Norman Rates Experience As Key Turnberry Weapon

Courtesy of OpenGolf.com

Greg Norman, the champion here in 1986, rates Turnberry as "one of the great golf courses of all the links we play". He also reckons the set-up is very similar to the year of his victory. "The rough is extremely thick and heavy, but the fairways are a little bit wider this year. The course has a lot more length on it and there are a few different angles we have to get used to. All in all the golf course is in absolutely perfect condition."

Norman: "All in all the golf course is in absolutely perfect condition."

Age may have its drawbacks, but it also has its advantages, maintains the 54-year-old Norman. He proved the point last year by leading going into the final round at Royal Birkdale before dropping back into third place. "You're not as physically strong and your endurance is probably not as great as someone in their 20s or 30s. But at the same time you have the experience. Under the adverse conditions last year I used my experience very, very well."

With the likelihood that many players will be using long-irons from the tee to stay short of fairway bunkers and to avoid the rough, Norman counsels against being too defensive. "If you lay up from the tee, you are then going into the greens with much longer irons and that makes it very hard to get at some of the pin positions. I'll use a lot more drivers because I drive the ball 290-300 yards as opposed to the other guys hitting it 300-330. So my chances of using a driver are a lot more.

"But the thing most people don't really look at is that there are probably 11 or 12 greens here that are bowl-shaped. And they can be very much in your favour if you know how that bowl sits. A good player will know that and if he misses the flag 30 feet to the left, he's doing it for a reason because he knows it is going to gravitate down. So if you know Turnberry well like that you can use it and play aggressively. But if you short-side yourself, you've got no chance of getting it up and down. There are a lot of little nuances around this golf course if you get to know it."

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