Hoylake will not be a 'bombers’ alley', says McGinley

Irishman Paul McGinley believes the hard and fast Hoylake course will provide a good test for the world’s top players at the British Open, despite some criticism to the contrary.

The dry and hot weather has left the Royal Liverpool links scorched and the lack of water has reduced the rough to nothing more than feathery wisps in places.

That has led some to suggest it will become a “bombers’ alley” for the big hitters – a claim McGinley rejected.

“This golf course is not the chicken run everyone is making out,” said the 39-year-old Dubliner.

“You can make a golf course 8,500 yards long but if you make it soft we can find a way around it because we can control the ball.

“You can hit the ball from A to B and know it will stop. You then hit it from C to D and know it will stop. We might not be shooting lights out but we can get the ball round the golf course because we know when the ball hits the ground it will have some control.

“But you come to the (British) Open, particularly on a golf course which is extreme like this in terms of firmness, we hit the ball from A to B and it rolls to C, D, E and F.

“Now the ball is out of our control. That is a lot more difficult scenario for us as professional golfers so I think this is not going to be the walkover in terms of scoring everyone is predicting. It is much more difficult for professional golfers when the ball is running out.”

Ryder Cup star McGinley would like to see links courses used more on the European Tour but accepted that was unlikely to happen.

“The (British) Open is unique. It is like tennis players playing on clay and then playing on grass, they have to adjust,” he said.

“We played the Irish Open on links little bit and I know the Dutch Open is being played on a links course this year but we don’t really have a lot outside of the British Isles and that is a problem.”