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PGA Tour Leaderboard Schedule Statistics Rankings Players LPGA Tour Leaderboard Schedule Statistics Rankings Senior PGA Tour Leaderboard Schedule Statistics Rankings NIKE Tour Results Schedule Statistics Rankings EURO Tour Schedule Rankings		North: A brutal test of golf By Andy North Special to ESPN Golf Online July 15 3:58pm ET
		Players are in for a real test this week at the British Open at Carnoustie Golf Club, one of the hardest golf courses they will ever play. In particular, the finishing holes are tough.   ASK ANDY   Each week Andy North will answer three user questions. If you have a question, send it to Andy and check back next week to see if he answers it. What does the term links golf refer to? -- Jamie Forrester, Pittsburgh North: You'll be hearing this a lot this week during the British Open. Links golf courses are usually built close to the seas where the wind blows hard and there are no trees. They are courses just carved out of the sand dunes along the beach with a lot of scrub brush. Links is a game that can be played on the ground, where you can run the ball up to the green. You almost can't land the ball on the green. It's basically more of a ground game than an air game. I see Arnold Palmer was penalized two strokes for an illegal putting stance in the Senior Open. What constitutes an illegal putting stance? -- Brian Longfield, Madison, Wis. North: Palmer tapped in his final putt croquet style, which you can't do. Basically, you can't straddle the line between the hole and your ball. This rule was put into play about 20 years ago because croquet-style putters had too big of an advantage. As far as what is legal, you can pretty much stand any way you want to, you just can't straddle the ball. What amazes me is the amount of backspin generated by pros as their balls hit the greens. Is that due to the slickness of the greens, the club, the technique employed, or a combination thereof? -- Davis Yee, Portland, Ore. North: It's a combination of all that. The greens we play are so much faster than most, that a little bit of spin will take off once it starts coming back. Our fairways are so closely cut there is no grass between the club and the ball on contact, which adds to the spin. The balls pros play are also softer than those most players use. Pros lose a little distance with the softer balls, but they have more spin ratio. Every ball hit has spin on it, but pros can create more speed with swings and hit the ball more solidly, due in part to the lie. We'd love to play off the bare ground, whereas the average players likes that juicy lie. If you can be in the clubhouse with the lead with the guys giving chase coming to the final four holes, you can pretty much pop your first beer, because you'll probably win. They are just brutal finishing holes. The British Open is a unique experience when it comes to majors. The conditions are always an experience, starting with rough that is about hip deep. At The Masters, you have wide fairways and tricky greens. At the U.S. Open, you know the greens will be firm but the fairways aren't hard. At the British Open, controlling the ball on every shot is hard. There is always deep rough and wild grasses. The wind can blow 40 mph, stop, then change direction. A lot of sites, you play nine holes out and then nine holes back, and usually you play into the wind one way and with it the other. At the British Open, you never know which way it will blow; you could actually play 18 holes into the wind. Basically, the whole environment is just tough to play in. You have to dream up your shots as you go. It's almost like a football coach drawing plays in the dirt. You just make up stuff as you go, try stuff you would never try at another course. Even when the wind is calm, the British Open can be difficult. On links courses like Carnoustie, you want to land short of the green and let the ball bounce and roll up. But when you start playing for the bounce, it can go anywhere. You can hit a mound and shoot any direction or end up in a pot bunker. The week can really test your patience, because you can play well and still shoot bad scores. But the bounces all seem to even out in the end. If you look at the Open history, the best players have always won. It's pretty hard to come out of nowhere and have a career week at the British Open and beat the best players in the world. When looking at this year's field, you've got to start with Tiger Woods and the way he is playing. Woods has been fabulous the last month or so. He has given himself a chance to win every time he has played and he's got to be feeling pretty confident. Woods has a reputation for being impatient and making bad decisions under pressure, but he's getting much better about that. I was very impressed with him at the U.S. Open; that's the best he's been. He's eliminated the bad holes and grown up a lot. Other guys you look at immediately are David Duval and Colin Montgomerie. Monty is playing well right now. While Woods has eliminated the bad holes, Duval has been having them in the majors. If there's one player you'd expect not to do that, it's Duval. Duval hasn't been pleased with the way he's been playing of late, and I suspect he'll have a good tournament. The guy that could be most interesting to watch is Sergio Garcia. Since turning pro, he's played well every single week. If it starts blowing at Carnoustie, and it will at some point, Mark O'Meara does well in the wind. But things are much different than years ago. The wind isn't that big of a problem for today's players. They all play it quite well, and you don't have to play the ball as low as you used to. A good darkhorse might be Carlos Franco, who is coming off a win in Milwaukee. Franco is a fabulous player who has never been a very good putter. But he has a lot of confidence right now and is putting well. All he talked about at Milwaukee was his confidence, and you don't normally hear stuff like that. Of course, there will always be a guy like Brian Watts who challenges for the title. And there are plenty of good players from the European Tour who can contend. I think people are starting to understand that, because of The Golf Channel and events like the Andersen Consulting Match Play. People are seeing some darn good players all around the world. As far as an unknown sneaking up and winning, there are very few guys that are capable of winning the British Open. But you never know. One thing you can always count on is that the British Open always throws you a curveball.				ALSO SEE ESPN Golf Online's British Open coverage This week in golf Ask Andy

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