At the British Open, a bunker mentality is required

From Sandwich, England —  It is time for the annual visit to the Field of Nightmares for our United States pro golfers.

The British Open starts Thursday, which means links golf, which means walking along in something that resembles your neighbor’s unkempt vacant lot and trying to hit a golf ball. This presumes that you can find it.

The last time somebody had a good lie in the British Open was never. If you are standing with one foot in a deep hole and long weeds crawling up your pants leg — or one foot braced against a brick wall in a bunker so deep you can’t see the sky — then you are playing in the British Open.

Or, as they call it here, slightly indignant that you would refer to it in any other way, “The Open.”

There certainly are no other “Opens” like it.

This year’s tournament will be played at Royal St. George’s, a regular stop in the tournament rotation and a revered grassy field on the English Channel about 100 miles southeast of London. On a clear day, of which there might be 10 a year here, you can see Calais, France, across the water.

The last time they played the British Open here, in 2003, Tiger Woods hit his first shot of the tournament into the rough and they never found it. An unheralded American named Ben Curtis won that year, with help from Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, who was leading by three strokes late in the last round and left two shots in a bunker.

Wild stuff is more the norm than the exception in the British. When Sandy Lyle won in 1985, also at Royal St. George’s, his playing partner, Peter Jacobsen, tackled a streaker on the 18th green. When Paul Lawrie won in a playoff at Carnoustie in 1999, probably as much a stunner as Curtis in 2003, France’s Jean Van de Velde blew a big lead with a triple-bogey seven on No. 18 — when a six would have gotten his name engraved on the Claret Jug. The prevailing image is of the Frenchman, pants rolled up, standing in water and pondering hitting a shot out of a greenside creek.

The best way to experience links golf is to, well, experience it.

Royal Cinque Ports is a links course a stone’s throw from Royal St. George’s. Members say that, when you stand at their 11th tee, you are closer to the clubhouse at Royal St. George’s than their own clubhouse. Royal Cinque Ports was once in the British Open rotation (1909 and 1920).

It was built in 1892 and that’s the code you use to get in the front door. Like Royal St. George’s, it overlooks the English Channel. It had problems recently when greenskeepers were fertilizing and manicuring a bit too much. The members hated it.

From the tees, you are pointed at distant long clumps of waving grass or deep, walled bunkers and told to hit it “a tad left of that.” You hit, walk and hope to find something.

Harvey Greene, who is vice president of public relations for the Miami Dolphins, is a member and comes here most summers to play Royal Cinque Ports for a couple of weeks. He always played with Dolphins-logo balls, and other members who found them congratulated themselves on having a Harvey. Apparently, there were plenty to go around.

You also experience things having nothing to do with golf. There are people walking dogs and throwing sticks for them to retrieve, and families on their morning walks. There are people everywhere, but you really don’t worry about hitting them with a golf ball because the rough and weeds and bumps and hills are such that you can barely see them.

Part of the course, crossing the 11th hole, is something called the Ancient Highway. It was the route taken by Julius Caesar and the Romans when they marched into England in 55 BC. There are still tracks the width of wagon wheels. If you hit your ball onto the Ancient Highway, it is played as ground under repair.

The course was used for military training for British troops in World War II, but they kept the greens intact by cordoning them off. Interesting that they could find them.

England’s Luke Donald played the course last week with club pro Andrew Reynolds, himself an occasional contender in top European events. Donald shot four under on the front nine and was two over on the back. Thus prepared by Royal Cinque Ports, he went up to Scotland, survived monsoon-like rain and lots of wind and won the Scottish Open with a closing 63.

Weather here the last few days has been almost sunny, and comfortably warm, with little wind.

An elderly man in a coat and bow tie, sipping sherry and speaking from authority as a former Royal Cinque Ports club captain, peered out at the bright day and soft breeze and said, “We better get some wind blowing for the boys in the tournament, or they’ll eat the place [Royal St. George’s] alive.”

Bet on the course doing the eating.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com