Matt Cooper has called in Dave Tindall to assist with the latest update to his Open Championship diary, which takes in the rattler, fake lefties, and bean juice.<\/p>\n
The rattler<\/p>\n
Matt Cooper<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a TV series begging to be made about the stretch of linksland from Liverpool to Southport \u2013 and the railway line that runs through it.<\/p>\n
The rattler makes it\u2019s way past West Lancs, Formby, Southport & Ainsdale, and Hillside on it way to this week\u2019s Open venue.<\/p>\n
The frequency of wonderful golf land prompts fun interactions. Travellers from around the world are in awe, kids get prematurely excited that they\u2019ve reached the Open venue, and locals are a mixture of pride in their region, and fatigue that normally quiet trains are heaving with giddy golfers.<\/p>\n
They were busy for the first day of action but here\u2019s a little tip for you if you\u2019re travelling from the south \u2013 get on the first carriage because you\u2019ll be first to the stairs and therefore first out the station and through the ticket check.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get left out again<\/p>\n
Dave Tindall<\/p>\n
Will we get a left-handed golfer winning The Open this week? The small contingent of southpaws have done well in recent years. Brian Harman blitzed the field at Royal Liverpool the last time the tournament visited the Lancashire coast and Phil Mickelson hoisted the claret jug in 2013, taking the title at Muirfield a week after he\u2019d won the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart.<\/p>\n
Bob Charles became the first left-hander to win any men’s major championship when he came through a 36-hole playoff (different times) over Phil Rodgers at another nearby Open venue in 1963, Royal Lytham.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be honest, I\u2019ve not quite got it right with Opens and lefties. In 2013 I was on a high after tipping Phil Mickelson at 20s to win the Scottish Open but then decided there was no way he could win the Open a week later. So I didn\u2019t reinvest. At the same price. When he\u2019d already shown he could win the week before a major and then land the major itself (2006 Bellsouth and Masters).<\/p>\n
But that pales into comparison when we go back to 2023. Trying to be clever, trying to be shrewd, trying to get a little value on a side market, I backed Brian Harman to be top-left hander at Royal Liverpool. I guess it won. But imagine how I felt knowing that Matt Cooper had backed Harman at 310 on Betfair to win the event itself which he did by six shots. Six! As that week went on, Matt\u2019s smile got wider as my stomach churned. Pretty sure Matt bought the drinks though, so…<\/p>\n
This year I\u2019m not messing about. I\u2019ve nailed my colours firmly to Robert MacIntyre to win the thing. After scooping a bit of each-way cash off him in Scotland last week, I decided it was absolutely time for Oban\u2019s finest to land a first major. And what a great start. A pair of opening birdies and a first-round three-under 67. That\u2019ll do nicely.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s actually one unexpected twist to this year\u2019s southpaw discussion and, appropriately enough, it came out of left field. While taking some photos around the course in Wednesday\u2019s practice round, I noticed Joaquin Niemann signing autographs by the clubhouse. Something didn\u2019t quite look right. And then I twigged. Niemann was writing with his left hand. That\u2019s a highly unusual combination. Apparently only 5% of right-handed golfers would throw left-handed.<\/p>\n
To avoid the Def Con One outcome of him winning and me not backing him despite my discovery, I had a few quid on the Chilean. A terrible bet. As I write this he\u2019s six-over after 16 and has no chance. Once again, left-handers at the Open have got me in a muddle. <\/p>\n
First<\/p>\n
Dave Tindall<\/p>\n
I have very little to brag about when it comes to my own golf game. I don\u2019t hit it very far, my irons are poor and I never hole putts. I manage six rounds per annum in a good year (it\u2019s one so far in 2026, if you\u2019re counting). Unlike Rory McIlroy, if I shouted \u201cI\u2019m so bad at golf\u201d there would be nods of recognition and perhaps even a small smattering of applause for such a brave and honest declaration.<\/p>\n
But even terrible golfers have their moments and mine came here at Royal Birkdale. The first hole is a monster and the European Tour reminded us of that in a tweet ahead of the 2017 Open there. \u201cIn the last 20 Opens, the first at Royal Birkdale has been the toughest opening hole on the rota. (4.49 average).\u201d When Padraig Harrington won at Birkdale in 2008 he bogeyed it the first day and then ground out pars over the next three rounds.<\/p>\n
Me? With no warm up, a handicap of 22 and windy conditions, it didn\u2019t look good when I walked onto the first tee for my first and only ever round at Birkdale. To quote Simon the IT computer geek from The Office: \u201cI could see the people going, ‘Oh my god! If that guy hits off now, he’s definitely dead.\u2019\u201d But… I smoked a drive, pinged a fairway wood to 25 feet, holed the birdie putt and said \u201cWhat were you worried about?\u201d<\/p>\n
So how did this year\u2019s Open field fare at Birkdale\u2019s 1st hole in round one? To be honest it would have made a better story if it had once again played as the toughest hole but, checking the stats, the 449-yard opener is only playing as the 7th hardest today. But Padraig Harrington, the 2008 winner here, and Harry Hall both doubled it and birdies were few and far between. So, regardless, I\u2019ll claim the win and still dine out on it.<\/p>\n
Dirty hands<\/p>\n
Matt Cooper<\/p>\n
My Thursday got off to a lovely start with a little wander up the first to watch the early action.<\/p>\n
I then returned for a late breakfast ahead of covering the action for the Guardian live commentary. After tipping my leftovers in the bin, I returned to my desk where my reading glasses were nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
I checked everywhere and decided there was only one option: that I had tipped them into the rubbish bin. There was no option but to ask if I could take a closer look.<\/p>\n
The lad in charge of the bins opened it up and I plunged in, heedless of the revolting mess of leftover breakfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat have you lost?\u201d a passing voice asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dignity,\u201d I muttered, my fingers dripping with baked bean juice, my soul resembling an unwanted piece of bacon.<\/p>\n
The glasses, alas, were not there so I spent the next two hours peering awkwardly at the screen, a pulse in my forehead suggesting that I\u2019d have a head ache by the end of play.<\/p>\n
And then the riddle was solved.<\/p>\n
My glasses had been taken in error and were now on the opposite side of the course, with the CEO of one of golf\u2019s largest corporations.<\/p>\n
The glasses were saved, my dignity has known better days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Cooper has called in Dave Tindall to assist with the latest update to his Open Championship diary,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-696666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}