Golf:Officials at the British Open today admitted a number of bunkers at Royal Lytham were causing concern after the ongoing bad weather — but made no apologies for the rough described as "almost unplayable" by Tiger Woods.
An overnight downpour left areas of standing water around the course and added to the already high water table level, which could particularly affect some of the course’s 206 bunkers when play gets under way on Thursday morning.
Jim McArthur, chairman of the R&A’s championship committee, said: “Obviously the weather has caused us some problems, and perhaps some more to come. The course is at the moment perfectly playable thanks to the huge and time-consuming efforts of the greenkeeping staff. The greens are fine. They’re a bit soft and a bit slower than we’d probably like at this stage of the Championship.
“There are some bunkers which are causing us some concern because of the water table and the level of the groundwater, but we’re confident that the rules of golf will help us cope with any situations which develop there.
“Based on the course conditions, we’re not intending to play preferred lies. We’ll have some issues off the golf course with spectator walkways, which we’re dealing with at the moment, and these are gradually improving. And we’re really hoping that the improving weather forecast which we’ve been promised will take some of the pressure off and problems off the golf course.”
R&A chief executive Peter Dawson revealed that the bunkers causing concern were on the second, 14th, 16th and 17th holes, but added: “When I came here 10 days ago it was much wetter then after the cloudburst than it is now. And two days later of good, drying weather you would think the golf course was in normal summer condition.
“It was very firm and there was no standing water anywhere. This course does dry extremely quickly I’m delighted to say. The weather forecast we have is that whatever rain we’re going to get overnight tonight will stop around 4am, and then the forecast is dry for the rest of the Championship.”
Tony Jacklin, who won his Open title at Lytham in 1969, warned players to stop whingeing about the conditions if they hoped to lift the Claret Jug on Sunday after Woods’s comments following a practice round on Sunday.
However, Dawson added: “I think Tiger may have been taken somewhat out of context, given my discussions with him. Certainly if you stray a long way off these fairways, the rough is brutal, as it is on every links course in the British Isles at the moment with the summer weather, if you can call it summer weather, that we’ve had.
“The champion on Sunday I doubt will have won from the rough. I think he’ll be winning from the short grass, so there’s a premium on hitting fairways this week, obviously. The fairways are reasonably generous, if you stray a long way off, then you’re going to be penalised.
“As we always say with the rough, we leave it to nature, and nature this year has given us the thick stuff.”
Contingency plans are also in place to avoid the issues with spectator parking which saw fans urged to stay away from practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with as-yet unused car parks and park-and-ride schemes on standby.
