By Martin Dempster - The Scotsman
Players will hit drive at 18th in Nexo Championship three sets of tees forward - but it will still play at 586 yards!
Martin
Laird described it as “flipping hard” while Calum Hill reckons it is
second only to the infamous Hero Indian Open venue in New Delhi in terms
of the toughest test on the DP World Tour.
When
it staged last week’s Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, the 36-hole
cut fell at 14 over par while only two players finished under par on the
Old Course at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire.
Colin Montgomerie, the tournament host, made an early exit following
rounds of 79 and 82 while David Drysdale dropped seven shots in his
first four holes in an opening 84 as he missed the cut as well.
Now, it’s the turn of DP World Tour players to tackle the Martin
Hawtree-designed course and, unsurprisingly, precautionary measures are
being taken by tournament organisers for the $2.75 million Nexo
Championship, which starts on Thursday.
Unlike
last week’s first leg of a double-header at the Menie Estate venue,
crosswinds are not expected to be a major issue due to the wind set to
blow from a different direction. It will see the majority of the holes
play either into the wind or down wind.
Nonetheless,
with a breeze forecast to be a mix of moderate or fresh, the decision
has been taken to move six tees - the second, third, fourth, 12th, 16th
and 17th - up by one set of tees while the elevated one at the 18th will
be three sets forward, reducing it from 651 yards to a mere 586 yards.
“It’s
spectacular - but it’s flipping hard,” observed Laird, a four-time PGA
Tour winner who, on his first DP World Tour appearance since the 2018
Genesis Scottish Open, is among a 14-strong Caledonian contingent that
also includes KLM Open winner Connor Syme.
It
was no surprise that Storm Floris forced the spectacular Donald
Trump-owned course to be closed on Monday and, with the wind still
blowing hard on Tuesday, Laird didn’t even tackle one of the holes in
his first practice round.
Martin Laird catches a ball on the practice range prior to the Nexo
Championship at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire | Ross
Parker/Getty Images | Ross Parker/Getty Images
“I
was saying to my caddie today that they need to get the tees right and,
purely for pace of play, they have to move some of them up,” added the
42-year-old. “On some holes, even if you hit a good drive, you are
hitting long irons into small targets with 25-30mph crosswinds, so it
almost gets a bit unplayable.
“I
don’t know how they set it up last week or how the weather was, but I
saw the scoring with a 14 over cut. That just shows you what this place
is capable of as I have never seen a 14 over cut in my life.”
Hill,
who won the Joburg Open earlier in the year, paid a visit here along
with Connor Syme and Grant Forrest a few weeks back to get themselves
prepared for this week’s home assignment. “It was on a day when it was
10mph and 20 degrees, so it felt quite straightforward,” reported Hill.
“Then you arrive Monday and it looks much trickier.
“The
difficult thing is it’s not like some links course where you get a bit
of leeway. Here it’s fairways or bushes and it’s quite penal. You’ll
have a lot of reloading. It’s very strong off the tee and the greens are
slightly upturned, so you have a lot of run-offs. So, if you get it
wrong, it could be like ping pong. I think I started triple bogey and
double bogey. I didn’t know where I was the first few holes. But it was
still good fun and nice to see the course.”
The
intended yardage for this week had been 7,439 yards, but it will now
play around 270 yards shorter. Under a newly-announced initiative with
title sponsor Nexo, the player who shoots a new course record this week
will win $10,000 and, for that to officially count, it has to be on a
layout that is no more than 300 yards of the total yardage.
“It’s
demanding off the tee and even the holes you have straight into the
wind and even the crosswind ones, too, there are a few well-positioned
bunkers at the 270-300 mark,” observed Hill. “It depends how friendly
they want to be. Do they want to give you a chance of getting past the
bunker or is it more strategic?
“The
tenth is an awkward hole. You can go for the green, but it’s a bit
mental. I’ll play it as a three-shotter. It can get away from you. There
are a few holes that look narrower than they are and then they open up
when you get there. You just have to keep it in play.”
DLF
Country Club, home of the Hero Indian Open, is widely regarded as the
toughest test on the DP World Tour. “It’s not quite as extreme as
India,” said Hill. “It’s the most extreme in that you hit the fairway or
you’re in the munch. It’s not far off India, mind. But, in India, you
don’t get the 30mph winds out there. Ask me again on Sunday!”
Daniel
Young, the newly-crowned Farmfoods Scottish Challenge champion, has
played the course more than most people in the field, the exception
probably being Aberdonian David Law. “I have no idea,” he replied to
being asked what he thought the scoring might be like. “But I think
after last week they might go cautious to begin with and maybe ramp it
up a bit over the weekend.
KLM Open winner Connor Syme pictured at Trump International Golf Links | Ross Parker/Getty Images
“On a lot of those elevated tee shots in these cross winds, it is so
difficult to keep the ball down and just get it in play. Otherwise you
are going to be scrambling in the dunes and you could easily lose a ball
let alone have your work cut out just to get it back in play.”
Jordan Smith, who sits 15th on the European Ryder Cup points list, heads
the field, with Spaniard Adrian Otaegui defending the title, though the
event was called the Scottish Championship when he triumphed at
Fairmont St Andrews in 2020.
