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JAYALGER’S WEEKLY BEAR TRAP
“This is among my favorite places to play in Northern Ireland, one of the truly great links courses.” - Rory McIlroy
PREVIEW AND PICKS FOR THE 148th OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2019
The Course - Royal PortrushWe move across the Atlantic for the fourth major of the season to the majestic Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. This beautifully designed course, set among rolling sand dunes and scenic coastal views, was the brainchild of Harry Colt in 1929. Royal Portrush played host to the Open in 1951, the first club outside of mainland UK to host the tournament. It has also served as host to The Irish Open in 1930, 1937, 1947 and 2012, the Senior Open Championship in 1995-1999 and 2004 and the Amateur Championship in 1993 and 2014. Portrush is comprised of two courses, Dunluce Links and Valley Links. In preparation for the 148th Open Championship, the course began a redesign in 2015. This included some shuffling of the order of some of the holes from Dunluce, five new greens, eight new tee boxes, 10 new bunkers and two brand new holes (Hole no. 7 and 8) on land that was part of Valley. For its members, the course is a par 72. However, for the Open Championship, the course will play as a par 71 and 7,344 yards with four par 3s and three par 5s.
Hole breakdown is as follows:
| Par 3 | 4 |
| Par 4 <400 | 1 |
| Par 4 400-450 | 6 |
| Par 4 450-500 | 4 |
| Par 4 >500 | 0 |
| Par 5 | 3 |
| Total | 18 |
Course Data
Course Data by Par
Course Stats
- Par 71
- 7,344 yards
- Architect(s) - Harry Colt, 1929
- Turf - mix of bent and fescue?
- Full field event with 156 golfers
- Field Strength - strong
- Standard cut of 70 plus ties
- Rough will be long and penal. Will need accuracy off the tee to stay in the fairway.
- GIR will be crucial as well as hitting mid to long irons well. Therefore, look for strong ball strikers and solid approach golfers.
- It's a coastal links course which means winds will play a role.
- Greens are not that difficult though they can be larger than average. Thus, 2-putt avoidance could be important.
THE CHARTS
2018-19 Season
The Picks
The Picks
Anyway, I hope that this helps you in your own process to select your golfers for this week. Please leave me any questions, comments, suggestions or any rants and touts you would like to discuss either here on Vicehood.com, in our Slack, on twitter @algertorr, or on DK/FD/FDR jayalger. Good luck this week!