2024 Open

Royal Troon

Day Two - 19th July 2024

Today I spent £100 (plus a further £15 on parking) to remind myself of just how poor a spectator experience golf really can be.  One generally can take one of two approaches.  Either to queue to get a seat in one of the many temporary grandstands which have been erected, where you can sit and watch a parade of participants putt on your chosen green.  Or you can choose to attempt to follow a particular golfer (or group) around the course.  Neither approaches are truly satisfying, and TV does things so much better.

I initially chose to sit overlooking the 13th hole, but the novelty of witnessing golfer after golfer failing to hole a birdie soon palled, so I decided to spend a bit of time following current competition leader Shane Lowry around.  But the problem with this approach is, whilst you generally do get to witness the chap teeing off, (which is fun), your target then strides off down the fairway via a dedicated and cleared-by-stewards route, whilst you generally find yourself stuck in a slow-moving wildebeest herd trying to catch up.  

So, by the time I had finally reached the spot where Lowry's tee-shot had landed, he had already played his second shot and was off once more.  Thus did this increasingly futile chase repeatedly playout until Lowry finally reached the green, which was, inevitably, already surrounded by better-organised bods leaving no decent sightlines available.

A third (and less structured) approach to the day, of course, is just to aimlessly meander around the course hoping to encounter something of interest by chance.  Utilising this method I did witness Scottie Scheffler just fall short with a ten foot birdie attempt at the ninth hole and, lower down the course, saw South Korean Younghan Song perform a neat exit from the rough on one of the fairways; his female caddie giving me her best turn-milk-sour stare as I took my footage.  But this approach, again, I found unsatisfying - my experience not being helped by being stung on the back of the neck by a bee.

I thus made my way to one of the big stands at the Eighteenth Hole where I saw Tiger Woods playing what surely must be his last ever Troon Open hole.  Then a few minutes later, was impressed to witness Shane Lowry dropping a delightful twenty-footer birdie.  This shot helped the Irishman to a second round score of 69; him eventually leading the field at the end of the day by two strokes.

The route to The Open.

The 13th hole.

The 9th hole.

Cameron Smith

Shane Lowry

My plan to watch some action from the whopping stand overlooking
The Postage Stamp (8th hole) were jettisoned when I saw the size of the queue.

Scottie Scheffler

Younghan Song

I am sure this wee bridge has a name.

Tiger Woods

The sight of +14 against Tiger Wood's name after just two rounds, put me in mind of
watching Muhammed Ali losing those matches at the tail of his career.

The 18th hole.

The 1st hole.

After some grossly over-priced scran, I settled down in the stand at the 16th to watch a few bods move towards the completion of their rounds, including Justin Rose who birdied, and the ever-so-slightly eccentric Australian Jasper Stubbs (who did not).  I also watched a pair of Scots whizz by: Jack Macdonald and amateur Callum Scott. 

In hindsight, despite my initial statements, this was actually a fun-day out with the Troon weather behaving itself.  Even if the regular cheers from elsewhere frequently left me with the vague feeling of being in just not quite the right place at the right time on the course.

These guys attempting to keep this scoreboard up to date were on a hiding to nothing.
They always appeared to be a good 15 minutes behind play.

The 16th hole.

UPDATE

Shane Lowry pretty much imploded on Day Three, ending his hopes.  Whilst American Xander Schauffele carded 69 and 65 on Days 3 & 4 respectively to win the title.