VictorOnopko
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Posts posted by VictorOnopko
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21 hours ago, Ziggy Sobotka said:
Reckon he'll be telling Boab he's in regardless.
Not sure about that, although hope you're right. Stating the obvious, but Bob *really* needs to play well in these first two rounds with Donald, especially coming off the missed cut in a pretty feeble field last week.
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8 hours ago, peasy23 said:
That's the 6 US Qualifiers now locked in. Now that Koepka has slipped out the top 6 I'm fully expecting a LIV free team.
All great players ofc, but not as scary a prospect as their top 6 might have been. They were so far ahead of Europe at Whistling Straits that the long-term picture looked grim. But if ZJ doesn't pick Bruce or Bryson, who are clearly still great players, and DJ is out cos he is LIV/old, and they're missing Thomas due to losing his game then this year I don't think Europe are that far behind. Fitzp and Hovland hitting form is also welcome. Could do with Lowry doing the same.
Basically, I think the LIV losses might be bigger for the Yanks than Europe, since Westwood, Poulter, Casey, Garcia, Stenson were all pretty much done anyway.
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Disappointing result for Celtic there, a wee shame.
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13 hours ago, lichtie23 said:
Just watched a video from YouTuber Peter Finch of him playing the back 9 at Brora.
What a course that looks! Might have to go on the bucket list
I was lucky enough to get up there and play it and Tain in June. Well worth the trip; Brora feels pretty wild but is very playable (loads of room on wide drives on the front 9 at least). Golspie, Tain and Brora are hard to separate - all really good.
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Scottish Amateur up at Dornoch and Tain this week - this chap seems to have started off OK (two course records in a row).
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30 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:
Serves them right for holding it in Wales
Haha... To be fair, Porthcawl looks like a great test. Wish we'd got windy conditions like these last week at the Open.
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1 hour ago, pozbaird said:
We’ve all been there. My best one was standing on the 18th tee at Lochwinnoch’s closing downhill Par 3. Bunkers left and right of a narrow green shaped somewhat like the number 8. Needed a 3 for a nett 63 in a competition. Hit a lovely five wood, but it slightly hooked left. Went into the left bunker right up against the face. I had no shot. If I stood in the bunker, I was facing completely away from the green. If I stood outside the bunker and crouched down to attempt the shot, I was looking at three inches of sand, then the ball. If you imagine a compass with the green in the middle. I was stuck at W. Wanted to travel from W to E, but couldn’t. Had to choose between aiming S or N. As a right hander, chose South as I would be standing in the bunker. Hit the shot, thinned it, and it rammed off the bunker face, shot across the green at a 90 degree angle, and thumped down into the other bunker. My arse was melting in front of my, and everyone in the clubhouse lounge’s eyes. Stepped into bunker No2 to play my third shot. Took too much sand, the ball moved about one foot forward. Hit my fourth shot out of the bunker, managed to get it on the edge of the green but nowhere near the pin… three putted for a 7. Came in with a nett 67 and the competition was won with a nett 66.
The details are so etched in my brain that they will never leave. Therapy is no use. I am damaged goods.
Edit - haven’t played Lochwinnoch in nearly 20 years, but a moment ago nipped into Google Earth for a screengrab. The 18th green less resembles a figure 8 now, it’s filled out in the middle a bit, but those two fcuking bunkers… the scene of my crime. Still there. Still laughing at me.
Yep, I reckon we all have a few holes like that, permanently seared into the golfing mind.
One of my worst was when (after taking most of my 20s off golf) I was playing "For" a handicap again up on Moray Old. I was hoping to end up off 12; maybe 10 if I played to my best at that time. I played decently, avoided the gorse, and was +10 in the middle of the par-5 17th fairway with a straightforward 90 yard pitch in for my third. I usually fancy putting pitches quite close... and yet I somehow snap-hooked it into heavy rough on a steep bank Two hacks, two putts, double bogey 7. Confidence gone and I rounded it off by doubling the last for good measure = a 14 handicap. It took me quite a while to grind those 4 shots off in the old handicap system and eventually get down to 9, when it had all been right there in front of me that day!
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This might have been done to death before but isn't one of the problems that back in the day matchplay ties were 80% of the handicap difference then that got changed to full difference? That really skewed things in favour of 18-20+ handicappers. Pretty sure scramble team limits used to be lower too (although that's maybe not the biggest issue with winning scramble scores!)
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19 hours ago, peasy23 said:
So it seems the Royal Liverpool members were already fed up with the 17th even before the pros got to whinge about it. Mentions of groups regularly taking 30 minutes to play it.
Fortunately we have a proper short par-3 to look forward to in next year's Open which didn't need to be specially manufactured in the 21st century to host an Open (then "blown up" afterwards):
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12 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:
Harman was excellent all week, and a well deserved winner.
It's also totally wrong to describe him as a Curtis/Hamilton-type winner. He is a bit of a journeyman, but had finished T19 and then 6th at the last two Opens, and had also previously finished T2 at the 2017 US Open behind Koepka.
In terms of quality/career, he's miles better than Hamilton who did nothing else of note. He's unlike Curtis in that he's highly ranked and golf fans knew who he was. However...
He's a kind of reverse-Curtis as Curtis went on to have 2 more T-10 finishes in the Open and was 2nd at the PGA. He won 4 PGA tour events and played a Ryder Cup. His Open win was honking because it was his debut as a complete unknown and he bogeyed his way home and got away with it. Harmon is obviously established on tour, but he's 36 and this Open is his third win in 12 years. So, loads of praise for his steely play and he obviously deserved it (winning by 6 is incredible), but overall, career prestige wise he's not much ahead. Maybe he'll kick on and win lots more now, maybe not. He'll be a really tough Ryder Cup competitor too.
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6 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:
I'm not even against Harman winning, I just want it to be in the balance going into the final couple of holes.
I know players have run up 8s and 9s on the 18th and the talk is no lead is safe going up the last, but if you're 3 or 4 shots ahead on the 18th tee you just hit three 6 irons and take all the danger out of it.
Agreed - a boring procession is the last thing we want in an Open final round. And, all the talk about the dangerous last two holes ignores the fact that Harman is one of, if not the, steadiest, straightest players in the field; he's not going OB there. That steadiness, and not missing a single one of his 44 putts from 10ft and in (!!!) this week is why he is so far ahead. A stronger breeze today might also have made him more likely to fall back I think.
PS The Sky coverage of players sitting in the back of their courtesy cars en route to the course is a truly terrible idea.
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Harman isn't going away, unfortunately. Him and big Jon "the Buoy" in the final group tomorrow would be an interesting match up.
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Apologies if this wee piece on Michael Stewart making the cut has been posted already. -1 is a great score for the lad and hope he keeps it up today:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/66263737
Couldn't get the red button earlier - Sky's early programme with almost no actual golf, preferring to show idiotic chat, golf shots by a cricketer (?) with a cricket bat and Radar doing stupid voices was eye-bleeding stuff.
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34 minutes ago, Disco Duck said:
Homa, Fowler, Horschel, Koepka, Finau, Theegala, DJ (of those at the Open just now)
ETA - Scheffler as well
Finau and Theegala good shouts. I can't warm to Scheffler at all, partly the slipping feet but more the "my faith in the Lord is my greatest strength on the golf course because everything is His will" shtick. God bothering speeches by Yank Open winners are pure cringe. See also Lehman, Z Johnson etc.
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My list of acceptable Americans is pretty short.
Spieth, Fowler, Homa, Joel Dahmen, don't mind Zalatoris and DJ. That's it. Sadly, even a few of them are as slow as Cantlay.
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10 minutes ago, KnightswoodBear said:
I don't know what it is, but there's something about Brian Harman i find massively dislikable.
For me it's his relentless short but straight hitting, massive putter, total lack of personality, and MEGACORP hat. He could become one of those occasional no-mark, random American winners of the Open we have to suffer.
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6 minutes ago, peasy23 said:
I'm getting annoyed with this "internal" OB getting mentioned all the time. It's not something that's just been added in for The Open, it's a permanent feature of the course. If the Royal Liverpool membets can put up with it then I'm sure the world's best golfers can too. Bishopbriggs also has it, if you f**k it into the practice area on 12 or 16 then it's OB, as it should be imo.
From memory I think Duff House Royal in Banff also has internal OB.
I'm enjoying watching the play on this course more than I thought I would; the bunkers really are brutal, but I still think it's a pretty forgettable course overall - except for the 17th which has just been built (and looks like it should be on a different course altogether), and maybe the last.
PS Dame Laura and Henni are both fine as is McGinley's absence so far, although he'll probably be relentlessly droning across the weekend.
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38 minutes ago, peasy23 said:
The first fairway seems to be quite a elusive target from what I've seen so far.
Yup. Just been watching for an hour, loads of left misses - the only player I've seen ripping it straight down the middle was some guy called B. MacIntyre.
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10 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:
Jammy basturt. On a sunny day with a bit of run and an absolute melter iv seen me hit close to 300 yards but it's the exception rather than the rule. No better feeling in golf than a tee shot followed by a long walk
Aye, unless it's two fairways over from the one you were aiming at.
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2 hours ago, Ro Sham Bo said:
Bob jumps just the 50 places up the world rankings after yesterday. Now 54th in the world.
Delighted to see how big the rankings jump is. Huge cheque/points even for second even though the result ended up being so cruel.
We'd all have loved Bob to win yesterday, and a PGA tour card would have been a career changer, but hopefully this is a big step back into the Top 50, getting into all the majors, and making the Ryder Cup team (which, on form and points, he was nowhere near 2 or 3 weeks ago before Denmark). A strong week at the Open would obviously be huge.
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7 minutes ago, Distant Doonhamer said:
Have to say I really like Coltart and Dougherty. I'm just enjoying that there's no Faldo or McGinley involved.
McGinley is the absolute worst, never shuts up. I'm being a tad harsh on Coltart; he's OK but usually just states the obvious.
COME ON BOB!
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I think Laura is brilliant Super-knowledgable and technically insightful on all types of shots (based on a stellar career spanning decades ofc), good sense of humour, and always worth listening to.
Dougherty and Coltart on the other hand... I almost prefer the constant ad breaks to their dull, obvious witterings.
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18 minutes ago, Autistisches Nilpferd said:
Rory been in America too long and cannie play in the wind anymore?
Despite where he comes from, Rory's never been great in tough, windy/bad conditions - unlike, say, Lowry and Harrington. He did manage a 427 yard drive today though.
PS Come on Bob!
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16 hours ago, peasy23 said:
Some interesting stuff on this thread, looks like Lytham is carrying out some work to be Open ready again. St. George's had better crowds than Muirfield even with Covid restrictions.
That thread is a good read. St George's being in the south east of England means it will always draw good crowds. The Muirfield figure there seems like the only outlier.
Is it just me or is Hoylake a really dull course with few memorable holes? Let's hope the "new" 17th this year is fun. Like Lytham it isn't really next to the sea but almost surrounded by houses. St George's is apparently the players' least favourite as the bounces are so unfair.
Portrush has (rightly) been reintroduced, with Turnberry unofficially dropped, so overall, with my nationalist bunnet on, I think Scotland is losing out a bit on the Open scheduling and rota these days compared to years gone by. Used to be 5-3 Scotland and it's now 4-5. Overall the rota seems a bit stale.
I also think the R&A should have shown some initiative and held a crowd-free 2020 Open somewhere unusual like Royal Dornoch or Old Prestwick (how long does it take to build a few extra back tees!?
or take it to Porthcawl or Aberdeen rather than just banking their massive insurance payout like Wimbledon did.
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6 under 66 for Bob in Round 1 - great stuff with Donald watching close up. Same again tomorrow please!