Having a grand old time in Scotland

One of the quaint things about the British Open is that so many of the Americans who attend it -- including players, caddies, writers, coaches and agents -- manage to sneak in a few rounds of golf while they're there. You probably read that Brad Faxon put his bag on a trolley (British-speak for pull cart) and played North Berwick. Scott McCarron also played a few holes there late one evening, walking out with a few clubs. Stewart Cink and Phil Mickelson were among those who visited the Old Course at St. Andrews, about 90 minutes away, early in the week.

Sports Illustrated's writers stayed in a farmhouse adjacent to Gullane Golf Club and its three courses, which John Garrity discussed in his always-witty Mats Only column. (And I deny everything -- except the part about Steve Rushin and his Pringles.) While I would have loved to have visited one of my favorite courses in Scotland, the delightful links of Dunbar, I didn't make it over there. My only full round of golf (on account of I was working so hard) was at the Longniddry Golf Club, a parkland-style course (that means it has trees, just like American courses) that is nonetheless close to the Firth of Forth. If you'd been dropped out of a helicopter blindfolded (and survived the fall) onto Longniddry, you'd think you were in Ohio. It's a very nice course but not the wacky, unique links that you might travel 3,000 miles to play.

MAILBAG I believe that the Masters is a private tournament and not sponsored (or co-sponsored) by the PGA Tour. If so, the tour has no say on the question of discrimination at Augusta National. Were Tim Finchem to become involved, it would be solely at the invitation of the club in an effort to address the issue, and not as a measure of tour policy. —Richard Mack, Charlotte The club isn't going to address the issue, Mack, unless it's forced to. Since it's the only club that hosts an event on the PGA Tour that doesn't adhere to anti-discriminatory guidelines that every other tournament does, I suspect it won't be long before it is forced to. Whatever happened to the thought of something being privately owned and operated with the freedom to admit whomever its owners desire? I admit that I know absolutely nothing about golf, but why are private clubs under such pressure to allow anyone to join? This is America and it sounds to me as if you condone making it wrong to have anything private and that everything should be open and available to everyone. Next, our backyard basketball nets will have to be open to anyone who can't afford one of their own. Please, let's not give up all of our rights and make America the complete share-me country. —Steve R. Holloway, Lancaster, Pa. Private clubs have the right to control their memberships. Hosting a major professional golf tournament puts a club in the public eye, however, and the public has the right to make judgments about the membership policies at the private club. If women or minorities want to protest or picket and put pressure on the sponsors that support a tournament held at a course that discriminates, that is also their right. Let's see who's toughest. You need to get a life and quit worrying that women are excluded from all-men's clubs which are privately founded and funded. Besides, if they really wanted to belong to an exclusive club or two, how about starting a few women-only clubs? The only problem with that, of course, is that no men would ever want to join, which would defeat their avowed purpose of primarily annoying men with their aims of mixed-play (e.g., social "golf") and tee times. P.S. Just so you know, I'm a public-course player, but we all still have constitutional rights of choice and freedom of association in this country, even the more well-to-do! —John Tyler, Hutsville, Texas There are a few women-only clubs, John. And their aim isn't to annoy men, it's to have a fair and equal chance at tee times and other club amenities, which they don't currently have at many courses. It's a free country, and we're all free to boycott advertisers who support tournaments at courses that discriminate. Since Tiger Woods is intent on not letting anyone else win a major (except Ernie Els at the British Open), I suggest a second Grand Slam. This would be made up of PGA Tour events and honor the legends of golf. Since Bobby Jones is already associated with the Masters, I suggest Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament, Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational, the Byron Nelson Classic, and something for either Sam Snead (Greater Greensboro?) or Ben Hogan (Colonial?). It could be called the Legends Slam. —Dale Lyons, Jerseyville, Ill. An interesting idea, Dale, but Tiger has already won three-fourths of your proposed Slam, too. He's not likely to ever play Greensboro, and while he played Colonial once, he's been giving it a skip under the excuse that it is sponsored by MasterCard, the competitor of one of his big endorsers, American Express.

Longniddry had its quirks, starting with no par-5s. Not one. At 6,260 yards from the back tees, the layout figured to be a cupcake that I could dominate with my length. (Sorry, I've always wanted to say that even though it's usually only true in miniature golf.) This turned out not to be the case. Do the math: Figure an extra 120 yards for each of the missing par-5s, that's 480 yards. Add that to the course total and Longniddry played the equivalent of a 6,740-yard track. Hardly short. In fact, it had eight par-4s over 400 yards, and the third, the Pentlands, was a monster 460. Good thing the ground was firm and we got lots of roll. We? Our foursome included former SI writer Jaime Diaz, now with Golf Digest, and Chicago Tribune writer Reid Hanley, both pretty good players.

We carried our own bags until we reached the tee at The Dene, a 169-yard, downhill par-3 that reminded me of the third hole at Milwaukee's Brown Deer Park. A woman standing in the yard of a house that abutted the tee asked if two of us wanted caddies. Figuring we ought to support the local economy, Jaime and I said yes, and two boys, about 10 and 14, came around the hedge and picked up our bags. They said they could only go five holes but they ended up finishing the round with us, apparently because they were having so much fun watching Jaime (formerly known as Anxiety Man) agonize over his game. I think they also liked Jaime asking them questions about what they thought of the top players, such as Colin Montgomerie (they think he's done) and Justin Rose (they think he's Grand Slam material).

The highlight of the round was when we teed off at the 17th, called Arthur's Seat. There was a grizzled, old Scottish gent sitting in a chair in his back yard, just behind the tee. Maybe he was Arthur, I don't know. The hole, according to the course map, was a dogleg left, but there wasn't much to use as a target, just a thin stand of trees down the left side, a huge factory smokestack in the distance straight ahead and the adjacent 15th hole to the right (where I'd hit an 8-iron to six inches for a birdie). The 17th played at 433 yards, but since I was unsure about the hole I teed up a 3-wood and pulled it left of where I thought I should hit it. The old Scotsman piped up immediately. "Aye, ye'd better hit anether wen," he commanded. "Ye'll not find that wen!" He said it with way too much glee. I didn't even turn around to look at him, just grabbed another ball from my bag, switched to a driver and blocked one way right, probably back in the 15th fairway. Thankfully, he had no comment on that one.

Luckily, I found my first tee shot in the left rough, 10 feet from a patch of waist-high fescue. Aye, Arthur, you're bloody daft, man! By this time, we had several press bets at stake. Jaime and Reid were 3-down on the back before winning the next two holes, but my birdie at 15 stopped their streak. I yanked a 5-iron shot left onto the next tee box. Reid had hit a magnificent fairway wood and was in position for a routine par. I pretended I was Mickelson and pulled off a flop shot, stopping it six feet below the hole, and made the par putt for a halve.

The 432-yard 18th, called Hame, was playing into the breeze, just as 17 had. You know that weird feeling you get when you're kind of in a groove and you know you're going to hit a good shot? Well, that's where I was. I teed my ball slightly lower and hammered a nice, low draw that rolled a long ways after it hit the fairway. I had only 130 to a front pin location, so I choked up on a 9-iron and carved a nice, lazy draw right at the pin. It stopped a foot from the hole. Jaime was so annoyed that he gave me the putt, which was worth a crucial two-pound press. On the way off the green, another Digest writer who'd played in the group in front of us asked Jaime how it had gone. "Van Sickle killed us," Jaime said. He and Reid shot 76s; I shot 69, 1-over par.

Hey, it was the highlight of my golf season and, to be honest, it's been the only positive. However, a grudge rematch tentatively has been scheduled for during the PGA at Hazeltine.

Going for broke

I'm still trying to figure out why French golfer Thomas Levet was criticized for using a driver off the 18th tee at the British Open while Ireland's Padraig Harrington wasn't knocked for doing the same thing. Levet's tee shot found a fairway bunker, and he went on to make bogey and drop out of the playoff; however, Harrington also drove into a bunker, blasted out over a fence and into thick rough, and made a bogey that cost him a chance to get into the playoff. At least Levet used driver every time he played the 18th; Harrington didn't and his reputation as the Avis of the European Tour (finishing No. 2 and trying harder) isn't going away. Moreover, when discussing the play after the tournament, Harrington didn't agree that he'd made a strategic mistake.

Move over, Ben

Just finished testing a dozen of the new Ben Hogan golf balls, and I have to say I'm disappointed. I like the look -- the script Hogan on the ball -- and they performed very well, as well as any other top ball, including the Titleist Pro V1. However, I found that the Hogan balls scuffed up almost immediately. I took one out of play after five holes the other day; the paint was gone on the edges around a couple of dimples. The covers get roughed up right away. Among the many attributes of the Pro V1s is durability. Sure, they're $40 a dozen, but I've used the same Pro V1 for several rounds in a row. I couldn't make it nine holes with a Hogan ball. I even creased one, something I haven't seen since the now long-gone days of balata, and I didn't skull a shot, so I'm not even sure how that happened. If consumers have a choice between similarly priced balls that perform about the same and one is durable and one isn't, it's not much of a contest. Most of my dozen Hogan balls, scuffed and marked, are now in my shag bag -- OK, not counting the ones I lost in woods and lakes.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

Related information

Stories

Gary Van Sickle's Underground Golfer Archive

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video