Story highlights
- 146th British Open starts Thursday
- Played at Royal Birkdale in northwest England
- Henrik Stenson is defending champion
The 146th British Open at Royal Birkdale, which starts Thursday on England’s northwest coast, promises to be one of the most open Opens in years.
The past seven majors have been won by first-time winners, although Royal Birkdale has a quirky habit of rewarding former champions and consecutive winners.
World No. 3 Spieth, though, thinks the traditional Open weather lottery could discount half the field straight away.
Open history is littered with infamous spells of weather, given the seaside locations of links courses and the changeable British summer climate.
Often one half of the draw — early or late starters on the first two days — suffers more than the other. When the tournament was last at Royal Birkdale in 2008 gales and driving rain marked the opening morning, while play was suspended for a spell because of high winds on the Saturday.
READ: Links, lies and ladybirds — 7 things to know about the Open
READ: Beacons of beauty — the world’s best golf links
‘Mind games’
“Most of the time there’s at least a group that gets the worst weather,” said Spieth, who fell foul of difficult conditions on the Friday at Royal Troon last year.
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“And it’s almost impossible to win in that circumstance.
“If it’s an afternoon round and the other side has already played the morning, that’s when it’s tough.
“Because you’re like, ‘I can’t shoot those scores. It’s not possible.’ And that’s frustrating when you think you can play your best and it doesn’t happen.”
READ: Spieth renews Tiger Woods comparisons with 10th title before 24
On the other hand, a favorable draw can add pressure to perform, he says.
“It’s a mind game that you play with yourself there,” said Spieth, who is looking to add to his two breakthrough majors from 2015.
The forecast for Thursday is mostly fine with winds gusting to 20-25 mph in the afternoon, while Friday will be breezy in the morning with outbreaks of rain in the afternoon.
‘Being Roger Federer’
England’s Rose says he is determined to “embrace” whatever happens with the weather and make a “non-issue” of it in his mind.
It’s part of his drive to emulate some of the qualities of Federer, who he watched from the Royal Box win his record eighth title at Wimbledon last week.
“Roger is the sporting athlete I look up to and can try and model,” said Rose, who is bidding to become the first Englishman to win the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.
“Everything he does is pretty much spot on, the way he handles himself, the grace in which he plays the sport I think is incredible. Mentally how he doesn’t give much away I think is a style that’s well suited to golf, too.
“Yes, I’m watching the tennis, but I’m watching him more than anything, and seeing what I can pick up. There are a few tricks here and there that you can apply to golf. I’ve always found it a bit easier to learn from other sportsmen than I have from golfers.”
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World No. 4 McIlroy won the Open at Hoylake in 2014 for his third major title, followed a few weeks later by his fourth at the US PGA, but has not won a major since and has struggled for form recently.
He has missed three of his last four cuts, stretching back to the US Open, and is consequently rated a general 20-1 shot with oddsmakers.
“Good time to back me, I think,” laughed the Northern Irishman, who didn’t cope well with strong winds at the 2011 Open and said at the time, “These conditions, I don’t enjoy playing in really.”
He laughed at the memory at Royal Birkdale Wednesday, another who has realized the danger of bemoaning your lot and talking your way out of it.
READ: Rory McIlroy to avoid social media after spat
‘Sky’s the limit
Defending champion Stenson, who beat Phil Mickelson in an epic final-day duel at Royal Troon last year, has vowed to add skydiving to his Claret Jug escapades, which include taking the trophy jet-skiing, should he win again.
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isQueue) {CNN.VideoPlayer.showSpinner(containerId);},onContentMetadata: function (containerId, playerId, metadata, contentId, duration, width, height) {var endSlateLen = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0).length;CNN.VideoSourceUtils.updateSource(containerId, metadata);if (endSlateLen > 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.fetchAndShowRecommendedVideos(metadata);}},onAdPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType) {clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);if (blockId === 0) {(new Image()).src = “http://traffic.outbrain.com/network/trackpxl?advid=814&action=view”;}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, event) {var playerInstance,prevVideoId;/** When the video content starts playing, inject analytics data* for Aspen (if enabled) and the companion ad layout* (if it was set when the ad played) should switch back to* epic ad layout. onContentPlay calls updateCompanionLayout* with the ‘restoreEpicAds’ layout to make this switch*/if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreEpicAds’);}clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibraryName(containerId) === ‘fave’) {playerInstance = FAVE.player.getInstance(containerId) || null;} else {playerInstance = containerId && window.cnnVideoManager.getPlayerByContainer(containerId).videoInstance.cvp || null;}prevVideoId = (window.jsmd && window.jsmd.v && (window.jsmd.v.eVar18 || window.jsmd.v.eVar4)) || ”;if (playerInstance && typeof playerInstance.reportAnalytics === ‘function’) {if (prevVideoId.length === 0 && document.referrer && document.referrer.search(//videos//) >= 0) {prevVideoId = document.referrer.replace(/^(?:http|https)://[^/]/videos/(.+.w+)(?:/video/playlists/.*)?$/, ‘/video/$1’);if (prevVideoId === document.referrer) {prevVideoId = ”;}}playerInstance.reportAnalytics(‘videoPageData’, {videoCollection: currentVideoCollectionId,videoBranding: CNN.omniture.branding_content_page,templateType: CNN.omniture.template_type,nextVideo: nextVideoId,previousVideo: prevVideoId,referrerType: ”,referrerUrl: document.referrer});}if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentReplayRequest: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);var $endSlate = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0);if ($endSlate.length > 0) {$endSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–active’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’);}}}},onContentBegin: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {CNN.VideoPlayer.mutePlayer(containerId);if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘removeEpicAds’);}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoSourceUtils.clearSource(containerId);jQuery(document).triggerVideoContentStarted();},onContentComplete: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreFreewheel’);}navigateToNextVideo(contentId, containerId);},onContentEnd: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(false);}}},onCVPVisibilityChange: function (containerId, cvpId, visible) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, visible);}};if (typeof configObj.context !== ‘string’ || configObj.context.length 0) {configObj.adsection = window.ssid;}CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibrary(configObj, callbackObj, isLivePlayer);});/* videodemanddust is a default feature of the injector */CNN.INJECTOR.scriptComplete(‘videodemanddust’);