Golf: The 150th Open will be played at St Andrews in July - Heswall's Derek Lawrenson looks forward to it
When he isn't abroad following the world's greatest players, Derek Lawrenson, golf correspondent of the Daily Mail, lives in Heswall. This is his preview of the forthcoming and very special Open Championship.
An Open at St Andrews is always the highlight of any golfing year but this July it takes on a particular significance as the sport celebrates the 150th edition of the game's oldest championship.
The worldwide demand has been such that over a million applications were received by the besieged offices of The R&A for the 200,000 precious tickets. Try getting accommodation anywhere within an easy drive of the Home of Golf and you will become acquainted with prices invariably featuring an extra nought than would be the norm.
Adding to the anticipation, of course, is the fact the pandemic has meant that we've had to wait a year longer than planned. The fact it also falls in a non-Ryder Cup year just adds to the momentousness of the occasion.
The week will begin with an extension of the Champions Challenge last seen for the millennium Open at St Andrews in 2000, when every living winner of the Claret Jug was invited to play the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th holes.
To reflect the sport's wider appeal, this time it will feature not just past Open winners but some of the female stars of the game and an assortment of gifted golfers who make light of their disabilities. In announcing the challenge, Martin Slumbers, chief executive of The R&A, said: 'We are bringing together golf's greatest names with current and future stars for a unique and fitting exhibition over the Old Course.'
How will the oldest of old courses cope with today's bombers? One hundred and sixty two years on from that grand October day, when eight professional golfers gathered at Prestwick to contest the first Open, that will be the most-debated question before the action begins.
How many par fours will Bryson DeChambeau be able to drive? There's even some talk that he might have a nibble at driving the first green. Yes, that is still the one with the Swilken Burn running in front of the putting surface, some 320 yards from the tee.
If the weather is clement and there is little wind, we will see plenty of 400 yard drives and more fuel added to the debate as to whether the ball travels too far. But look down the list of St Andrews champions and you will be hard pushed to find a player who won the Claret Jug solely because he could pound the ball hundreds of yards into the ether. Even long John Daly, the winner in 1995, completed the feat as much with his dextrous touch on and around the greens as his self-proclaimed and proven ability to 'grip it and rip it'.
The last winner at St Andrews, in 2015, was America's latest Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, who is nobody's idea of a big hitter. There is still hope, therefore, for those who can't drive half a dozen par fours.
If truth be told, The R&A won't mind a jot if there are 400 yard drives. Indeed, they would welcome them. That would mean the links is playing hard and fast and, as every seaside golfer knows, that is actually the best form of defence. Hard and fast would give us a proper Open, where the balance of power moves towards the short game magicians, with the skill and imagination to cope with all the subtle humps and hollows that are a feature of the double greens at St Andrews.
Who's going to win? It's true that St Andrews has been especially favoured by the leading American golfers of the age. Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus….no fewer than seven of the last ten Opens staged at the Old Course have been won by a player from the United States.
Looking down the list of the current Americans, one name in particular leaps out to me…Jordan Spieth, winner down the road from here in such dramatic circumstances at Royal Birkdale in 2017, and the runner-up at Royal St George's last year following a pulsating duel with fellow countryman Collin Morikawa.
As we know, he's not the straightest driver of the ball but you can get away with that at St Andrews. We also know he's got a wizard's touch within 80 yards of any green.
No doubt you've got your own fancied name. Perhaps we might even see that rare thing these days, and a British winner of the Open. The last Englishman to win, would you believe, was Sir Nick Faldo way back in 1992. When you look at the calibre of English golfer to have followed on from Faldo, that is a staggering barren run. England is well overdue.
Everything is set, therefore. Now all we need is a little help from Mother Nature. Would it be too much to ask for some warmish sunshine and a wind on at least a couple of the four days of the order of 15-20 mph, strong enough to make the golfers think but not so strong as it negates their skills?
Whatever the weather brings, we can be assured of a special moment on Sunday, when the winner of the 150th Open is crowned in front of the most famous clubhouse in golf, one of the most iconic buildings in all of sport.
There is, of course, one final winner's perk we shouldn't overlook. When he's finished taking the Claret Jug on a journey around the world, staring at it like Shane Lowry often did, drinking various liquids out of it like fellow Irishman Darren Clarke, or strapping it in tightly on a speedboat courtesy of Henrik Stenson…he will get to defend it here in Wirral at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake.
Yes, the 150th Open at St Andrews is truly the one to win.
On Tuesday we explained how you can apply for Hoylake Open tickets - click or tap here to find out.
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