In many ways, the Open Championship is my favorite golf tournament, and today was the perfect example of why. Almost without fail, mother nature is as much a part of any Open Championship story as the players and the course. In the wind and rain, players no longer can rely on the bomb and gouge that’s become the sole strategy on the PGA Tour. It generally results in a style of play that’s quite different from what we see nearly every other week.

The Open Championship also affords the opportunity to witness something we don’t often see on the PGA Tour: lost balls. Phil Mickelson lost one on the sixth, costing him stroke and distance. Spectators found two white orbs, neither of which were his. That triple bogey seven helped him to a nine over 79, and a tie for 123rd place.

Of the top ten players after the first day, only three—Adam Scott, Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen—are names you’d expect to see. I’m not counting Mike Weir; he’s been off his game for a long time.

The other six are unexpected, including four “old guys”: Rocco Mediate (age 45 ), Greg Norman (53), Bart Bryant (45), Robert Allenby (37). I don’t’ really think that any of them are going to be in contention on Sunday, but it was fun to watch.

David Duval is at +3 and tied for 27th—with John van de Velde. There’s got to be a joke in there somewhere.

Sergio Garcia—whom much of the golf media has anointed as the “favorite”—is tied for 15th, three off the pace.

Finally, I’m absolutely sick of the writers and television pundits talking about the absence of Tiger. Several have gone so far as to suggest that there should be an asterisk beside this year’s results. If that’s so, then there also should be an asterisk beside a hundred and ten other Open Championships. After all, Old Tom Morris never had to face Eldrick.

With the horrific weather at the Open Championship today, Justin Rose may have had the best quote:

It was the kind of day where you could lose the Open Championship. You can’t win it today.

Historic Rackham Golf Course will remain a publicly owned track, according the the unanimous decision of an appeals court panel.

The city of Detroit had threatened to sell the Donald Ross design to developers, while rejecting a purchase by the adjacent city of Huntington Woods.

A three judge panel said that “Unambiguous language and the clearly stated intent” in the Rackham family deed said that the land could only be used as a public golf course. They also said that Detroit may only sell the property “to another public entity and not to a private entity,” even if the private buyer promises to keep it as a public golf course.

Developers Premium Golf, LLC had offered $6 million for the course in 2006. Huntington Woods had at one time tendered an offer of $5 million, with the intent of keeping Rackham as a publicly owned course.

The course was donated to the city of Detroit in 1926 by Horace and Mary Rackham, who had made a fortune in the early days of the auto industry. Their intent was to offer average citizens facilities similar to those of area private clubs. In addition to the Donald Ross design, the course also features an architecturally significant clubhouse.

Rackham also has historical significance to the African American community, which makes the city’s decision to sell even more mysterious. It was one of the few courses in the area that allowed African Americans to play. Joe Louis was a regular. And the course’s PGA pro, Ben Davis—now 96—was probably the first African American pro in the country.

The course was meant to be a public course in perpetuity. It’s sad that it took an appeals court to make Detroit’s leaders do the right thing.

But then, as we all know, Detroit’s Mayor and City Council have a hard time doing the right thing about anything.

Here are the television broadcast schedules for the British Open Championship

Thur., July 17
TNT
6:30 AM - 7 PM ET

Fri., July 18
TNT
7 AM - 7 PM ET

Sat., July 19
TNT
7 AM - 9 AM ET

ABC
9 AM ET – End of play

Sun., July 20
TNT
6 AM - 8 AM ET

ABC
8 AM ET – End of play

This year’s PGA Championship is at Oakland Hills, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It’s an exclusive club and the closest most of us will get is with a ticket to an event.

Fortunately, there are several other Donald Ross courses you can play in Southeastern Michigan and the Detroit Area. A major golf publication recently reported that there is just one Donald Ross course open to the public in the Detroit Area. They’re wrong. There are, in fact, four. They include:

Rackham Golf Course I played this one about ten years ago, and it was a lot of fun. Some of the holes run right next to the adjacent Detroit Zoo, and I heard the lions while playing through. It’s probably the best of the bunch (although I haven’t tried Rogell, below).

Rogell Golf Course This course recently was bought and renovated by Greater Grace Temple, making it one of the few African American - owned courses in the country. I play to play before the summer is out.

Warren ValleyI played this a couple of times (before I started GolfBlogger, so there are no photos), and it was never in great condition, but it was a decent course.

Hawthorne Valley Hawthorne Valley is but a shadow of its former self, having been cut up by developers. Only nine holes remain.

So if you’re traveling to see the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, you can still get a taste of Donald Ross in Michigan.

A side note to major golf publications: If you’re going to write about an area’s golf courses, hire someone with local knowledge, not some stiff who gets his information from a Zagat’s guide. I’m available.

The moronic City Council and Mayor of Detroit intend to sell the city’s Rackham Golf Course to developers. The City of Huntington Woods, which lies adjacent to the course, correctly wants to preserve the historic course.

They’re in court now.

The course was built in 1924 by Horace and Mary Rackham and given to the City of Detroit with the understanding that it remain a golf course. The track was designed by none other than the legendary Donald Ross. The course is historically important—not only for the designer—but because it was one of the few open to African American golfers. Joe Louis, and various Motown stars were regulars here. Rackham Pro Ben Davis was one of the first African American teaching pros in the country. Davis, who is now in his mid-90s, still plays there twice a week when weather permits.

Read this previous GolfBlogger article on Rackam. The photo is from the Flickr collection here.

A new study on putting techniques shows that Tiger’s advice—keeping you head still—just isn’t very good.

Using an infrared tracking system, researchers recorded the putter head and the golfer’s head during sixty putts.

Surprisingly, both expert and less-skilled golfers moved their heads about the same amount during the execution of putts. The big difference was in the direction: less-skilled golfers moved in an allocentric direction—moving their head in the same direction and timing as the motion of the putter; the expert golfers moved in a tightly coupled but egocentric direction—moving their head in the opposite direction as the putter, but timed similarly to reverse when the putter reversed.

I’ve seen this sort of study a couple of times, and it makes me wonder about the advice you see from the pros in the monthly golf magazines. While the pros are highly skilled, I wonder about their self-awareness. What they think they’re doing might not reflect reality.