Taming breezy Troon isn't easy

TROON, Scotland -- They wouldn't call the wind Mariah here at Royal Troon. It's Scotland. They'd have to call the wind something else: Bonnie, perhaps? Or if it's brutish and masculine, perhaps something good and Scottish: Malcolm or Ian or Robert the Bruce.

They have to call it something, because the 133rd Open Championship is on the Ayrshire coast, and the 15th club in every player's bag will be fear, or, more specifically, fear of the wind that can rattle the soul of any player who dares aim for the Claret Jug. It comes in, hard, off the Firth of Clyde, the inlet that feeds into the Irish Sea, and it leaves its mark. Just look at those flags surrounding the 18th grandstand on Monday -- they were snapping to attention, crackling in the wind.

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Royal Troon

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The official club history here is called "The Breezy Links O' Troon." The club historians would know, wouldn't they? A walk around the 18 holes of this classic Scottish layout -- nine holes out from the clubhouse with that wind at your back, nine holes back to the clubhouse with your trousers pinned to your legs -- found that Troon, if Mother Nature obliges, will sift through the field until she finds a worthy champion, one who will play the course as cool as a summer breeze.

The good news for Americans: They have won five straight victories at Royal Troon, dating to Arnold Palmer in 1962. Justin Leonard won the claret jug in 1997, coming from five shots off the lead.

It's July, and it's British Open time, and that means all the classic props are in place: the Scottish coastline, the giant amber scoreboards atop the 18th grandstand, the Rolex clocks at tee boxes. Perhaps the only blemish on the ambience is the presence of nearby Prestwick airport. Just as you're caught in the reverie of pure golf in its ancestral homeland, a 767 roars overhead, and the thought is sudden -- Old Tom Morris never had to worry about jet fuel being dumped in his backswing.

Still, Troon's magic endures. This is a classic links, land linked to the sea, where the wind can wrap you in comfort on the front nine, and dare you to stare back coming home.

"You could go out in 29," one marshal said Monday, "and you'd do well to come home in 49."

A walk shows as much. The front nine is a jailbreak, a bonanza of birdies waiting to happen. Imagine today's players, with 21st- century equipment, playing three consecutive par-4s less than 400 yards, as the 1st (370 yards), 2nd (391) and 3rd (379) unfold.

"A lot of guys are driving it on No. 1," said Mark Calcavecchia, who won here in 1989. "Same on No. 3."

The 6th hole is 601 yards, longest in the history of the Open rota. So? Eduardo Romero, the big-hitting Argentine, breeze at his back, hit driver, 7- iron to the green on Monday. No player was seen hitting more than 5-iron on his second shot to the monster.

But lest anyone think Troon will lay down, the walk continues to the 8th hole, where the plot thickens immediately.

You are now at the famed "Postage Stamp," the par-3 that measures 123 yards. Surely, a pushover for world-class players who usually get up-and-down from that distance more often than not, right?

Try again. Stand on the elevated tee box, and feel for the first time wind into your face. Club selection now becomes vexing -- a knockdown 7- iron? 8-iron? 9-iron? -- and the challenge is intensified by five pot bunkers, surrounding the hole like menacing bodyguards. The deep pot bunker to the left is known simply as "The Coffin." Tiger Woods made a triple-bogey 6 here in the 1997 Open.

Asked what he would hit into that wind, a marshal said: "I'd hit 9- iron. But I'd hit it more than once."

From the tee box, the simple majesty of Troon takes hold. The view is full and complete: the faraway rock of Ailsa Craig on the watery horizon to the west, the stone so associated with the views from Turnberry, and the island of Arran, dominating the vista to the north, looking like rocky mountains jutting out of the sea.

It is at that point where Troon begins to fight back.

The 10th tee is the farthest point from the clubhouse, a lonely place, with no grandstands anywhere near. Only the hardiest will make it this far, and thus begins a slow, devastating march back home. A 438-yard par 4 requires a blind tee shot over a hill covered with gorse, straight into "the fan," as Rich Beem called it.

It gets no better after that. Next, to the 11th, the "Railway Hole," a place so brutal, it squeezed a 10 out of Jack Nicklaus in 1962.

You can see how: Fierce winds not only blow into you on the 490- yard par-4, but also slightly to the right, threatening to push balls out of bounds, to the railway line hugging the fairway. If the railway doesn't get you, the prickly gorse lining it will. It will require mental fortitude, and creativity to tackle it.

Marshals were still buzzing late Monday afternoon about Phil Mickelson's practice round. With his ball in the fairway, but still more than 200 yards shy of the green, Lefty took out a fairway wood and stung the ball, low, "never more than 3 feet off the ground," said one witness, and watched it run -- all the way to the green. It was the talk of the day for those who saw it. Mickelson's practice- round partner, 1973 Troon champ Tom Weiskopf, marveled.

It will take such heroics, because the back nine is one punch in the face after another: The 472-yard 13th, the 483-yard 15th, and the 457-yard 18th, all dead into the teeth of the wind.

At least 18 promises the sights of home -- the clubhouse, the grandstands, and the thought of a pleasant dusk on Sunday evening, and the awarding of the Claret Jug to the man who can tame Troon.

133rd British Open golf championship

July 15-18 at Royal Troon

7,175 yards, par 71

Format: 72 holes, stroke play

Playoff: Four holes, stroke play

Purse: $7.44 million (4 million British pounds). Winner's share: $1,338,340 (720,000 British pounds).

Defending champion: Ben Curtis

Last year: Ben Curtis shocked the world when he closed with a 2- under 69 for a one-shot victory over Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh, with Tiger Woods and Davis Love III another shot behind. Curtis, No. 396 in the world ranking, became the first player since Francis Ouimet in the 1913 U.S. Open to win the first major he ever entered. He only qualified by his tie for 15th in the Western Open, his best finish yet in his rookie year. Curtis was the only player to break par at Royal St. George's, finishing at 1-under 283.

Open champions at Royal Troon: Arthur Havers (1923), Bobby Locke (1950), Arnold Palmer (1962), Tom Weiskopf (1973), Tom Watson (1982), Mark Calcavecchia (1989), Justin Leonard (1997).

Anniversary: Seve Ballesteros won the first of his five majors 25 years ago in the British Open, playing one shot out of the parking lot at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to beat Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw by three shots.

Noteworthy: Americans have won the last five British Opens held at Royal Troon, the longest streak at any of the links in the rotation.

Television (all times MDT): Thursday-Friday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., TNT Sports. Saturday, 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., TNT Sports; 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., ABC Sports. Sunday, 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., TNT Sports; 6 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., ABC Sports.

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