Tee Time Gate at The Open

Here's a question for you,  what the hell was going on with yesterday's tee times at The Open? It just seems a little bit odd that the weekend's tee times have been so different don't you think? For the third round the leaders set off at 3.55pm. However, it is back to basics for the final round with traditional times of 2.30pm. So why did it all change?

"Can someone get that car to turn its headlights on please..."

Well we don't have a definite reason from the R&A so we can only assume it was for a few possible reasons.

Perhaps it was because golf is now a global game with millions watching around the world. With two Americans at the top of the pile going into Saturday it would have meant that the American audience would have been able to watch the action at 10.55am.

Increasing the audience is all well and good but what about the patrons inside the course? Their day has just become longer, travel has to also be considered for those who have places to be. The fact is, many would not have been able to see the final holes. With an £85 price on day tickets, their experience could have been somewhat diluted.

Then again perhaps it is because the R&A are looking to extract as much as they can from those at The Open. With the action now finishing later than expected, it means that extra money can be made in terms of food and drinks. This matter has been made worse for those inside Royal Birkdale given the no re-admission policy that has been imposed on them.

"Wake me up when the leaders are about to leave their houses... about 7pm shoud do it..."

Both arguments are pretty reasonable and if the tee times had remained the same throughout the weekend then perhaps we could have gone more for global television version. Maybe that is still the case and we can expect this to happen more in the future.

"Great stuff... the pub may be shutting put we've just heard Kuchar is getting out of the shower and should be down at the course in the next couple of hours..."

The only reason we can think of for a change back to traditional times today is the MerseyRail strike action. Either way doesn't bode well to make changes like this especially when people are planning their days. 

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