Technology meets tradition at the British Open. 
I'm just back from a few days up at the British Open at Royal Liverpool GC. It was my first visit to Hoylake, and this visit completes my full set of Open venues on mainland Britain that I have attended. This year, more than many of my visits before to The Open, I noticed a number of changes in quite a few areas both with player preparation and the addition of some on course facilities that the organisers the R & A have implemented. 

Firstly the players. They are always looking for that advantage over their competitors and on a visit to the practise range I noticed several new drills that I hadn't seen before including Pardraig Harrington hitting drivers over 200 yards off his knees, an Asian player and his team, which I can only presume is made up by coach, nutritionist, physio and caddy, doing some type of relaxation meditation exercises. 

  

I also saw Jaidee using his own Trackman launch monitor to check his swing plane and angles of attack on various shots. 

  

The on course changes has seen the introduction of electronic scoreboards (as seen above) that not only act as a simple leaderboard, but also doubles as a giant screen showing highlights of play from other parts of the course, to the player stats and information that are playing the hole that you are watching. This info is quite detailed showing not just his score for the round so far but also his scores for each hole in his round to this point. Also any interesting details of players previous Open history. 

I have to say that all in all these changes have definitely improved the spectators experience so the R& A have to be complimented. Shot highlights of the week for me was watching Dustin Johnson outdrive Ian Poulter by more than 50 yards at the 18th hole, Dustin definitely hits it differently to any Tour Pro I have ever seen and a very tricky chip by Luke Donald over a sinister pot bunker to a down hole pin position that was quite breath taking.

  



Sarah and Marcella win County Foursomes Championship 

The 36-hole County foursomes championship was played last week at Brampton Park in blustery and dank conditions.

Many of the players struggled to plot and think their way around the course trying to avoid the strategically placed water hazards.

Club selection for the fiendish doglegs and large greens seemed even more challenging as the wind gusted. 

Sarah Greenall and Marcella Tuttle held on to a one shot lead from the morning to win the championship on the 36th hole. They were delighted to be presented with the trophies that have an interesting history. These were donated just after the Second World War when silver was in scarce supply. Although tiny the trophies have a great tradition. 

Well played to you both.