Some news....Rory is OUT
After much consideration, I have decided not to play in the Open Championship at St. Andrews. I’m taking a long term view of this injury and, although rehab is progressing well, I want to come back to tournament play when I feel 100% healthy and 100% competitive. Thank you for all your support and best wishes. I hope to be back on the course as soon as I can.... In the mean time, come on Andy!!!
Hell Bunker at St. Andrews rebuilt ahead of Open Championship
The Open Championship returns to St. Andrews next week, and the grounds crew has been busy for months getting the Old Course into tip-top shape. Atop the to-do list was rebuilding as many as 50 of the course's 112 bunkers – including the famed "Hell Bunker" on the par-5 14th hole.
The Hell Bunker is the second most famous bunker on the Old Course, behind only the "Road Bunker" on the 17th hole. It is also one of the world's biggest – it is 6 ½ feet deep and covers more than 300 square yards – and has captured more than its share of golfers who dared to challenge it.
Among them is Jack Nicklaus, who made a quintuple-bogey 10 on the hole back in the 2000 Open Championship after straying into its cavernous maw. Small consolation, but Nicklaus wasn't in contention at the time. Back in 1933, though, Gene Sarazen was trying to defend the Claret Jug when he entered Hell and came out with an 8 – and missed out on a playoff by a single shot.
"Rebuilding such a vast bunker differs from the others on the course," Greenkeeper Martin Turna explained in a post on the St. Andrews Trust website. The Hell Bunker's sod face is so tall, and the bunker itself so big, that refurbishing it is a multi-step process that began with removing all the sand, digging out the sod in the face and lifting the turf above the bunker.