There are several tactics you can deploy as a spectator at The Open. You can follow your favourite players over the humps and dunes of Royal Portrush, or plant yourself in a grandstand and watch the waves pass through.
Both have pros and cons – but which outweighs the other? The queue for a seat can be excruciating, but you’re rewarded with a position A view at the players.
The team at NCG has clashed on this subject already in Open week, so we’ve put the debate into words:
Should you queue for a grandstand at The Open?
There’s no such thing as ‘The Open grandstand tickets’, so get yourself in one!
It may feel like a long time when you’re in the queue, but sitting in an Open grandstand and setting up camp for an hour or so is great fun, writes Matt Chivers.
You require grandstand tickets to perch yourself up above, so it adds no extra cost to enhance your view on golf’s best tournament.
Especially if you choose the right one, you’re sorted. You won’t get tired of sitting in the grandstand on the 8th hole – the Postage Stamp no less.
Try to sit as high as possible too. You can peer down upon your favourite players and have a view people watching at home can’t see.
If you think strategically about queuing, you can get around the delays. Get a few holes ahead of the player you’re searching for, and get locked in. Open grandstands offer the best seats in the house.
I get it. When you’re stuck in a long line of golf fans, you get feverish actually to see some golf. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy could be around the corner, but you’re staring at the back of someone’s head in a queue.
But you’ll be rewarded for your patience and you’ll be the envy of your fellow spectators once you’re looking down on them in the raised seats.
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Why would you waste your precious time standing in a line?
There’s something peculiarly British about spending time standing around in a line, writes Steve Carroll. It’s a big golf course out there. Don’t waste your time queuing up. Get out there. Explore it. Enjoy it.
No doubt we’ll see human centipedes trail their way out of the back of more constructions this year. All you can see is the rear of the stand.
More often than not, there will be a 20-second walk away to a green with no one standing around it. You can have so much room if you shop around, without standing in the same spot for 20 minutes.
It’s three figures to get a ticket. I know it’s a long day. And I know it’s hard to stay on your feet for 12 hours. But I’ll never understand the obsession with seeing a line and being determined to attach yourself to it.
If I see a queue, I walk right on by. Time is precious. There’s plenty to do at The Open without spending that time staring at the back of someone’s head.
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