The Open / Paul Krishnamurty / 04 July 2008 / 1

Paul Krishnamurty says punters will love Royal Birkdale, one of the great Open venues

Usually at this time of the year in the build-up to the best week of the year, the debate starts amongst golf fans and punters alike over which Open venues we love or hate. Its fair to say that nobody ever mentions Hoylake positively, but besides that there are always valid cases made for most of the various great links courses.

A frequent, and legitimate gripe amongst punters is how often St Andrews is played, particularly after two extremely dull Tiger walkovers on its last two appearances on the rota. The place may have history, and the Road Hole is one of the greats, but nobody wants to see links golf reduced to a driving distance contest. A further irritation from a betting perspective is that volatility is limited because so much of the drama unfolds on a relatively small number of holes. The 1st and 18th must be the least volatile opening and closing holes of any Major championship venue.

In contrast, Carnoustie seems universally popular having hosted two of the most dramatic Majors of recent times. Anyone familiar with betting exchanges can surely relate to the wonder of the 'Van De Velde Moment', and I also enjoyed last year's Open there immensely. Nobody actually removed their shoes to play their shot out of the Barry Burn this time, but we still saw three players trading at odds-on over the closing holes in another dramatic finish. Again in direct contrast to St Andrews, Carnoustie has a superb final hole where no lead is big enough if you get it wrong.

For me the best Open course I've seen to date is this year's venue, Royal Birkdale. My opinion may be biased by the fact that the last Birkdale Open in 1998 was also the first I'd watched properly for all four days as a gambler. I can still remember most of the bets I had, and walking round eight different betting shops on Monday to collect various match-bet winnings.

It truly was a cracking event though, and I've often wondered what it would have been like had Betfair been around back then. Mark O'Meara won the event in a play-off against a virtual unknown, Brian Watts, who would surely have started at 1000. My main money was on Jim Furyk each-way at [50.0], who ended up a close fourth after missing every significant putt. The three of them, plus Tiger Woods, fought out an enthralling weekend with the leaderboard and betting fluctuating wildly.

If we're looking for indicators from that result to help find this year's winner, there may be a hint in the fact that all four contenders were American, with O'Meara their fifth winner from eight Birkdale Opens. Furthermore, aside from Woods, the others were short or medium-hitters whose success stemmed from relentlessly hitting greens in regulation.

The great thing about Birkdale is that while its reputation for difficulty is deserved, good scores can still be made. Phil Mickelson, Nick Price, Justin Leonard and Fred Couples all shot rounds over 80 back in 1998, but there were also numerous scores of 66 or better. There are serious penalties for inaccuracy, with pot bunkers a threat to virtually every shot. The greens are also particularly tough, especially when Birkdale's chief defence is in play, the weather.

When the wind comes in off the Irish Sea, there are few more brutal courses anywhere in the world. At its worst on the Saturday in 1998, more than a quarter of the field shot 80 or worse with only two bettering 72. When conditions are like that, it is perfectly plausible that a player sitting in 30th at the start of the day hits a great round and ends up leading 18 holes later.

I'm sure I speak on behalf of most Betfarians then, in wishing for four days of constantly changing, miserable weather on the North-West coast. Oh, and the heavily-bunkered, long par-4 18th is a cracking finish, well capable of producing more carnage on Betfair.

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1. Ciaran Murphy | 16 July 2008

   Excellent article.

   Bring it on.

   Ciaran

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