Venue: St. Andrews (Old Course), 7,297 yards, par 72. Fife, Scotland
29th playing of the Open Championship at St. Andrews (most of any Open Championship venue)

In 2000 and 2005 Tiger won here; In 2010 Louis “Can we dance with yoar dates” Oousthuizen  won in impressive fashion. All three performances were spectacular.

Defending champion: Rory at Royal Liverpool last year (on the 30 day DL at least with a severe ankle sprain)

TV: ESPN: Thursday-Friday: 3 AM-2 PM CT/4 AM-3 PM ET.

Saturday: 6 AM-1:30 PM CT/7 AM-2:30 PM ET

Sunday: 5 AM-12:30 PM CT/6 AM-1:30 PM ET

Weather: A major factor as always in Scotland.

Thursday: High 61, 40% PM rain, starting around five in Scotland. Wind E 17 MPH

Friday: High 65, 90% rain, wind S 22 MPH, serious grind

Saturday: High 62, 20% rain, wind WSW 28 MPH-tricky, very tricky

Sunday: High 63, 40% rain, wind SW 10 MPH-benign for Scotland.

Notes:

Jordan Spieth is aiming to become the first golfer to win three majors in a row in a calendar year since Ben Hogan did it in 1953. Nobody else besides Hogan has ever done that in the modern era of golf. Nobody has won the Grand Slam in the modern era of golf either though Bobby Jones won the grand slam in 1930 by winning the British Amateur Championship at St. Andrews, the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, the U.S. Open at Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota and the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania. That’s pretty special and is revered in golf history.

I want to retract a statement I made in a column I wrote a couple of weeks ago on the five best players ever in the game. My man Willie got on me for leaving Tiger out and he was right. Tiger certainly belongs. He could very well be the greatest of all time if it wasn’t for his injuries and his indiscretions that led to Elin’s nine iron.

So here’s my updated top five: 1. Jack, 2. Tiger, 3. Hogan, 4. Bobby Jones, 5. Sam Snead.

My second tier of greatness, and it’s close to the top tier, at least these next three are: Arnie, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Byron Nelson.

Third tier is Sir Nick, Seve and Phil.

The reason I have Snead over Arnie, Player and Watson is that Snead not only won seven majors, but he also has the all time wins record on tour with 82. Arnie got seven, Player got nine and Tom got eight. That’s all spectacularly good. Tiger has 79 all time and is second to Snead. So Tiger could really kill two birds with one stone if he could win five more majors. But right now that seems insurmountable. One is going to be tough.

But Tiger is right there, still on Jack’s heels, with some life left in him. He’s in tremendous physical shape and his game looks to be coming back, though I don’t like his chances to win this week even though he’s won here twice. I just don’t think he’s as elite again yet as some of the other guys in this field.

So Willie was right, Tiger belongs at No.2 and could be No.1 if he can find the old magic in the next five to seven years. One thing I disagree with Willie on though is he said I was Pete Rose’ing Tiger. He was right about Tiger, but Rose is a completely different story about deserving to get back into the baseball Hall of Fame.When he was first being disbanded from the game in 1989 for gambling, he was a major reason Commissioner A. Bart Giamatti suffered a fatal heart attack and died at the age of 51 because of Rose’s relentless pressure he put on Giamati to lift his ban from baseball. Rose had been betting a lot on games, and admitted to it finally in 2010, and Giamatti was doing the right thing by ousting him at the time. But Rose wouldn’t leave Giamatti alone. He just hounded him with phone calls pressuring him to let him back in the game. it was over the top obnoxious and totally stressful for the commissioner, a good man, a scholar from Yale who loved the game and stood for the right things. Giamatti was a pretty heavy smoker, so that had something to do with his heart attack, but the stress Rose put on him played a part in his death. I kept up with it closely. There’s no doubt in my mind that Rose had a lot to do with Giamatti’s tragic death at 51 years old.

Rose also ruined the career of budding superstar catcher Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game by barreling into him for the winning run for the National League, but also taking out Fosse’s knees and thus ruining what could have been a Hall of Fame career. Fosse was that good. I saw it happen. I’ll never forget it. I know that was a tough baseball play and it happened in the old days, and it’s happened recently, up until last year when they changed the rule on how the catcher should block the plate. But Rose was an animal on that play. It looked like there was an intention on Rose’s part to hurt Fosse. I thought it was pretty unforgivable to ruin a guy’s career just to score the winning run in a meaningless game at the time. The All-Star game didn’t matter then. Home field advantage in the world series for the winning league was not determined by the outcome of the game in 1970.

Fay Vincent, who took over from Giamatti as commissioner when Giamatti passed away and was his deputy commissioner and a very good friend, says today that there is no way Rose will get into the Hall of Fame. Vincent dealt with Rose after Giamatti and knows a lot more than most anybody else about Pete Rose’s character, how he treated Giamatti, and he says there is no way Rose should ever be a Hall of Famer. I trust Vincent. He was a  very smart, strong commissioner. He knows what Pete Rose was like and is like. So if Vincent says he doesn’t deserve a second chance, he doesn’t. Sometimes bad behavior is unforgivable. Sometimes you have to stand up for decency and doing the right thing. You have to protect the integrity of the game and not pull a Barack Obama or a Jimbo Fisher, who believe not in just second chances, but five, six, even chances, however many it takes to give a bad character person no accountability for his actions. And it’s mainly for selfish reasons by guys like Obama and Fisher. They just want to win any way they can. That’s a low character person in my book.

Pete Rose was a great player, but a bad guy. His banishment from baseball is warranted. He bet all the time on baseball games while he played and while he was a manager, and the things he did to Giamatti and Fosse to me make him a highly unsympathetic character. He does not belong in the Hall of Fame. He shamed the game and ruined people’s lives too much. He’s a bum.

As for Tiger, he hasn’t shamed the game like that. He’s used too many expletives on the course in front of young kids and people in general, and his personal behavior has been pretty reprehensible at times, but he has respected the game for the most part,particularly lately, and his play has been spectacular through the years up until recently.

The Open

The Road Hole, the 17th, the 495 yard par 4, is the hole that stands out to me. You have to avoid the road off the tee and there is a pot bunker that is basically terminal for your score if you get in it. One of the most famous holes in golf.

The 18th is 357 yards, a par 4, and possibly drivable for guys like Dustin Johnson, Bubba and Brooks Koepka, all ballistically long hitters. But with some of these wind conditions, 18 could be a beast, along with the fact that it will be the 72nd hole in this historic major that every professional golfer in the world in history has wanted to win. So the pressure on Sunday will be intense and there are challenges to the 18th  like Granny Clark’s Wynd, a paved road that you have to hit from if you’re on it regardless, and  the Valley of Sin,  a swale by the green where most players three putt from, though Constantino Rocca holed out twice from there  to force a playoff with John Daly in 1995 that Daly ended up winning. But it’s a major challenge to get up and down from there.

Tom Watson will be playing in his last Open. Nick Faldo will play in his last Open at St. Andrews, so that’ll be dramatic and moving when both icons of the game cross the 700 year old  Swilcan Bridge on Friday or Sunday. It was extremely moving when Jack made that walk across Swilcon in 2005, his last Open.

Key tee times:

8:33 AM (BST-British Summer time)/ 3:33 AM ET/2:33 AM CT: Ernie, Sneedeker, Tom Watson

9 AM BST/4 AM ET/3 AM CT: Poulter, Charl Schwartzel, Bubba

9:11 AM/4:11 AM ET/3:11 AM CT: Sergio, Patrick Reed, Lee Westwood

9:33 AM/ 4:33 AM ET/3:33 AM CT: Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth

9:55 AM/4:55 AM ET/3:55 AM CT: Jason Day, Louis, Tiger

2:45 PM/9:45 AM ET/8:45 AM CT: Sir Nick, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose

Three guys who can win:

Brooks Koepka:

This 25 year old from Wellington, Florida, who played at Florida State and was a three-time All-American there,  is monstrously long and, at a young age, has the mental makeup and the game to get it done in a major right now. He won at the Waste Management this season and looks primed to really break out with a major very soon. His length will really help him. His putting will be the key because his ball striking is second to none.

Louis Oosthutzen

Shot a 67 on the final day at the U.S. Open finishing tied for second with DJ and went off here in 2010  shooting -16 to beat Lee Westwood by seven shots. He’s got excellent length, he’s got a nice iron game and he’s another one that if his putter is clicking, he can get it done. The 32 year old from Mossel Bay, South Africa could win his second major at St. Andrews, a repeat of 2010.

Patrick Reed

This brash, cocky 24 year old who was born in San Antonio, Texas and played at Georgia, among other schools, can get under your skin at times but can back up some of his actions with his stellar play. He’s calmed down some with his attitude and he is an outstanding player. Johnny Miller said last year when Reed and Spieth were playing in the Ryder Cup that, “these guys don’t like this; they’re not used to losing.” I love Reed’s game. He’s got it all and he’s clutch. He’s definitely going to be a factor in this Open.

Two guys I like at the end

I’m going to make a horse racing analogy in this matchup.

Rickie Fowler

Rickie is like American Pharaoh. Pharaoh  was a superb horse this year becoming only the 12th horse in history to win the Triple Crown and the first since Affirmed in 1978, 37 years ago. Pharaoh was elite. The 26 year old Fowler, born in Murrieta, California and who played collegiately at Oklahoma State, has entered that stage of his career in golf. He’s elite. At the Players Championship, the fifth major on the tour, he went birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie on holes 15-18 respectively on Sunday, and when the pressure was on on the 72nd hole and needing a birdie he cranked a drive 331 yards on 18 at TPC Sawgrass, one of the hardest driving holes in golf  along with 18 at Doral and No. 18’s at the majors. He won on the third hole of a playoff over Sergio and Kevin Kisner by sinking a five foot birdie putt for the W. That was impressive.

Last week at the Scottish Open, he needed a birdie to beat Matt Kuchar and Raphael Jacquelin. He drove it 350+ down the middle, hit a wedge to four feet, and sank the putt for the victory. That’s a huge momentum boost and it means a massive amount going into St. Andrews. Phil won the Scottish Open two years ago (2013), then won the Open Championship  at Muirfield the next week for his fifth major and first Claret Jug. So winning the Scottish Open is a major momentum builder. Rickle is extremely long, he’s an excellent putter; there really aren’t any weaknesses in his game.

But there’s one guy who is just a little bit better right now. He’s the Secretariat of golf right now. The greatest horse of all time is like the best golfer in the world right now. He’s the standard bearer.

It could come down to a war with Rickie and this guy entering the 72nd hole all even with someone needing to win the hole to win it or one of them to win it in a playoff. I’m going with this young stud to get it done once again and tie Ben Hogan as only the second player to ever win the first three majors of a calendar year. And that will make the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits especially compelling.

I like the 21 year old  Texas gunslinger to get it done at the Old Course and win major number three this season.

Jordan Spieth