The final round of The Open Championship is set to be one of the most exciting in recent history.
Scottie Scheffler has been the dominant force at The Open so far this week, but there are still 18 holes remaining before he can lift the Claret Jug.
There will be plenty of twists and turns before 7pm on Sunday night, that’s for sure.
The 2025 Open has been set up brilliantly as per usual. However, there have been one or two criticisms of the R&A
The R&A have made the bunkers more difficult to play out of at The Open, after increasing the length of the spokes on the rakes and the distance between them.
And it seems like they have made another questionable call for the final round of golf’s oldest and most prestigious championship.
R&A have made ‘borderline’ decision for day four at The Open
The players who teed off early on Sunday experienced real problems on the fourth hole at Royal Portrush.
The pin is cut tight to the right edge of the green, and anyone who misses on the short side will have an almost impossible task of getting their ball up and down.
Andrew Coltart and Tim Barter were discussing the pin location on the fourth hole at Portrush, during Sky Sports’ production of day four at The Open.
Barter admitted his surprise that the R&A decided to locate the pin so close to the edge of the green in the middle of a slope on the fourth hole.
“When I looked last night when the pins were published, I thought, ‘this pin can’t be here, it’s on a slope, it’s physically on a slope.“
Then Coltart weighed in with his opinion on the matter.
He said:“That’s going to create quite a bit of conjecture amongst the players during the day.“
Barter then labelled the pin location on the fourth hole as ‘borderline’.
He said: “The green, as difficult as this hole is, it’s then number two ranked hole this week, and they have put the pin in a really, really challenging spot. So I think the players will be questioning that one. That’s borderline.
“The angle of the hole is cut into the slope. They generally have rules, the DP World Tour, about the degree of gradient they’re allowed to put a pin on, and that one certainly looks as though it’s pushing the margins.“
The pin location on the fourth hole just doesn’t seem fair at all in all honesty.
The leaders watching the early coverage will be fully aware that they simply cannot miss that green on the right because if they do, it will be an almost certain bogey.
R&A made interesting change for the 2025 Open Championship
The R&A have made one really positive change at The Open this year.
In an effort to stop ‘backboarding’ or ‘grandstanding’, they have made the drop zones a much less appealing prospect for the players.
Because the drops zones this week have been placed in the deep rough, the players have not be hitting their balls into the grandstands on purpose in order to get a free drop into a nice, tight and clean lie.
It is a problem that has been plaguing professional golf for some time now.
Hopefully the R&A’s new initiative at The Open has provided the blueprint for the other governing bodies of the game moving forward.
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