LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — The cheer was so loud, the moment so big, that Padraig Harrington forgot what he was doing. It was his major championship debut in 1996 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and he finished off his second round of 68 by holing a bunker shot next to the 18th green.
“I got so excited, I took the putter out of the bag,” Harrington said. “I’ve never been as excited on the golf course. The hairs on the back of my head stood up. It was just an unbelievable cheer that went up when I holed it.”
The lasting memory of that moment, however, was more about the stage than the shot.
“It’s like no other major,” Harrington said.
No matter the links course, there is nothing like the atmosphere on the 18th hole at the British Open anywhere in golf.
The grandstands are enormous, about 10 feet above the ground and stretching 20 rows to the top, just below the iconic yellow scoreboard. They are on both sides of the fairway, starting about 50 yards before the players reach the green.
“Nothing would be more incredible than coming down here on Sunday winning the tournament, that’s for sure,” Robert Allenby said. “It’s the best finish in golf.”
Dustin Johnson can appreciate what that’s like – as a bystander. He played in the final group last year at Royal St. George’s as the thousands of people in the stands celebrated Darren Clarke winning the claret jug.
“(It’s) pretty cool … almost like you’re in a stadium,” Johnson said.
The stadium was relatively empty Sunday on a surprisingly sunny afternoon at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Six people sat on the right side watching Clarke finish his practice round. Four others were on the left side when Robert Rock came through.
It won’t be like that a week from Sunday, when all 6,705 grandstand seats will be occupied.
Harrington always told Ronan Flood, his brother-in-law who eventually became his caddie, that there was no greater feeling than walking up the 18th at the British Open, with the gallery crammed behind ropes and metal railings, the grandstands full of people sitting elbow-to-elbow in the green chairs aligned so perfectly.
“I kept telling Ronan for years, ‘You’ve got to be coming down the last on a Sunday afternoon. There’s no experience like walking down the last (fairway) and getting cheered onto the green,’ ” Harrington said.
“But I actually lied,” he added. “There’s a better experience. It’s going down the 72nd hole when you’re actually winning The Open. “
Sunday before a major is getting busier, with a couple of dozen players getting in a practice round.
One of them was Tiger Woods, who arrived at a nearby airport at 7 a.m., drove straight to the golf course and walked right onto the first tee. He stretched briefly, and without a practice swing, uttered his first words of his British Open week: “Get in.”
He nearly holed the shot.
Woods meticulously worked his way through all 18 holes, taking notes, hitting a 2-iron off a par 5 into the wind to avoid some of the 206 bunkers. One reason for being so meticulous on a Sunday was the weather might not be this pleasant the rest of the week. The forecast was for rain just about every day, starting today, the first official day of practice.
The last three winners have been able to soak up the moment on the 18th. Stewart Cink in the playoff at Turnberry, Louis Oosthuizen at St. Andrews and Clarke last year all had safe leads. The engraver already was at work on the claret jug. Justin Leonard won at Royal Troon in 1997, though he was in the penultimate group and was busy grinding to make par. Still, he can’t think of a better stage than the closing hole of golf’s oldest championship.
“There’s a lot of things you can understand just from watching on TV,” he said.
