Gary Player had a stock answer in press conferences to that minefield question "Well, what do you think of the course?"
No one enjoys being on that press conference plinth more than the octogenarian three-time Open champion who would typically reply if he didn't like the venue: "It’s the best of its kind".
This week, Brooks Koepka who is far and away the most successful player in the majors over the last five years could have opted for such a diplomatic answer, but when presented with the slightest hint of being asked his opinion about Royal St George’s, the venue for the 149th Open Championship, the World No 8 leaked honesty like water draining out of a colander.
"I don't know, it's not my favourite venue that we've played……. a couple…. quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing. Fairways are quite undulating. I don't know, it's not my favourite of the rota," he opined freely and typically without filter.
Then he added words which might send a chilling sensation to the rest of the field: "I've won on golf courses that I'm not a big fan of before. It has nothing to do with it. Still got to get up and go hit the shot and do what I'm supposed to do, so that doesn't bug me. I don't care whether I like the place, don't like it. You've still got to play good and go hit the shots".
The man who had to hand back the Claret Jug this week might feel he needs to take a similar perspective because Shane Lowry’s only memory of the course was from 2006 when as a 19-year-old, playing in strokeplay qualifying for the Amateur Championship, he scattered dropped shots around the place like confetti in a round of 81.
Royal St George’s divides opinion. It is consistently highly-positioned in golf magazine rankings - often voted upon by course architecture purists - and yet still suffers the disdain of many professionals and elite amateurs who don’t like to see a well-struck tee shot skittle away sidewards off the many fairway hummocks into knee-deep rough.
But the perceived unfairness of the challenge is what possibly sets it apart from the other Open rota venues and to some degree it harks back to the origins of the sport where blind shots and random bounces on 'buck and roll’ fairways were an integral part of the task at hand.
There have been 14 stagings of the Open at Royal St George’s and among the list of winners are some of the greats of their eras in golf history so it has a fair record of identifying the best.
Names like Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke and Greg Norman are all etched on the trophy having won at Sandwich, but the last two winners - and quite a few before them like Jack White in 1904 and Reg Whitcomb in 1938 - came out of left field.
Ben Curtis, ranked 396 in the world in early July 2003, had never travelled out of the United States and not even played in a major when he won on a course that was baked brown in the hot sun, while in 2011, 42-year-old Darren Clarke had slipped outside the top 100 when he won on a lush damp course on the last occasion the Open was staged at Royal St George’s.
But in 1993, the 1-2-3 on the leaderboard included the power trio of Faldo, Langer and Norman - the latter shooting what many regarded at the time as the greatest final round of an Open Championship, a ball-striking masterclass 64.
So what version of Royal St George’s will reveal itself this week?
Even with temperatures set to rise by the championship rounds, a heavy dousing of rain on Monday on an already damp and lush green course means that it will probably be as fair as it is ever likely to play which points towards a winner from the upper echelons of the game.
And that arrow points directly towards one man at the moment. Jon Rahm may be second in the Official World Golf Rankings, but is a clear favourite, and with good reason.
There’s his general form-line in 2021 with nine top 10’s in 14 starts and that does not include his enforced withdrawal from the Memorial after three rounds with a six shot lead.
His follow-up performance at the US Open where he only came out of Covid quarantine on the Tuesday, is even more compelling as he worked his way steadily into a winning position at Torrey Pines before making dramatic ‘fist-pump’ birdies on the final two greens to secure his first major triumph.
There’s also his links pedigree of winning two Irish Opens at Portstewart in 2017 and Lahinch in 2019 while he was in a strong challenging position at the Scottish Open last week on the seaside Renaissance course before coming up just two shots short of the play-off mark.
Are there too many arrows pointing towards him as the man who could lift the Claret Jug come Sunday, especially given the recent record of Sandwich producing random winners?
Very possibly, but the players on either side of him in the world rankings, Dustin Johnson (No 1) and Justin Thomas (No 3) have only two top-10 finishes between them in a combined 19 tournament starts since February/March.
Xander Schauffele has a regular habit of contending but not winning in majors
World No 4 Collin Morikawa is something on an unknown quantity on links and was back in a tie for 71st place last week at the Scottish Open while the man one place below him in the rankings, Xander Schauffele, has a regular habit of contending but not winning in majors.
The feuding De Chambeau/Koepka sideshow to golf these days has spilt over into this week in a sometimes comical pantomime of trying to determine who is the ‘villain’ and who is the ‘slighted’. The red-top tabloid writers have had a field day and there’s a feeling that De Chambeau isn’t exactly rolling with the punches.
Since his purple patch of form in March in winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational followed by a third place finish in the Players Championship, the World No 6 has one ‘back door’ top-10 finish to his name.
In three previous Open appearances, he has managed to be around for the weekend just once in low-key tie for 51st place at Carnoustie in 2018.
In contrast, the credentials to challenge this week held by Koepka, are the most compelling outside of those of Rahm.
Since finishing tied fourth in the 2014 US Open, the only cut he’s missed in a major was in the Masters last April at a point when his knee surgery scars were still healing.
Since 2017 he is several multiples under-par than his nearest challenger in the majors and he has no fewer than seven top-four finishes in 15 starts, including four victories.
There is also every prospect of an Irish win because history says so
He’s rarely the favourite entering majors which is somewhat contradictory given his consistent record which this year also saw him finish in the top-four in the PGA and US Open.
If Rahm and Koepka are the two most likely to contend this week, there is also every prospect of an Irish win because history says so.
Five of the last 13 editions of the Open have resulted in a champion from Ireland and even though there are just four in the field, a case can be made for all of them having a good week.
The 2011 champion at Royal St Georges, 52-year-old Darren Clarke, plays on the Over 50’s Champions Tour in America these days and it might be a stretch to see him win, but with the taste of victory twice in the last nine months, he has found real form and will be hoping to at least make the cut.
After the example shown by 50-year-old Phil Mickelson in claiming the PGA title at Kiawah Island in May, fast running courses bring all ages into the equation, most aptly demonstrated by Tom Watson’s near miss in the Open at 59 years of age in 2009.
Padraig Harrington’s recent fourth place finish at the PGA was followed by four missed cuts and then he popped back into form with a tied 18th finish last week at the Scottish Open.
The World number 152, almost 300 places higher than he was 10 months ago, is playing with some of the belief that led him to claim back to back Claret Jugs in 2007 and 2008. Outside of the very obvious challengers, he’s a very real contender.
And bracketed among those ‘obvious’ prospects are two men who know what it takes to win the Open - the reigning champion Shane Lowry and 2014 title holder Rory McIlroy.
Lowry has enough form to feel confidence this week with a tie for fourth place at the PGA Championship in May being the high point of his year. On returning the Claret Jug on Monday of this week he then stepped into a press conference with all the calm and poise of a player who has grown into a big event performer.
"I'm really looking forward to the week ahead. Not that I'm ready to give the Claret Jug back. I just handed it back. I'm happy it's here and I'm happy I'm here defending, and I'm really looking forward to the week," he said.
McIlroy’s victory in the Well’s Fargo Championship in May was followed by a tied seventh place finish at the US Open where he was vying for the lead until a three-putt on the 11th green and a subsequent double-bogey saw him sink back out of contention.
But it was that rare experience for McIlroy since he won his last major championship in 2014, a feeling of being in the white heat of contention on the biggest stage of the game. While form has dropped off a bit since then with a missed cut last week in Scotland being a case in point, he is undeterred and struck an optimistic note on Tuesday.
"As missed cuts go, this wasn’t necessarily a bad one," he declared. "I got to be down here early and played a few holes on Saturday and a full round on Sunday so I felt I got a bit of a head start on the rest of the field.
"I feel like I figured something out on Sunday and hit the ball well in practice and on the course so I feel good about where I am."
McIlroy will get a chance to see how the course is playing on Thursday morning as he’s drawn to be out late at 3.21pm.
Lowry has a prime morning draw at 9.58am alongside the favourite Rahm while first Irishman in action will be Clarke at 8.25am while Harrington is under way at 12.42pm.
