The players to watch at blustery Birkdale

The tight Open course will make testing demands of a field thrown open by a certain someone's withdrawal. But who will triumph in his absence? The one thing you cannot help but notice on arrival at Royal Birkdale is the strength of the wind coming off the Irish Sea (30mph to be exact, though that is forecast to drop by half on Saturday and Sunday). It's mighty difficult just doing my job of sitting here typing this in the press tent, where the steel is creaking and the canvas overhead is rattling around so loudly it's drowning out the utterances of players in the interview room. So spare a thought for the golfers who were already going to be stretched to the full by the demands of this extremely tight course. It has been extended by only 155 yards since Birkdale last staged the Open in 1998, but numerous bunkers have been... [read full story]