History shows that playing at Loch Lomond was no sort of preparation for golfers who had aspirations to win the Open Championship.
A flick through the statistics demonstrates that Padraig Harrington’s reasoning behind his past decisions not to play in the Barclay’s Scottish Open when it was held on the inland course were justified.
In all, 15 European Tour events, under different names and sponsorships, were staged at Loch Lomond between 1996 and 2010.
While most of European golf’s elite took part every time at what was a highly popular venue played in front of knowledgeable galleries, it is a remarkable fact that on only three occasions in those 15 years did that year’s Open champion emerge from among those who had played at Loch Lomond.
When Louis Oosthuizen claimed his victory at St Andrews last year, he was the first Open champion in almost a decade to have played at Loch Lomond. Harrington’s back-to-back wins in 2007 and 2008 had been preceded by Tiger Woods’ similar feat in 2005 and 2006.
While they were both established leading lights who preferred to prepare for the Open in a different way the previous two Open champions, Ben Curtis (2003) and Todd Hamilton (2004), had emerged from nowhere.
Paul Lawrie’s win in 1999 was, of course, the only interruption in an eight-year streak of American wins at the Open and none of Justin Leonard (1997), Mark O’Meara (1998) or Woods (2000) took the opportunity to warm up by playing at Loch Lomond, either.
Even on the three occasions that the Open was won by someone who had played the previous week, none could claim to have honed their games at Loch Lomond. Oosthuizen finished a distant 68th at the Scottish Open last year, while in 2002 Ernie Els finished tied for 50th in that event and in 1999 Paul Lawrie ended what was then Standard Life Loch Lomond tied for 59th place.
Admittedly, it must also be noted that taking the predecessor of this event to a links course at Carnoustie made no difference in that regard since neither John Daly, who won at St Andrews in 1995 or Tom Lehman, champion at Lytham the following year, had visited the Angus links the week before.
Even so the consensus seems to be that the venue switch can only help enhance the status of this already prestigious event.
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