The Skysports.com team get bunkered as they tackle the famous links at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Skysports.com check out Royal Lytham ahead of its staging of this summer's Open Championship
Standing on the first tee at Royal Lytham is a pleasure at any time.
But when you've turned up to find the sun is out and the flags are barely fluttering, there's definitely an added spring in the step.
This very morning (April 16), the first pieces of the grandstand are going up near the 18th green and there's a very real sense that in just three months' time this famous piece of linksland will be hosting the Open Championship for the 11th occasion.
Built in 1897, Royal Lytham & St Annes has a reputation for being one of the most challenging Open venues and a big reason for that, as I'll soon find out in no uncertain terms, is its bunkers.
There are over 200 of them. They are deep. And their raison d'etre is clear: to be penal not pretty.
When looking at the honours board before heading out, I pondered what linked the recent Open champs here, Ballesteros, Lehman and Duval. Seve was a maverick, Lehman was a fairways and greens man while Duval fell somewhere inbetween.
It later dawned on me that, in a playing sense, Lytham doesn't favour one style. But what it does do is identify the best players.
The rollcall of winners reads Bobby Jones (1926), Bobby Locke (1952), Peter Thomson (1958), Bob Charles (1963), Tony Jacklin (1969), Gary Player (1974), Seve Ballesteros (1979, 1988), Tom Lehman (1996) and David Duval (2001).
On first glance, Lehman and Duval may look like slightly poor relations in such exulted company, but here's a fact. Both those two Americans are former world number ones.
Only 16 players have topped the charts since the world rankings were first introduced in 1986 and that elite list includes the last three winners of the Open at Lytham (Seve, Lehman, Duval). In other words, if you're trying to find the winner in 2012, stick with the class names.
One of the real thrills as a golfer is having the chance to play the same courses as the greats so how would the skysports.com four-ball get on when we brought our hopes and very limited skills to this summer's Open venue?
It took me just one shot to set my theme for the round as my hybrid to the opening par three came up short and plonked in sand.
At that stage it was a welcome novelty. "Great," I said. "A chance to test my bunker skills."
When I found sand at seven of the next eight holes, my enthusiasm had waned somewhat. Five times I was up against one of the sheer faces and four of those I couldn't actually make a stance in the bunker as my ball was tucked in the left corner. Disastrous for a right-hander like me.
Playing out backwards or chipping out sideways made me a non-factor in our fourball match for much of the time, especially as it often took me two or three tries to find green grass again.
I finally escaped the magnetic pull of the bunkers on the back nine and just missed birdie tries at 10 and 14 but without doubt my round could be summarised in three words: "Too many bunkers".
Although you aren't immediately dazzled by the scenery, Lytham is a grower and this, my third visit, was my favourite.
I enjoy its routing more than any Open course - especially the outward nine holes (1, 2, 3, 7 and 8) than run parallel to the railway line - and I shall relish returning there as a spectator in July.
Now for the views of my playing partners. As you can see, the tough bunkers are a theme!
Ben Sullivan
There's no doubt that avoiding the bunkers is going to be the key to winning this year's Open Championship.
I went in the sand twice in the first five holes and both times came out with the ball in my pocket. While that is unlikely to be the fate of any of the Open challengers, a bunker will mean bogey - or a lot worse.
I decided not to worry about finding sand after the fifth and just concentrate on hitting the ball - 'lo and behold, I stayed above ground for the rest of the round. I really should be a professional sports psychologist and charge for stuff like that, but for now it's available gratis.
Even with those looming traps, on a still day Lytham is a pussy cat of a course. Presumably it shows some pretty severe teeth when the wind blows and the field could be in for a mauling.
As interested spectators, let's hope it does. On a balmy day, Lytham is fun to play. On a windswept day in July, with the course dry as dust (hopefully) it will be anything but. Should be great to watch though.
Matt Cooper
It's not an original observation about the challenge of Royal Lytham & St Annes, but sometimes the obvious just needs repeating so I will - the bunkers are scorecard killers.
It's not just that there are so many of them, it's that time and time again you are truly penalised for finding them.
I found one with my very first shot, from the tee of the par-three first hole. I contemplated trying to hit it on my knees, but a bad back put me off. A more conventional escape option failed and I found an even worse lie!
Like any links venue, wind is a crucial factor at Lytham and the challenge can change very quickly from day to day. Fairways bunkers that were out of range into the wind suddenly become a real threat.
A couple of other things stand out. Firstly, it's a very traditional club, rightly proud of its history and yet it is also a friendly, welcoming place; you don't feel like an imposter at all.
It is also heartening to learn that the club is fully open to women members, something that is not as widespread as it ought to be in this day and age.
Mark Kendall
The great joy of getting to play an Open Championship course is the chance to test yourself over the holes that become so familiar to golf fans all over the country and beyond come the summer.
An even greater joy for your average golfer is walking away from said 18 holes having pocketed a couple of birdies with which to endlessly bore work colleagues for the duration of the tournament in July.
But while my efforts at the sixth and 12th will provide fond memories for years to come (for me at least), there was also the realisation that the course is certain to be a different beast by the time the world's best roll into town.
Having somehow managed to fluke a still day of almost non-stop sunshine in the midst of April showers season, Royal Lytham sat rather naked and defenceless.
While in unquestionably in pristine condition, shorn of the penal rough that will inevitably appear come July, and without any weather to protect it, there were opportunities aplenty for amateurs to grab bragging rights.
That said, the one defence the course can always count on, its endless seam of bunkers, ensured that no member of the fourball left without a few sand-induced mental scars.
But for the time being, this reporter's recollections of Lytham will remain (selectively) pleasurable.
Now have I told you about my approach into the sixth...?
