Organisers defend ‘a joke’ that has players looking like ‘idiots’

Some of the players were so angry, they urged the Scottish links be struck off the championship rota.

World number two David Duval led the protest. “I don’t think the Open will be coming back here,” said the quiet American as he prepared for his second round.

Even more furious was Spanish teenage sensation Sergio Garcia.

Tipped as a possible winner, the 19-year-old began his opening round with a double bogey after getting caught up in the savage rough and things then went from bad to worse.

By the time he staggered off the 18th green, his score had ballooned to a horrendous 18-over-par.

“I don’t see this as a fair test. It’s too difficult. They put the rough half a metrehigh and the fairways 10 metres wide. I don’t understand it and the public doesn’t enjoy it,” he fumed.

“It did cross my mind at times that you’d like to walk off but my caddie said `come on, let’s see if we can shoot an 80′. I had two doubles in a row and it was impossible to get it going. Everytime I had some momentum, something showed me up,” he added. American Hal Sutton was shell-shocked by the conditions. “I feel like I’ve fought a war,” he declared. “The golf course is at the extreme.”

US Open champion Payne Stewart insisted the organisers had blundered when they set the course up. “Of all the Open courses, this is the one that needs rough the least yet it has the most,” he complained.

Sandy Lyle was equally unhappy. The former Masters champion, desperately looking to rediscover his lost form, did little better that garcia, carding 14-over par.

“It is probably the hardest course I’ve ever played by a long way. Someone like Fred Funk, who is known for his accurate play and hitting thefairways all the time, shoots 83. It’s impossible,” complained the Scot.

And he claimed it has ruined his comeback bid.

“It has probably set me back six months now. All the hard work I’ve been doing, getting my swing organised and it’s just torn it apart. The course is a joke,” said Lyle.

But Open officials insisted they had not set out to make the world’s best players look idiots — despite admitting playing conditions were sometimes impossible.

Sir Michael Bonallack, secretary of the Royal and Ancient, insisted they had been merely “unlucky” with the weather conditions before and during the tournament.

“We don’t set out to make the players look like idiots, far from it,” said Sir Michael, who himself was in contention to win the Open here in 1968 before playing the last nine holes in 45. More “We don’t like to see the players struggling like this and I feel sorry for them but the great thing is the great players are still doing good scores.”

“We didn’t set out to make it as hard asthis but the weather made the rough grow very quickly and with the wind it’s a very severe test.”

“You have to be unlucky to get that wind, we are in the middle of July and it’s supposed to be the summer.”

“With hindsight, if we had known we were going to get this growth of rough, we could have widened the semi-rough. We did do some of it, but you can’t cut the deep rough down because you would need a combine harvester and you can’t do that on the eve of a championship.”

Sir Michael also refuted claims that such a spectacle was short-changing the spectators, adding: “I don’t think the spectators come to see players shoot very low scores.”

“I think they are enjoying seeing the players playing under such conditions, at times impossible conditions.”