150th Open Championship at St Andrews: Latest news and storylines

High Polish

A Polish friend of mine doesn’t have much of a handle on the business of clattering balls with sticks. “There is not much golf in Poland, I think,” she said, barely comprehending my baffling chatter about Adrian Meronk the other week.

The Wroclaw resident is, however, changing his nation’s perception of golf. What began as the significant, but in worldwide terms rather minor, achievements of making the top 10 of the world amateur rankings, becoming the first Polish winner in US college golf, the first Polish Challenge Tour graduate, and then first Polish Challenge Tour winner has now become the rather more substantial first Polish main tour winner at this month’s Irish Open.

On Thursday he becomes the first Pole to play major championship golf and, although his professional record doesn’t necessarily indicate it, he has some sneaky form on the links.

Blathering with my friend might have befuddled her, but she did teach me a few key Polish phrases and they got me the ear of Meronk after he’d spent 10 minutes signing autographs by the putting green.

“I really enjoyed my time on the links in amateur golf,” he said, explaining that he won the strokeplay section of the 2013 Amateur Championship at Royal Cinque Ports and reached the semi-final stage in the match play three years later at Royal Porthcawl.

“We don’t get to play it so much on tour and that made last week at the Scottish Open really important. I missed the cut, but my preparation was really good and I can’t wait to get started. I’m just really excited and very proud about this week.”

I first met the 6’6” player five years ago at the Challenge Tour Grand Final when he revealed how difficult playing the game had proved back home. Even when it wasn’t snowing his nearest course was three hours away. His family would make the journey every weekend and they’d holiday in Portugal and Spain to help his progress.

There’s a plaque in St Andrews to honour Jozef Kosacki, a Polish signals officer who worked in the town during the Second World War and invented a method of detecting unexploded mines that proved crucial to the war effort and continues to save lives and limbs to this day.

Meronk laughed when I suggested that maybe it might be joined by a plaque for the first Polish Open win and thankfully didn’t laugh again when I wished him luck in his native tongue.

Earwigging

I don’t think I have especially big ears, but I got them flapping this afternoon around the range and the putting green, hopefully picking up a few nuggets.

Aussie Lucas Herbert, who has two top fours at the Renaissance Club, a top 10 in the Dunhill Links and victories in stiff winds at the Emirates GC and in Bermuda, missed the cut last week in the Scottish Open, but don’t let that put you off. Someone who knows him well likes the state of his swing, identified mechanical moves he makes when playing well, and expects good things.

Recent US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick was telling his putting coach that he wasn’t sure how he carded two 70s last weekend. He felt good from 10-feet and in, but was bemoaning his distance putting and called it “weak”. I’m never entirely sure how to interpret such thoughts. He might be concerned, but he is also addressing the problem.

Finally, less a case of earwigging, more another attempt from myself at cultural interaction for purely selfish motives. I got chatting to my friend Kozo, the R&A’s Japanese expert, and asked him about the state of Hideki Matsuyama’s neck.

The good news? His neck is fine. The possible bad news? So is his wrist. I’m not sure how widely known that second injury is or was. I bowed my thanks Japanese-style and got a thumbs up from Kozo.

Shropshire Lads

It was a big day for Shropshire golfers with Sandy Lyle among those being granted honorary degrees by the university while current players Ashley Chesters and Oliver Farr enjoyed a practice round ahead of Thursday’s first round.

Chatting to Chesters afterwards, he said that the pair of them had been reminiscing about their time as a foursome pairing for the county team as 14-year-olds and wondering whether they’d have believed it had they been told that 20 years later they’d be playing in the 150th Open.

Chesters earned his spot in the field at the end of last year in South Africa, while Farr grabbed a spot in Final Qualifying. If you were following that event online and found it bewildering that Oliver Farr was edging Oliver Farrell for that golden ticket, it’s even more confounding than that because Farrell plays out of Worcester G&CC where Farr’s father Graham used to be the pro. Graham also played the 1990 Open at St Andrews. An absolutely chaotic collection of coincidences and repetition.

Chesters was T12th on the Old Course in 2015 and is a veteran of both the Links Trophy and the Dunhill Links. He said he’d never seen the layout playing as it is this week. “Completely different to 2015,” he said. “It’s playing so short, but it’s bouncing forever and in today’s wind (left to right) you couldn’t hit it far enough left.”

Bunkering down

Here’s another element of this week’s examination that is different and yet rarely discussed: the sand traps.

During his chat with the Irish press Shane Lowry said: “I don’t know what they do, but in the Dunhill Links I’ve never really had bother in the road hole bunker, but I’ve been in twice this week and had no chance.” He added: “You’re pretty much guaranteed to find a pot bunker this week and the challenge will be to get out without running up a big number.”

He sounded very relaxed, joking that he’d been out playing a few holes “because that’s what you do on a Tuesday” and arguing “it’s about the six inches between the ears now”.

Of the course and scoring he said: “It won’t be as easy as some people are saying. It’s pretty firm apart from the greens and they’ll let them go the same way as the week goes on. I’ve a different grind on the sole of my wedges because the ground is that hard.”

Curb Your Enthusiasm for the Swilcan selfie

A venture to Topping & Co, the fine book store in town, had me thinking about an old friend, Oliver Horovitz, who wrote the book An American Caddie in St Andrews, a yarn about his many adventures on the Old Course.

To this day I cannot see the bridge over the Swilcan Burn, the classic photo opportunity, without recalling the scene Oliver witnessed when Larry David played the course.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm star waved away his partners, took an alternate route across the water, and (if you know David you will be able to hear this) added: “Meh, it’s just some f**king bridge.”

Oliver was the regular bagman for Huey Lewis in the Dunhill Links and that led to him carrying in a late final round group one year alongside Rory McIlroy.

I asked him this week what that experience was like. “Rory was the coolest,” he said of the man he fancies to lift the Claret Jug this year. “And I’ll never forget the sound his irons made up close. It was just different. Full. Like hearing Federer hit a forehand.”

With all his expertise I had to also ask for some secret artisan Old Course insight.

“Here’s one funny thing about the Old,” he said. “If you’re going to mis-club on your approaches, long is almost always better than short. Sure there are some exceptions. Long on 11 and 17 is clearly no good! Or if they’ve cut a pin three paces from the back. But in general, slightly long is almost always the miss on the Old instead of slightly short. There are so many humps and mounds and false fronts short.”

• Read more from Matt throughout the Open Championship at sportinglife.com/golf

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