Photo: Spider.Dog / flickr / creative commons / Attribution 2.0 beginning tomorrow in St. Andrews on Scotland's east coast, the British Open, the third Major of the year in golf. Apart from the fact that it happened to sound a little boring if such an important tournament, all five summer takes place in the same place , he seduces the golf journalists ornate reminiscences of the history of the game. Because - as goes the saga - St. Andrews is the birthplace of the sport. In fact, the game has changed dramatically since its birth. After initially went the balls by a huge technological revolution, were also the club to precision tools, and both forced the golf course owners to consider their systems is increasing in the length. Longer is not better, but just longer. Since it is more pleasant to see that the players themselves have changed only slightly. On the contrary. Just as the citizens of rich western Countries whose dietary habits in the near future, a health crisis will provoke (in addition to the need for wider seats on airplanes and the waiting rooms of doctors), currently contribute a lot of very successful golf professionals. Plump, overweight, if not thick. And old players elsewhere in the age category IV men "to keep classified. In other words, golf itself acts in the time of the robotic successful professionals Tiger Woods still somehow very human.
on this subject I've written a few weeks for the Zurich Sunday newspaper a text. He still fits in time:
Of all the figures, published by the American PGA Tour pros on their impact, a particularly curious. The statistic is called not only won the prize money, date of birth or body size. The documents make public another detail: the body weight of the golfer. Was able viewers who have never had anything over a certain Brendan de Jonge is from Zimbabwe, to determine quickly how much of the round 29-year-old is from Zimbabwe on the balance, after the surprisingly after the first day of the U.S. Open won the first place: whopping 103 kg.
The tournament on the difficult, 6,300-meter course at Pebble Beach is not easy. The four-day demand Participants in the wind and weather, a lot will. Why become established over the years, a type of golf professional, has the the model of the gym steeled world number one Tiger Woods is similar: The packet has well-proportioned muscle in the arms and shoulders.
But a recipe for success is not. Just think of all those men who walk with heavy steps on the court, but in the end the most important title to win. Whether Argentina's Angel Cabrera (winner of U.S. Open 2007 Masters 2009, weight, according to official figures: 95 kilograms and to chain-smoking), or whether Phil Mickelson (winner of the Masters 2004, 2006, 2010, 91 pounds) - they all carry more important events to the weight of its own expectations as to the mass of superfluous fat. So the Americans in this tournament, Mickelson was one of the favorites, after he had prepared the Friday with an impressive second round of 66 shots to rank second in the intermediate standings (behind the eventual winners, the Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell).
But not just body size seems to be no problem to top golfing. Was able for the U.S. Open this year to qualify, a player who won two years ago his second new heart implanted. The history of the American Erik Compton, who failed on Friday but the cut shows, at least one thing: the true qualities of a Golfers must consist of something other than that switching circuit, the athletes in sports like athletics or the bicycle race now increasingly manipulate with drugs.
Just think of the British Open at Turnberry in Scotland last year, until the penultimate hole a 59-year-old was at the top. The exceptional American golfer Tom Watson, who played for four days with amazing precision, lost the first in the jump off against the younger by 23 years countryman Stewart Cink. A similarly unusual power had made 2008 the Australian Greg Norman. He went at Royal Birkdale as the leader in the decisive round and finished third - at the age of 53.
Anyway: Both Watson and Norman have increased, in contrast to many on the Champions Tour professionals no more than 50 grams of liquid. One aspect which some time ago the former world number one David Duval said when he heard of the type of argument of overweight Englishman Lee Westwood (officially 94 pounds) abschmetterte any question about his eating habits: "If I want to be athlete, it would I 400-meter runner now. I'm not an athlete, I'm golfing. "
" The golf swing is a very athletic movement, "Duval justified his then his rigorous devotion to intense weight training. A little later he won the British Open. "Fitness," he said, "provides for a longer career and helps to prevent injuries."
fact Duval has suffered the biggest success of his career to an unexplained form of weakness and will only rarely and, now, with some pretty extra weight in the abdominal area from remarkable results. Westwood played the other hand, since a few years for major tournaments ever with the title and is in third place in the world rankings. After two rounds at Pebble Beach he lay in wait at the 16th Place. "I have good chances," he said.
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