Aussie golfers bracing for brutal Open
Australia's golf stars are praying the weather gods smile on them as they brace for "medieval" conditions at the 145th British Open starting on Thursday.
Led by major champions Jason Day and Adam Scott, Australia's 11-strong charge is expecting to confront a beast of a back nine and brutal bunkers at Royal Troon.
Marc Leishman - who, like Scott, defied horror luck with their first and second-round tee times last year to both lead on the back nine on Sunday at St Andrews - said Australia's challengers could do with some good fortune this time around.
"There's a lot of trouble out there and you're going to have to play well," said Leishman, who will hit off in the very first group on Thursday, hoping the strong winds pick up later.
"I saw there's rain (forecast for) Friday, but I haven't seen past that so who knows what's going to happen.
"Hopefully we can get a little bit of a break with the tee times. You never know what's going to happen until day one and two are over."
Traditionally, the trick at Troon is to score on the shorter front nine and hold on for dear life coming home into fierce wind gusts whipping up straight off the Irish Sea.
"The front nine's a lot of strategy, a lot of picking the right iron off the tee and hitting good iron shots onto the green to give yourself a birdie chance," Leishman said.
"But the back nine, if it's playing back into the wind, it's brutally tough and you can go out in even par and easily bogey every hole coming in.
"You're hitting driver on every hole and you've got long irons into the green.
"And all the fairway bunkers are virtually like water hazards. You hit in there, it's a one-shot penalty. You're not going to get it on the green from a fairway bunker.
"You've got to be on your game the whole day."
Irish superstar Rory McIlroy, the 2014 Open champion and former world No.1, gained first-hand insight into the perils of finding the wrong bunker on Tuesday when he took six shots to emerge from one on the famously treacherous "Postage Stamp" eighth hole.
But that danger lurks before the world's best even get to the back nine, which Greg Chalmers described as "unplayable" on Monday.
"Yesterday was a little bit medieval coming into the back nine, really difficult, coming straight into the wind every hole bar one," he said.
"So that's going to be really challenging if that's the wind direction.
"It's just such a difficult golf course and your week can be ruined by just one shot off line in the bunkers.
"The bunkers really are coffins. They're dead."
Leishman and Chalmers played practice rounds with 2004 champion Todd Hamilton to pick the American's brain as to how to best plot their way around the course.
The advice was simple.
"When he won here, he hit in two bunkers for the week - and they were greenside bunkers," Chalmers said.
"There's nothing in the fairway bunkers for you that you can do anything good out of."
AUSSIE FIRST-ROUND TEE TIMES (AEST)
1535: Marc Leishman
1546: Marcus Fraser
1630: Steven Bowditch
1747: Scott Hend
1825: Jason Day
1942: Matt Jones
1953: Rod Pampling
2004: Nathan Holman
2036: Greg Chalmers
2058: Nic Cullen
2315: Adam Scott
