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Jack Nicklaus is credited as once saying the farther south you go in the British Open rotation, the worse the course gets.

Royal St. George’s is the southern-most course.

The word used most often to describe the links in Sandwich, England is “quirky.” You may recall eight years ago when the Open was last played at Royal St. George’s, Tiger Woods lost his ball off the tee on his very first hole of the tournament.

Their are mounds and hills that will kick the golf ball funny ways, coupled with some blind tee shots that make the course set up unfavorably to the eye, but the fact remains, the course has hosted 13 Opens prior to this year’s event and as they say, the mettle of a course is shown by the quality of the winners.

In the elite group of winners at RSG resides Harry Vardon and Walter Hagen with two wins a piece. Henry Cotton won the first of his three British Opens at Sandwich in 1934, Sandy Lyle won in 1985 and Greg Normal won there in 1993.

Not a bad group.

Of course, the last time the Open was contested in Sandwich, unknown Ben Curtis won, holding off Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh. There is no question that the course can be one of the most difficult in the rota. Nicklaus once shot 81 there and the great Bobby Jones suffered through an 86.

The course measures 7,211 yards and plays to a 35-35 par 70 track as opposed to the par 71 it used to be. Since 2003, The R&A has added 100 yards to the course and turned the par-5 4th hole into a par-4 be shortening it by two yards. Yes, you read that right. The 497-yard par-5 is now a 495-yard par-4. Right there, you can take off four strokes relative to par as the players will working hard to salvage their pars.

As for this week, the forecast is calling for some windy conditions with gusts blowing upwards of 30 mph. Phil Mickelson, a relatively long hitter by Tour standards, hit driver into the 243-yard par-3 11th into the teeth of the wind and came up short.

With the wind expected to be a major factor, R&A director Peter Dawson said that if the wind is blowing in a difficult direction, they may have to move some of the tees up to make the course play the way the governing body would like.

At the end of the day, this is the Open Championship and links golf. The ball needs to be played close to the ground and with an imaginative flair similar to that of the late Seve Ballesteros, of whom the R&A is honoring this week. Players are going to have to play shots they are not used to trying in order to deal with the terrain and undulations of the course.

But as I said, this is the Open Championship, and isn’t that what we want?