Aiming for the rough

Jezz Ellwood allows GMac to explain why sometimes the rough is the best option here at St Andrews

Graeme McDowell during practice on Tuesday
(Image credit: Getty Images)

St Andrews throws up its own unique challenges and in some of the early press conferences players have spoken of a slightly bizarre-sounding strategy when tackling the short par-4 12th. It's just 348 yards on the card, but a preponderance of bunkers slopes and hollows, coupled with an impossibly shallow, tiered green means that in certain wind conditions players may well aim for the righthand rough deliberately.

After yesterday's practice round, US Open Champion and Golf Monthly columnist Graeme McDowell offered this insight: "Yeah, if the wind direction stays the same as it was today, no. 12 is going to be a very interesting hole. It was into and out of the left today, and we actually had to hit our tee shots into the right rough. The bunkers here at St. Andrews, they're not like normal bunkers on any other golf course because there are actually real penalties. You go to a resort-type golf course anywhere in the world, and the bunkers are probably more desirable than the rough for most top players. On the 12th it's 260 yards to carry the second set of cross bunkers. I played with Paul Casey and Oliver Wilson this morning, and we all laid it up in the right rough. It's going to look like a very bizarre play to people, but it's the only play. You're not going to lay up and give yourself 180 yards in to a green that's impossible to hit with a wedge, never mind a 5-iron."

Those sentiments were endorsed almost verbatim this morning by recent double PGA Tour winner Justin Rose.

So if you see a lot of players in the righthand rough on the 12th come Thursday they may not be playing quite as badly as it at first appears!

Jeremy Ellwood
Contributing Editor

Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly. He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts. He reached the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course. Put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content.

Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf


Jeremy is currently playing...

Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 55 S shaft

3 wood: Ping G425 Max 15˚ (set to flat +1), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 65 S shaft

Hybrid: Ping G425 17˚, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft

Irons 3-PW: Ping i525, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚, 12˚ bounce, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Putter: Ping Fetch 2021 model, 33in shaft (set flat 2)

Ball: Varies but mostly now TaylorMade Tour Response