Muirfield to bare its teeth for Open

Muirfield’s popularity amongst players as a British Open venue will be tested by an extra 158 yards and “plenty” of rough for this year’s Championship from July 18-21.

New tees have been added on seven of the holes, taking the overall distance of the course from 7,034 yards when Ernie Els won in 2002 to 7,192 yards, par 71 this summer.

The biggest difference is on the ninth, where a land swap with neighbours the Renaissance Club has enabled the tee to be moved back almost 50 yards — extending the par-five to 554 yards – with a new bunker added on the right of the fairway and bunkers moved closer to the green.

Other new features this year will include a “wi-fi mesh’ around the course, primarily available in the grandstands and tented villages.

Mobile phones will be allowed again after a largely successful re-introduction last year, although executive director of championships Johnnie Cole-Hamilton admitted: “It did not go completely without incident.

“We have learnt lessons from last year and we did not get any complaints from the players, which was important. I think it will improve year on year.”

Jim McArthur, chair of the championship committee, added: “We took a big risk but we had some belief in the spectators’ respect for the game. It (allowing phones) brings so many benefits that we think we need to continue with this unless we have any major problems.

“We will also have complete control over the content displayed on the LED scoreboards – which have video capability to show live footage – to ensure that we don’t disrupt the players. We will err on the side of caution.”

Dawson also re-iterated the R&A’s stance on taking the Open to clubs like Muirfield, Sandwich and Royal Troon, which are male-only, after saying last week courses would not be bullied into changing their policies by the threat of losing the Open.

“We come for the golf course,” he said. “To think we would not come to a course as wonderful as this is something we could not countenance. It’s like taking the Boat Race to the Humber if you did not like Boris (Johnson’s) policies.”