The 150th Open has finally arrived and the Old Course at St Andrews is looking firm and fast for the world's best players.
The world famous layout last hosted an Open Championship in 2015, when heavy rain forced play into Monday. Thankfully that doesn't look like it's going to happen this year, with the fairways looking nicely browned after a dry lead-up. We've already seen Tiger Woods drive the 18th green in practice and the course is set to be fiery.
But what will the winning score be this week? Typically the scoring has been low around the Old, with four Opens this century producing winning scores of 19-under-par, 14-under-par, 16-under-par and 15-under-par.
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Last month's US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick thinks scoring could once again be low, and revealed that his caddie Billy Foster thinks that 18-under will be the mark. He also said he was taken aback by how low scoring has been in previous St Andrews Opens.
"I've not played the golf course for a couple years now. Obviously, when I've played, it's been in October so it's been soft, or softer. And right now, I think from what I'm hearing here, it's very firm," the Englishman said.
"I think I mentioned last week, speaking to Billy, looking at 4, 5, maybe 6 are drivable. Again, that's calm conditions. So that's probably a bit of a guess from my side, but that definitely changes the dynamic of the golf course.
"Someone asked Billy today, what does he think the winning score is. And I'm like pretty oblivious with most golf history, and he was telling, I think Louis won on minus 15 [Oosthuizen's score was 16-under]. Someone won on 18. Someone won on 16 or something. I was taken aback by how low the scores were, like I didn't think it would be that low.
"I think with it being firm and par-4s more gettable, it could be a low one as well, weather permitting."
Matt Fitzpatrick currently ranks a career-best 10th in the world. His best Open Championship finish was a T20 in 2019.
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