Of gorse

Brian Anderson has been the head professional at Royal Troon for the past 34 years. In this exclusive feature, he provides his thoughts on what players must do -- and not do -- to be successful at this week's 133rd Open Championship.

By David Vecsey, Special to PGA.com

You don’t have to know exactly what “gorse” is to enjoy saying it. But if you want to get a good look at some, just watch the Open Championship this weekend at Royal Troon in Scotland, where the world’s best golfers will be knee deep in the prickly stuff.

Perhaps that’s why Brian Anderson, Royal Troon’s Head Golf Professional of 34 years, walks a newcomer to the first tee and offers these final words of sage advice: “Don’t miss the fairway.”

Simple as that.

“Like on most links courses, you have got to drive the ball well,” Anderson said. “The person who doesn’t get into trouble will win this championship.”

Troon’s pitfalls are well documented. It isn’t enough to know what to do there. High, wispy broom and the thorny gorse infringe on the fairways, which are dotted with pot bunkers. The wind blows at your back going out and into your face coming in. The course has the shortest and the longest holes in Open Championship play.

A young Tiger Woods discovered the perils of Troon as a Tour rookie in 1997, when he tied the course record with a 64 on Saturday and was 10 strokes worse on Sunday. Everybody knows that you must be four or five strokes under par on the front because you have little chance of making a run on the back.

Nearly 130 years old, Troon still offers one of the stiffest challenges in all of golf. And while most American courses counter this big-driving era by stretching out like airport runways, Troon lets the elements and some carefully planned bunkers take the driver out of the big hitters’ hands. You’ve got to keep the ball low in the Scottish wind, something Justin Leonard said his Texas upbringing helped him win the claret jug here in 1997.

“I wouldn’t say you have to strike the ball differently per se,” Anderson says. “But there is no protection from the Atlantic Ocean at all, and it’s windy most of the time. If the wind is reasonably strong, you have to play the ball under the wind. Guys want to play high all the time, well the ball just lands and stops. With seaside links, it’s more bounce and run. Keep it under the wind.”

And even if you do that, there are those pot bunkers that seem to have a magnetic pull on golf balls. Anderson says the positioning of these bunkers is designed to force players to go for less club as opposed to more club.

“In view of fact that these guys carry the ball so far, we have introduced bunkers at specific holes to make them think twice about using the driver to thread the needle,” Anderson says.

“We’ve put two more pot bunkers between 50 and 100 yards in front of the green on No. 1, at about 285, 305 yards. If you’re going to drive that green, you’re probably going to get one these fairway bunkers. The ploy there is play a 2- or 3-iron out off the tee.

“On the second hole, we’ve introduced a new bunker in the center of the fairway at 280 yards. If you’re going to hit the driver, you have to carry that, otherwise you want to lay up with a 3-iron.”

Troon’s most famous hole is its aptly named “Postage Stamp” at No. 8. It’s a mere 123 yards, but is the only hole on the front nine where the wind is in your face. Hit the green or expect a bogey. Or worse.

“There’s no safe place except the green,” Anderson says. “It doesn’t matter where you miss the green … you’re in trouble.. You’re hitting into a prevailing wind coming at you from the left, which is the nastiest wind of all. It’s imperative that you don’t play it high. It’s more of a pitch-and-run shot. I think Arnold Palmer hit a 5-iron in ‘62 when he won the tournament.”

That’s the short of it. The long of it comes at No. 6, a 600-yard par-5 that is the longest hole in Open Championship play. You can go driver off the tee as long as you can keep your ball in the middle of the fairway. A second shot with a fairway wood also must be precise to avoid bunkers. Sand dunes frame the green, which is backed by out of bounds territory. Oh, and don’t miss to the right, either, because you won’t just lose your ball in that rough, you may lose yourself.

Another hole to watch this weekend, Anderson says, is the 488-yard, par-4 No. 11, which was historically one of the easiest holes on the course … when it was a par-5. But after trimming all of six yards off the distance and turning it into a par-4, it is now one of the toughest.

“It is fraught with danger if you go for the green in two,” Anderson says. “From the tee, you see almost no fairway at all through a sea of gorse. It’s very intimidating. And your second shot can be knocked out of bounds very easily, too.”

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.