Sometimes you have to ask yourself the important questions. What do course marshals really think a golf fan is going to do to Nicolai Højgaard?
One can only imagine what they are saying in the walkie talkies. ‘Sorry. No, yeah, there’s a 90-year-old woman who has stumbled three quarters of an inch inside the rope line in Rory McIlroy’s group. Can we have snipers at the ready?’
Maybe it’s because Donald Trump is expected to arrive at some stage over the weekend but in the hullabaloo of it all some of the security and marshals have taken it upon themselves to be complete jobsworths. The job of a marshal is simple. Lift the rope. Keep it held until the players hit their shots. Then lower it when they have hit. Any moron can do it.
There had been an edge to everyone all week amid Trump’s pending arrival and this has only been exaggerated with tournament play underway. The painfully slow six hour rounds didn’t help anyone’s mood out there.
Even McIlroy’s usual security team of a tubby ginger fella with a back pack full of haribos was bolstered by the addition of an Aldi version of Bundee Aki. You’d still fancy your chances at outrunning both. But yes, nothing is coming easy this week.
The weekend seems a long way away with the glacial pace at which day one was played at. Strong winds on the West Clare coast combined with two par fives and a driveable par-4 on the front nine only exacerbated the slow play with two groups often waiting on the same tee box.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Our national open has such a high ceiling. Potential Masters links and PGA Tour co-sanctions could come. But the murky floor on which it is played on this week is not a good look. It shouldn’t be here. The name on the door is a stain. The R&A are the only ones who remain defiant in not bringing the Open Championship back to Trump’s Turnberry.
And even if you don’t pay much heed to your morals, it became pretty clear early on Thursday afternoon that this site is not fit for purpose to host a blue ribbon tour event.
It’s simply too small for spectators to get around. The logistical impossibility of a two-tee start was an utter disaster and the layout of the course caused backlogs as early as the fourth tee. Yes, the wind caused havoc and slowed the pace of play. But this was a painful day for everyone inside and outside of the ropes.
As McIlroy and Brooks Koepka were made to look quite silly as they added their names to the catalogue of missed tiddlers, they trudged off the tenth green bewildered. After four hours of painstaking play.
Their group which began at 13:35 shook hands on the 18th green six hours and four minutes later at 19:39. Atrocious.
“Six hours might be a first for me,” McIlroy chuckled.
Tom McKibbin knocked in his 68th shot 6 hours and three minutes after he teed off. Shane Lowry was six hours and eight minutes.
Liam Nolan teed off in the final three-ball at 15:10. Even if pace of play was running smoothly with a two-tee start it is unlikely that he would have been finished on time. He will return on Friday morning to complete five holes of his opening round.
A pesky rare 2mm protected snail called the Vertigo Angustior put a halt to plans for a ballroom expansion on the Trump Doonbeg property. Saying the pace of play on Thursday was at a snails pace would be putting it mildly. By the time he arrives on site on Saturday, it could still be the first round.
Pádraig Harrington said the pace of play was like being stuck in rush hour traffic in bad driving conditions. There were a few M50esque logjams out there.
Miguel Vadaor, Senior Tournament Director and long-time rules official for the DP World Tour commented that the Doonbeg links is the most difficult he has seen in terms of navigation but said the brunt of the problem was the one tee start which prevented the gap between morning and afternoon starters that a first and tenth tee start affords.
He also said that the winds on day one didn’t help the pace of play with balls oscillating on the greens and he was involved in a lengthy rules debate with Jon Rahm on the 5th green.
Is there anything to be said for a shotgun start?
I’m not sure what Micheál Martin said to Trump on St Patrick’s Day last year but one can imagine that hosting this tournament at a golf course with Trump’s name above the door in exchange for the removal of tariffs in Ireland was a hot topic of conversation.
I’d rather the tariffs.
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