{"id":385534,"date":"2011-04-19T11:52:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T11:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/19\/players-to-face-longer-open-test\/"},"modified":"2011-04-19T11:52:42","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T11:52:42","slug":"players-to-face-longer-open-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/players-to-face-longer-open-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Players to face longer Open test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"96.9601648352\"><span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0d8e52239040_bjorn_getty_464.jpg\" width=\"464\" height=\"261\" alt=\"Thomas Bjorn at Royal St George's in 2003\" \/> Thomas Bjorn finished second in 2003 after a disastrous final round<\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The world&#8217;s top golfers will face a longer test at this year&#8217;s Open Championship with the Royal St George&#8217;s course being extended and par reduced.<\/p>\n<p>More than 100 yards will be added to the course for the 14-17 July event, while par will go from 71 to 70.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/golf\/the_open_2003\/3082161.stm\">Winner Ben Curtis<\/a> was the only player to finish under par the last time the Open was held in Kent in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth &#8211; with the bunker in front of the tee &#8211; will change from a 497-yard par five to a 495-yard par four.<\/p>\n<p>Other changes to the course &#8211; hosting the Open for the 14th time &#8211; include lengthening the third by 30 yards to 240 yards, taking the seventh from 532 to 564 yards, while the ninth is up from 388 to 412 yards.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport2\/hi\/golf\/13126309.stm#skip_feature_02\">Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2011 &#8211; Par 70<\/li>\n<li>2003 &#8211; Par 71<\/li>\n<li>1993 &#8211; Par 70<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>The main alteration on the back nine will be at the 15th as it is stretched from 475 yards to a 496-yard par four.<\/p>\n<p>American Curtis, playing links golf for the first time, was the shock winner at Royal St George&#8217;s eight years ago in his first major championship.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/golf\/the_open_2003\/3082403.stm\">Thomas Bjorn<\/a> had looked set to take victory at three ahead with four to play.<\/p>\n<p>But the Dane bogeyed the 15th and went on to double-bogey the short 16th after needing three attempts to get out of a greenside bunker while he also dropped another shot on the 17th.<\/p>\n<p>Bjorn shared second spot with Fijian Vijay Singh in 2003, while Tiger Woods was two shots back in joint-fourth place after starting the championship with a lost ball and a triple bogey seven.<\/p>\n<p>However, the chances of Woods losing a ball with his first shot this year have been severely reduced as with less than 30% of all drives finishing on the fairway in 2003 the landing area has been widened by about 12 yards.<\/p>\n<p>The fairways on the 17th and 18th have also been made more user friendly.<\/p>\n<p>Royal and Ancient Club chief executive Peter Dawson explained: &#8220;Tiger&#8217;s lost ball was not an influence &#8211; it was the overall statistic of 27-28%.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The par at Sandwich was 70 when the course hosted the Open in 1993. On that occasion tournament winner Greg Norman finished with an Open record of 267 &#8211; 13 under &#8211; which still stands.<\/p>\n<p>That year South African Ernie Els also become the first player in Open history to have all four rounds under 70.<\/p>\n<p>With over 180,000 spectators expect to head to Sandwich over the four days, extra train services have been set up from London.<\/p>\n<p>Two direct, high-speed services per hour will go to Sandwich during the morning from St Pancras International and two services an hour back, from lunchtime onwards &#8211; reducing regular journey times by one hour.<\/p>\n<p>Additional early-morning trains from St Pancras International will ensure that spectators can get to the course in time to watch the first groups tee-off. Supplementary trains on the mainline service, early in the morning, will run from Charing Cross and Victoria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Link:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/go\/rss\/-\/sport1\/hi\/golf\/13126309.stm\" title=\"Players to face longer Open test\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Players to face longer Open test<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Thomas Bjorn finished second in 2003 after a disastrous final round The world&#8217;s top golfers will face a longer test at this year&#8217;s Open Championship with the Royal St George&#8217;s course being extended and par reduced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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