St. George's, British Open's quirky course, can be devilish

THE BRITISH OPEN, almost by definition, is quirky. At least compared to what we're used to on this side of the pond. That's links golf. So when people refer to Royal St. George's, site of this week's Open Championship (as they refer to it everywhere else on the planet), as being probably the quirkiest of all the courses in the rota, you know it's definitely something a little different. Or maybe even a lot.

Justin Rose said it was like playing on the surface of the moon.

"It's very much humps and bumps," he said. "And you're very much at the mercy of the [land], in terms of the kicks you can get. That's the great thing about it, though. You need to embrace that."

Adam Scott, your thoughts?

"I don't know, I would say it's a bit of a fiddly golf course," the Australian said. "The fairways are very undulated, and you're going to get some good bounces and you're going to get some bad bounces. They were built so long ago, and the game has changed so much since [then], you've got to just manage yourself around it like all the other great links courses . . .

"It's not my personal favorite.

"I think it's because we're all pretty spoiled, and when we hit it down the middle of the fairway we expect it to be in the middle of the fairway, and that's not how golf works over there. So that's why we're saying those things. But we're all going to have to deal with the same things. I don't care what the course looks like. I just want to win the thing."

Well put.

It's been hot and dry in England for the past few months. So it should play firm and fast, and the rough should be thinner than usual. Still, controlling shots even out of that figures to be tricky.

This will be St. George's 14th Open. The course, also known as Sandwich for where it's located on England's southeast coast, hosted its first in 1894. John H. Taylor won the first of his five titles that year. Harry Vardon won two of his half-dozen there (1899, 1911). Walter Hagen won half of his four there (1922, '28). Henry Cotton the first of his three there (1934). And Bobby Locke won the first of his four there (1949). So the pedigree is rich.