ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Want to know how to win a British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews?
Stay out of the bunkers and don’t make a mess of the 17th hole, aka the “Road Hole.’’
Tiger Woods, in 2000, famously avoided every one of the 112 bunkers for all four rounds when he won the first of his three British Opens.
One of the bunkers is a particular spot of bother, and it happens to be on No. 17, the most difficult hole on the Old Course. No. 17 also happens to be one of the quirkiest holes in major championship history, a hole on which players have to hit their tee shots over part of the Old Course Hotel.
The 17th is a 495-yard par-4 with a completely blind line off the tee. There is a sign with the hotel’s name — OLD COURSE HOTEL — that serves as an aiming point. Depending on the wind direction, most players aim over the word COURSE. The more aggressive go over the L in HOTEL. That’s a longer carry, but it leaves a better angle to the green.
If a player plays it too safely and aims farther left, the ball will run through the dogleg-right fairway and into some heavy rough with a poor angle into the narrow green.
Defending Open champion Collin Morikawa said his caddie, J.J. Jakovac, tells him to “aim over the COURSE part of OLD COURSE HOTEL, but don’t miss it right of the HOTEL.”
Rory McIlroy, playing in the Celebration of Champions exhibition featuring past Open champions on Monday, cut his tee shot right of the HOTEL sign and his ball ended in the bushes at the Jigger Inn, a famous pub overlooking the 17th hole.
“I hit one way right in [the Celebration of Champions] and I was out of bounds by like a yard,” McIlroy said. “Like I felt like I hit it right of the HOTEL and it was just out. So, you can really challenge that right side, but you have to have a lot of trust in your golf swing to do that. But once you get your tee shot away, it then opens up every hole location on that green.”
The hole is so quirky that Justin Thomas made it a point to bring his fiancée, Jillian Wisniewski, to show her the hole and how bizarre it is.
“I’m like, ‘No, you hit it over the hotel,’ ’’ Thomas said he told her. “She’s like, ‘OK, but not really?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, no, really. You have to hit it over this hotel.’ ’’
Then there is the problem of the “Road Hole’’ bunker, which is a steep chasm that’s difficult to get out of.
“Everyone knows left in the bunker is dead,” U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick said.
“It’s very difficult,’’ Thomas said. “It’s the location of it and the placement of it and the way that the green sits and just how it swallows golf balls. I mean, anything that’s kind of around it that’s running, it’s just going to go right into it.
“If that bunker wasn’t there, that hole would probably play I’d say half a shot to three-quarters of a shot easier.’’
Jon Rahm called No. 17 “very hard,’’ and then for emphasis he added, “Very, very hard.’’
McIlroy said a birdie 3 “is a massive bonus’’ on 17, but added, “You take four 4s and run very happily to the 18th tee.”
In 2015, the last time the Open was played on the Old Course, No. 17 played 0.655 shots over par. There were more bogeys (217) than pars (203), and just nine birdies.
The last two Open winners at St. Andrews have played the hole in a combined 5-over. During the four-hole aggregate playoff in 2015 between eventual winner Zach Johnson, Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen, all three players made bogey.
Also that year, Jordan Spieth made a critical birdie on 16 to tie for the lead in the final round, but he bogeyed the 17th and missed out on a playoff by one.
“It’s so unique and it’s so cool,’’ Thomas said of 17. “These are definitely the most penal bunkers of any Open Championship I’ve played in.’’
When McIlroy was reminded that Woods never hit into a single bunker in 2000, he said: “It’s unbelievably impressive, especially when there’s so many tee shots here that are sort of half blind and little bunkers that are so well-placed. I think not going in a bunker for the whole week sort of just shows extreme control of your golf ball.’’
Whoever has that control this week will be the one raising the Claret Jug to the sky on Sunday.