Open Championship 2011- Day 3

Players who make the field in the Open Championship, earn so by their world ranking, last year’s finish in this tournament, various other exemptions- but most, play their way in the British Open through local or national qualifiers at various courses around the United Kingdom. It is a similar procedure as the USGA uses for the United States Open.

On Monday, I had the privilege of playing the Littlestone Golf Club in New Romney, which hosted an Open qualifier in the past couple of weeks. When the USGA conducts its local and regional qualifiers for the U.S. Open, the courses are top notch and the best in our country. Most of these take place at private clubs throughout the U.S.

Let me describe the Littlestone Golf Club for you. This course is a classic British links variety. The clubhouse is old and fairly modest. The parking lot is rather small. There are no motorized golf cars, just trolleys or pull carts as we know it in America. The practice range consisted of about a dozen stalls with artificial mats.  A warm up range bucket cost 1.5 pounds (approximately $2.50 U.S.) for about 30 old and soiled balls.

The setting at Littlestone is “brilliant”, an often used British phrase. This links course winds up and down the British coast along the English Channel. A comfortable breeze blew throughout the day. Littlestone’s fairways were not irrigated and they were parched, spotty and burned out in many areas. The fairways were guarded by links style fescue grasses and pot bunkers.

The greens were slow by American standards, although our caddies swore they rolled 11 on a stimp meter a couple of weeks ago when the course hosted the Open qualifier.  The cost to join Littlestone is 1,100 pounds per year, which equates into $1,833 U.S. dollars. The caddie fee was 50 pounds including the gratuity or $83 U.S. dollars.

Over the years, Littlestone has entertained some of the top names in the world of golf at its Open qualifiers. I couldn’t but think that Americans would not tolerate a course such as Littlestone.  The playing conditions were sub-standard by our expectations. However, let’s remember where we are and not forget the way the people in the UK approach golf. Maybe their way, is the way golf was meant to be played.

I would guess that the annual maintenance budget at Littlestone has to be near $100,000 U.S. dollars. This is where we screwed up golf in the U.S. We created high maintenance standards, which have resulted in outlandish budgets for our courses. Unfortunately, America will never turn back. But, the British hold the line because golf was invented here and this is how the game was meant to be played.

As I mentioned, several holes at Littlestone border the English Channel. My caddy, a pleasant chap named Mick, pointed out a huge piece of concrete about 100 yards off the coast, near the 17^th hole a 185 yard, par three. He explained that this was part of a dock that was used to tie up the U.S. boats in the Normandy invasion, many of which were launched across the English Channel from New Romney .

The dock later broke loose from the shore and floated to sea. Anything bad that happened to me that day at Littlestone GC was minor compared to the day the guys had who left that dock headed to Omaha Beach.

During the round we saw a small steam engine toting eight open air passenger cars on a nearby railway. According to Mick it is “the world’s smallest passenger railway in the world” encompassing a 15-mile stretch from Dungeness to Hythe.                   

The overall experience at Littlestone Golf Club was great. It was another retro British golf round and this is what golf in the U.K. is all about.

On the way home, we experienced a unique bit of the local culture. I am with Allen Wronowski, PGA President and Derek Sprague, PGA Secretary. Allen is from Phoenix, MD and Derek hails from Malone, NY. Sprague was driving, which is no easy task here. You drive on the opposite side of the road and steer from the passenger’s side. He clipped a curb about 15 miles from Canterbury and one of our front tires went flat. We found ourselves stranded on the English country side when our rental vehicle had no spare tire.

We were able to pull the van into the driveway of a nearby farmhouse, where we met Peter Southern, a very nice English gentleman who owned the farm. Four and a half hours later, a recovery truck (wrecker) showed up and took us back to Canterbury. As we departed Southern’s farm he remarked, “I am embarrassed for my country. This was a bit of a sad situation.” Gotta love the English!

Parking is limited at the hotel, so I held a parking spot while Sprague backed in the van with the flat tire. In was doing so, I had to turn away Paul Casey, top English golfer driving a BMW, from the same parking spot. When he saw our flat tire, which hopefully gets repaired tomorrow, we traded a few good natured barbs.

After Casey found out about our debacle he joked and said, “Well, you boys lost some valuable drinking time, but seems you can make that up in short order!”

Many players including Casey, Camillo Villegas, Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan are staying at our hotel in Canterbury. Joining us is Tim Finchem from PGA Tour and many other golf officials from around the world.       

It was a quirky day, to say the least!

Hitchhiking in England