British Open golfers facing bone-dry course this week

Scotland has been experiencing something of a drought in the run-up to this week’s Open Championship, with the locals telling USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio that it hasn’t rained much over the past eight weeks. Thus we have a number of golfers regaling us with tales of improbably long drives that simply do not stop rolling during this week’s practice rounds.

Here’s Brandt Snedeker, who is tied for 135th on the PGA Tour this year in driving distance.

“Just hit one 427 on 18 @TheOpen. Guys would be hitting it in the burn in front of green 450+. Carnoustie is baked out, but greens are pure. Never seen an Open this firm. Will be an awesome week if it stays like this,” he tweeted.

Dustin Johnson did manage to get it into the burn (aka stream) on 18, a tidy 473 yards away from the tee:

“This is @DJohnsonPGA on the 513 yard par five 14th at Carnoustie. He hit driver-wedge to the green. Yesterday he hit a drive into the burn on 18 which is 473 yds from the tee. The course is brown, baked out and fast for ?@TheOpen,” Todd Lewis posted.

The conditions for this week’s British Open are reminiscent of 2006, when Royal Liverpool was similarly baked and brown. The winner that year: Tiger Woods, who used his driver all of once over his four rounds, according the AP’s Doug Ferguson. Woods, who is playing in the British Open this year for the first time since 2015, said Sunday that “the fairways are faster than the greens,” which have been watered during Scotland’s drought. The fairways have not.

“You’re going to see a lot of guys hit the ball a long way without a lot of club,” said Woods, who hit a 333-yard drive off the 18th tee during a practice round Monday. He used a 3-iron.

Thanks to the bone-dry fairways, the golfers will have to change their approach off the tee, clubbing down in hopes that their shots don’t roll into one of Carnoustie’s many bunkers and berns. Compounding things is the wind, a menace that can alter a golfer’s approach from day to day, if not shot to shot.

There could be some relief with rain in the forecast Thursday night into Friday morning, but it seems unlikely to slow down tee shots that will roll into perhaps uncharted territory.

“It’s very unsettling, very, very different. Trying to figure out where your ball’s going to stop, it’s just unbelievable,” 1991 British Open champion David Duval, who’s back for his 22nd appearance, told Reuters.