TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND — They're talking about rough here so lush and dense and nefarious that players could lose golf balls or even golf bags or maybe even the occasional caddie.
They're talking about bunkers, a rash of new fairway bunkers, bunkers that sometimes appear lunar in depth and as if equipped with large invisible vacuum cleaners.
Mostly, though, the contestants at the 138th British Open have been talking about tee shots, as if Turnberry's first Open since 1994 will hinge even more than usual on what happens at tee boxes fraught with peril, a worry having nothing to do with the cliff-top tees where a mean gust might blow somebody into the Firth of Clyde.
Two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington said it "definitely suits somebody who's going to drive very well." The 2008 runner-up Ian Poulter called it "a very difficult golf course from the tee." The highest-ranked player on hand other than Tiger Woods -- No. 3 Paul Casey -- called it "a tee-shot golf course." And the player right behind Casey at No. 4, Kenny Perry, implored, "You've got to hit a lot of fairways this week."
For Woods to tack a fourth win onto a year he already calls "a tremendous success" even without a major title yet, for him to log a 15th major title and receive a congratulatory text from his Swiss chum and 15-major-winner Roger Federer, for him to win a fourth Claret Jug and burnish Turnberry's knack for rewarding golf's brightest lights, he'll probably have to sustain what began at Jack Nicklaus' tournament in Ohio, the one where Nicklaus kidded Woods about his sudden tee-shot accuracy.
When Woods arrived at Royal Liverpool in 2006, he ranked 139th in driving accuracy, scrutinized the course and hatched the imaginative strategy of trying to win without his driver. Using it only once all week, he relied on clubs like his two-iron and shot merely 18 under par to win the thing.
When Woods arrived at Nicklaus' Memorial tournament in early June, his driving accuracy in four stroke-play tournaments in 2009 had been 60.7%, 60.7%, 64.3% and 44.6%. That he'd finished T-9, 1, T-6 and 4 in those events would seem another clue that he might just be unusually adept at golf.
Well, that week, while letting the driver come out to play with the others, he hit 87.5% of the fairways, including the majestic 100% -- 14 for 14 -- on the closing Sunday as he reported harrowingly, "My practice sessions started getting longer at home. . . . I can practice like I used to."
