'You call that a par 4?'

Royal Birkdale's devilish 6th hole a royal pain

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Posted: Saturday July 18, 1998 10:57 AM

Justin Rose, who carded a 66 on Friday, was one of the 78 players to bogey the sixth hole at Royal Birkdale in the second round (Andrew Redington/Allsport)

SOUTHPORT, England (Reuters) -- Every golf course has its tough hole but the sixth on the Royal Birkdale is turning out to be the hole from hell for competitors in the 1998 British Open.

"You call that a par 4?" Nick Price asked in wonder after falling victim to the hole, which some players have suggested was designed by someone who hates golfers.

At 480 yards, the hole is at the limits of its par and would be a par 5 for most events.

On Saturday the hole became virtually unplayable as 55-mph winds swept in over the Irish Sea from the southwest, pushing drives into the crowd on the left-hand side of the dog-leg hole.

Eighteen of the first 25 players through on Saturday missed par on the hole and poor Kazuhiro Hosokawa suffered the indignity of a triple bogey -- seven shots -- before he managed to get his ball in the tin cup.

Players were bamboozled by the hole and were perhaps unaware that if they strode to the top of the sand dune to the right of the fairway, they would be gazing at stormy seas that make Birkdale one of the toughest links courses.

The tee shot, protected by a wind barrier, was probably the simplest, although several top players -- including South African Ernie Els -- blasted drives off line and into the crowds, who have realized that the hole has huge entertainment value.

On Thursday's first day, when the wind dropped to almost nothing, 11 birdies were scored but only one was managed as rain and wind swept the course on Friday.

On the other hand, 60 bogeys were carded on Thursday and 78 on the second day.

With no wind, big drivers such as Tiger Woods were able on the first day to two-drive the green. On Saturday, big hitters were struggling to reach the green with their second shots.

Players were badly mistaken if they thought their troubles were over once they were at the elevated green, for it is one of the trickiest to be found on the professional circuit.

"Contours have been changed and need careful study of borrow and pace," the club says in its understated description of the hole, which also caused nightmares when the Open was last staged at Birkdale in 1991.

It may be the longest green on the course but only a tiny patch of it around the hole is flat. Chips must be made to land on this spot and check backwards. Land the ball at the front of the green and it invariably rolls away from the pin.

As players usually have to one-putt on this hole for par, landing a chip anywhere outside this zone is disastrous as the subtle contours push the ball in every direction except toward the hole.

Veteran English player Ian Woosnam had the worst luck on the sixth on Saturday. Putting for par after a series of brave strokes, he was just about to hit the ball when his cap blew off and his caddy was forced to scurry around the green to retrieve it.

Woosnam, his concentration broken, missed the putt and the sixth claimed yet another victim.

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