Figuring out the reasons behind Slattery's impressive debut
Jul 25 2006
Golfnorthwest by Trevor Peake Daily Post Correspondent
THE long holes were the key to Lee Slattery's impressive performance in his first ever Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where his four under par total of 282 gave him a very respectable share of 26th place.
With four par fives on the Hoylake links each played four times, that made 16 par fives in all to be negotiated, and for those 16 holes Slattery was 12 under par with 10 birdies and one eagle.
A statistic comparable to the incomparable Tiger Woods, who was 14 under for the par fives with 10 birdies and two eagles.
At the 528 yard fifth, the only par five on the front nine, 27-year-old Slattery got birdies in the first and fourth rounds and an eagle in the third - his only eagle of the week - having to be content with just a par in round two.
He was most consistent at the 534 yard tenth, the first of the three long holes on the back nine, which he birdied every day. He also got birdies in three of the four rounds at the 554-yard 16th, only failing to pick up a stroke on day two.
But at the last, the longest hole on the course at 560 yards, he managed just one birdie in the third round and three pars.
He negotiated the four testing short holes also 16 times, dropping just one shot in Sunday's final round at the 202-yard sixth when he found a bunker off the tee, and picking up his only birdie two at the 198-yard 13th in the third round. His other 14 visits to the par threes all produced pars.
The most difficult hole all week for the players at Hoylake was the 456-yard par four 14th, and it certainly proved so for Slattery. In four attempts he managed just one par in his final round, dropping one stroke there on the first two days and two with his only double bogey of the week in round three.
Forty par fours were negotiated during the week, 10 in each round, of which all but two were over 420 yards.
Slattery dropped just one stroke over four days at the three opening par fours, when he found a bunker off the tee in the final round leading to a bogey five at the second.
