Winds of Turnberry will produce a worthy champion

TURNBERRY, Scotland – The sun came out Wednesday over the Firth of Clyde, the stretch of ocean that runs along Turnberry’s Alisa Course here, and Tom Watson walked toward the back nine. He looked across the water as he strode to the 10th tee, turned to his caddie, and mentioned the reflection of the clouds in the sea, still as could be.

“Pretty calm out there, isn’t it?” Watson said.

Watson knows, better than most, that Turnberry typically stays calm for just hours at a time. The wind here will determine so much about the British Open, which begins today. If it picks up, it could make the closing holes a ferocious test or a birdie-fest, depending on its direction. If it stays away, even for a day, it could leave the course all but helpless, and produce a number such as the 63 Greg Norman shot here in 1986. It is, after all, the British Open, where wind is the most important player in the field.

But whatever happens with the weather, Turnberry is likely to produce a champion worthy of the moment. Only three of the 137 previous Opens have been staged on this gorgeous slice of seacoast. In 1977, Watson beat Jack Nicklaus on the 72nd hole, matching Nicklaus’ 40-foot birdie putt with a short birdie of his own, one of golf’s finest moments. In 1986, it was Norman, who shot that brilliant 63 in the second round and won by five. And in 1994, it was Nick Price firing four rounds in the 60s, winning by a shot over Jesper Parnevik, propelling himself to a win at the PGA Championship later that summer.

Those three champions – Watson, Norman and Price – were, without much argument, the best players on the planet at the time of their titles here. It is not the most storied venue for this championship, nor the most frequently used, nor even the sternest test of a player’s abilities. But the 7,204-yard, par-70 layout – lengthened since Price won here 15 years ago – has a way of evaluating the field and selecting a golfer that isn’t, say, a Ben Curtis or a Todd Hamilton – fluky winners who took titles at Royal Troon in 2003 and Royal St. George’s in 2004, respectively. Turnberry is where the best seem to play the best.

“Why some venues produce winners like that and others don’t, I have no idea,” said Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, which oversees the championship. “The setup of the courses and the type of player required is pretty similar in all the Open venues. I think it’s happenstance, myself.”