on land leased from the Earl of Guilford with a farmhouse as a ready-made clubhouse.

Ramsay Hunter, a greenkeeper, was brought down from Scotland to help sculpt the course and Purves, who had no experience of golf course architecture, took it on himself to do the layout. He was aided by natural terrain that lent itself to the construction of holes and, within five years of opening, it was rewarded with the British Amateur championship. In 1894, it was given the Open championship itself and JH Taylor became the first winner on this terrain.

The length of the course has, of course, increased over time and has caused much head-scratching among amateurs and pros.

ROYAL ST GEORGE’S THE KEY HOLES

8th Hole: 453 Yards, Par 4. 2003 Ranking: 1st (Average 4.52)

The uphill drive on this dogleg right must avoid the two fairway bunkers positioned on the elbow down the right. The approach shot places a premium on a player’s iron play, with the pin often obscured by some 80 yards of rough. There are bunkers short – left and right – of the undulating green.

15th Hole: 496 Yards, Par 4. 2003 Ranking: 5th (Average 4.38)

This is the longest Par 4 on the course and, with a new tee box adding 21 yards since this hole played a key role in Thomas Bjorn’s late collapse eight years ago, it is likely to play even tougher this time round. There are five penal fairway bunkers – two down the right, three down the left – which must be avoided off the tee and players will face a long approach shot in to a small green that runs away to the right.

17th Hole: 426 Yards, Par 4. 2003 Ranking: 2nd (Average 4.48)

Not overly long by modern standards, the numerous bumps and fairway swales add an element of luck which is a characteristic of golf on this links. Even after finding the fairway, a player could be left with an awkward downhill lie; or a tee shot that hits the fairway could bound off into the rough. Links golf as it should be played, perhaps. The approach is to a green which sits on a plateau and is guarded by four bunkers.

18th Hole: 459 Yards, Par 4. 2003 Ranking: 3rd (Ave 4.47)

Fred Funk may have decried this hole when he played it in the 2003 Open but it remains a classic finishing hole, albeit slightly remodelled for this latest staging of the championship. The fairway has been moved to the right and there are more bunkers in the landing area, whilst the bunker short left of the green has been moved closer to the putting surface.