If you tuned in to even a single round of the wet, soggy and delayed golf that made up the U.S. Open, you most likely saw a few surprising things. The most surprising of all being that a vast majority of the Pros taking part in the tournament pulled out their long irons from their bag and replaced them with any number of hybrids. Due to the wet grass, the soft greens, and even the rain falling from the sky, they needed shots that flew high and landed softly. For all of you purists, looks like those irons are going to be going directly back into the bag next week at Turnberry for the British Open.
Scotland = Wind
That’s right, the course, Turnberry’s Ailsa Course in Scotland, is notorious for being extremely windy, and given those conditions and the high trajectory that a hybrid inherently brings, looks like Paul Casey, and others are going to be dropping the woods for their long irons, anywhere from 1-3. According to Paul Casey’s Twitter account:
“Thinking the 5 wood will be coming out and the 2 iron will be making a guest appearance for the Open. No other changes.”
Casey Going with Nike Pro Combo OS
When asked by members of golf.com what 2 iron that would be, he responded with a simple: “Still the Nike Pro Combo OS. I have 2 or 3 of them that I’m hanging on to.” Interesting.
What Pros Will Go Irons?
It will be interesting to see what other professional golfers on the PGA Tour will opt out of the hybrid realm and directly back into the long irons that dominated the tour before the hybrid craze took over. Given the windy conditions, I fully expect the majority of the players to be hitting long irons, and even far less fairway woods unless the distance demands it. Whatever the case will be, we can’t wait to see how Turnberry plays this time around!