Fowler upbeat about Open qualifying chances
BY iseekgolf.com | Australasian PGA Tour | 2005 British Open International Final Qualifying | Preview | 25 Jan 2005
Veteran Peter Fowler has a good feeling about Kingston Heath, venue for International Final Qualifying for the 2005 Open Championship.
“It is good to be back,” said the man who won the 1983 Australian Open and the 1986 Australian Matchplay Championship on the course. “It always helps when you play on a course that has happy memories.”
Although the oldest man in the 35-strong field competing for four places, Fowler, 45, is considered one of the favourites to gain a place in The Open on the Old Course at St Andrews in July. Apart from his knowledge and long experience around this famous Sand Belt layout, he is playing well again after a slump that threatened to end his career.
Ranked 94th on the Australian PGA Tour in 2001, he clawed his way back up to sixth in 2004 with a number of strong performances, including a third placing behind Ernie Els and Adam Scott in the Heineken Classic at nearby Royal Melbourne.
Twenty-two years after his first Open at Royal Birkdale, Fowler is more relaxed about prequalifying for what he hopes will be his ninth appearance. “I had to get through qualifying at Hillside in 1983,” he recalled. “It was quite brutal and I got in with rounds of 74 and 73. It was a totally new experience for me in a pressure situation. I think there were about 130 players for 13 spots. I played three rounds of the Open because they had two cuts in those days. I missed the final day by a shot, which I thought was not too bad for my first Open.”
“This is my first event of the year and I’m happy with the way I played today. I have been practising for the past three weeks and everything seems to be coming together.”
It is now 20 years since there were two cuts in the Open but another visitor to Kingston Heath today, five-times winner Peter Thomson, even recalled having to prequalify for all but the last of the titles he won in 1965.
“That is the way it was,” he recalled. “Winning the title did not guarantee you a start the following year.” Thomson broke into a broad grin when he saw the Claret Jug safely locked in a trophy cabinet in the clubhouse. This had not always been the case, he said, and it had once made its way around Melbourne in the charge of a six-year-old boy."
“When I brought the cup back in 1965, my son, Andrew, wanted to take it to school. We took it off the plinth and he shoved it in his school bag and off he went. I heard him come through the gate at about four o’clock that afternoon. I looked out the window and there he was with his head down. When I opened the door he came in and burst into tears. He said: “The boys rubbished me. One said my Dad had four of those at home.”
Kingston Heath, which has staged seven Australian Opens since 1948, measures 6945 yards and has a par of 72. The course record of 64 is held by Australian professional Anthony Painter, who in 2000 took a shot off the old mark set by Gary Player in the 1970 Australian Open. Low scores are not expected in the 36 holes to be played tomorrow and on Wednesday because the weather forecast is for high temperatures and northerly winds.
The difference the wind makes in this part of the world was amply demonstrated in the Heineken Classic last year. In the first round in still conditions Els shot a 12 under par round of 60 but on the last day in the wind he shot 74.
Source – The Open Championship
