It was a tough day at Muirfield on the first day of The Open Championship, with pins tucked away and some greens feeling more like ice rinks. In addition to that, the “rough” (which Ian Poulter described as “hay”) definitely took it’s toll on the players. Here’s a great example from Thomas Bjorn – he hit his tee shot way left on the first hole and thought that it may have cost him a shot or two… but definitely not $80,000! Bjorn tried to hack out of the deep fescue but the ball hooked left and hit an ESPN camera, destroying the very pricey lens. Take a look at the photo of the destruction below:
Bjorn wasn’t the only player on the course having trouble with the deep fescue today. Already frustrated from making three straight bogeys, Schwartzel’s patience snapped when he skewed a shot out of heavy rough on the 15th hole. His club snapped as well – Schwartzel threw his iron into the ground with both hands, and with the ground so hard, the club snapped in half. Here is a video of his reaction:
There were some great rounds out there though, such as Tiger Woods grinding out a 2-under 69 after a horrendous tee shot and to the surprise of many, Shiv Kapur of India had a blazing start with 6 birdies in his first seven holes but eventually cooled off to finish at 3-under after the first round! Perhaps Shiv is used to tough conditions as he reminded us of EPSN’s E60 on the Mumbai Masters! If you haven’t seen this, make sure to watch it as you’ll appreciate the game that much more!
Source: Golf.com
