The last major of this year, the 149th Open Championship, will commence early tomorrow morning central and eastern time at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. This will be the 15th time the course, which is 90 minutes southeast of London on the English southeastern coastline, has hosted the Open. Most recent winners are Greg Norman in 1993, Ben Curtis in 2003 and 42 year old, at the time, Darren Clarke in 2011.

With the Open not being held last year due to COVID concerns in England, Shane Lowry is the defending champion from 2019. The Irishman won the 148th Open on his semi home turf at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. He’s from mainland Ireland.

Several players opted out of this year’s Open for a variety of reasons. Bubba Watson, though vaccinated, was exposed to a person with COVID and decided not to make the trip. Zach Johnson has COVID and is out. Hideki Matsuyama contracted the virus a little while back and cited inability to get ready for the Open as a reason not to compete. Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim are concentrating on the Olympics, because if they medal in Japan, they would get out of mandatory military service in their home country of South Korea. So some bigger names are out.

But Jon Rahm, the most recent U.S. Open champion at Torrey Pines and a guy who is setting the golf world on fire, leads the field. Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlory, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Phil, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Jordan Spieth are several of the superstars in the field. It’s loaded and they’re going to be tested by Royal St. George’s where author Ian Flemming set a scene of his James Bond thriller ,Goldfinger in which Bond outlasts the villain Goldfinger on what was called St. Marks, but it was actually Royal St. George’s. Goldfinger was cheating away, but Bond figured out a way to get around that and won the match. Classic movie.

Key holes on the course include, the 1st, which is a 442 yard par 4, with the left side of the fairway protected by a trio of bunkers, a lot of bunkers on this course. Also, there is a ridge. No.3 is a 239 par 3. No bunkers but there is usually a headwind making it very difficult to find the green at times, depending on the wind speed. It’s a two tiered green that is 40 yards wide. Big green, but difficult to putt. No.4 is a 496 yard par 4 that has what is called an enormous “Himalayan” bunker. You’ve got to see it to believe it. Very intimidating presence off the tee. If a player runs over the green on his second shot, he can go out of bounds.

The toughest 3 hole stretch is 13 through 15. No.13 is a 457 yard par 4, with 2 bunkers on each side of the fairway off the tee. The ‘Razorback” green is guarded by 2 bunkers that can really attract golf balls. No.14 is a 545 yard par 5 that has a ditch running across it on the second shot and out of bounds on the right. Dustin Johnson was tied with Darren Clarke in 2011, and laced a tee shot, but hit his second shot out of bounds and his chances of winning were denied. No. 15 is a 493 yard par 4. There are 5 bunkers in the fairway and 3 around the green. James Bond hit it to two inches on this hole on his second shot.

No. 18 is a 456 yard, par 4 where driving is critical and bunkers guard the green. Excellent finishing hole.

RSG is known for its fiery fairways, fast greens, and rough this year that is above the knees and thick as a concrete step. Jack Nicklaus, after shooting an 83 on it, said famously in 1981, that “the Open gets worse the farther South you travel.”

Some of the players don’t like the layout, and the COVID situation with players only able to be with their 3 man team in a hotel or a residence and only self catering, no grocery store, no restaurant and no pub bothers some of them. Keegan Bradley doesn’t have a problem with it. He says it’s his usual Open, play, go back to the hotel, get ready for the next day. It’s not like these guys are on Iwo Jima. They get to play for the Claret Jug, over $2 million for the winner, and exemptions for the next 5 Masters, U.S, Opens, and PGAs and an exemption into the Open Championship till age 60. That’s a pretty good deal. They need to tough it out. It’s not that tough to do for a week.

Weather

Thursday, 70, sunny, winds North 10 to 20.

Friday, 69, sunny, winds NNE 15

Saturday, Sunny, Winds NNE 14

Sunday, Sunny, wind NE 5-10.

Good weather with wind being a factor some. Could change on the English coast with rain coming in. Right now, looks good.

TV, All times Central

Thursday-Friday, 12:30 AM-3 AM , Peacock, NBC Streaming service. 3 AM-2 PM Golf Channel. 2-3 PM Peacock.

Saturday, 4-6 AM, Golf Channel. 6 AM-2PM NBC.

Sunday, 3-6 AM, Golf Channel. 6 AM-1 PM, NBC.

Odds of winning Open

Jon Rahm, 8/1

Brooks Koepka, 16/1

Xander Schauffele, 18/1

Justin Thomas, 18/1

Jordan Spieth, 18/1

Rory, 22/1

Dustin, 25/1

Louis Oosthuizen 30/1

Viktor Hovland, provided he doesn’t get sand in his eye like he did at the U.S. and quit, 30/1

Patrick Cantlay, 33/1

Patrick Reed 33/1

Tyrrell Hatton, 33/1

Shane Lowry, 35/1

Collin Morikawa, 35/1

Tommy Fleetwood, 35/1

Bryson DeChambeau, 35/1

Matt Fitzpatrick, 40/1

Paul Casey, 40/1

Scottie Scheffler, 45/1

Lee Westwood, 47/1

Tony Finau, 50/1

The always unfolding soap opera that is called Bryson DeChambeau has a new twist. He changed caddies last week going from his longtime caddie, Tim Turner, to a younger Brian Zeigler, who is swing coach guru Chris Cuomo’s right hand man. Cuomo mentors DeChambeau. Golf Channel’s Brandle Chamblee said to be DeChambeau’s caddie you have to be a meteorologist, mathematician, and therapist among other things. The guy’s complex. GC’s Justin Leonard was pointing out with DeChambeau and Zeigler on the course on camera, that Zeigler was spinning around a contraption that looked like a large yoyo. Justin said it’s called a B T Meter which measures wind chill, wind speed, humidity and barometric pressure. Leonard said it’s used for long range shooting, Kite flying and hunting, but golf is not listed as one of its uses.

What a guy. This controversy with Brooks Koepka could be settling down now. Hoping it will.

Winner

I’m going to take the 38 year old from Mossel Bay, South Africa. He finished tied for second with Koepka at the PGA Championship behind Phil, and second to Jon Rahm at the U.S, Open. He’s leading the tour in strokes gained putting and he’s always been an excellent ball striker. I’ll go with the 2010 Open Champion from St. Andrews.

Louis Oosthuizen

Sleeper

I like this 22 year old fellow countryman of Louis, this one from Johannesburg, He won on the PGA Tour at the Palmetto Championship in South Carolina in June, and has won 3 times on the Euro Tour in the past year at the Open de Portugal in Sept. 2020, the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open this past April, and the Canary Islands Championship in May. So for my darkhorse, give me

Garrick Higgo