Jack: I Could Have Won 25

Paul Forsyth pulls all sorts of fun stuff out of Jack Nicklaus, who was in one of his chatty moods at the Open Championship. On his 18 majors:

“Once I got past that record, I didn’t have a big push to do much else,” he says. “I didn’t know I had Tiger Woods pushing me. I would have probably worked harder and maybe won more if I had. I can’t say I prepared for every major the way I should have. I can’t say that I didn’t give away opportunities. Records were never really that important to me until it was too late to go back and go for them.

“Never in my life did I add up how many I had won. Tiger has been adding from day one. He has grown up that way, and the more he does it, the more he is reminded of it. He doesn’t know anything else.”

And...

Nicklaus is proud of his majors, but there are more important things. “To me, my record is 18 professional majors, five kids, 46 years of marriage, 19 grandkids and a successful business. I have other friends, I have enjoyed what I have done, and I have been able to smell the flowers along the way. Those are the things that are important to me, not the 18 majors. The 18 majors are not my life, they are part of it.

“If I had been really serious about building a record that nobody was going to touch, I wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of the other things I have enjoyed. I have had a very balanced life.

“I spend time with my kids, I have grown up knowing them, and if golf had been the only thing I did, that wouldn’t have happened. I could have won 20 or 25 majors, but I think I would have been a miserable person.”

The implication is that Woods, whose late father compared him to Gandhi, is not on this earth to have a good time. Should the world No 1 successfully defend his title at Royal Liverpool this afternoon, the biggest prize will not be the Claret Jug, which he has won twice already, but the fact that it will take him to within seven majors of the holy grail. From the moment he pinned the Nicklaus record on his bedroom wall, his only dream has been to achieve immortality.

“Tiger is a pretty well- balanced kid, who likes to do other things, like diving and fishing, but he is living in a fishbowl. He can’t go anywhere without people reminding him who he is and what he is here for. I never used to worry about anything like that. I could go to any restaurant and nobody bothered me. He’s like a rock star. They’re on top of him all the time. I wouldn’t trade my life for his, not for any money you want to name.”

And this is fun, considering he'll be President's Cup captain again in 2007:

“In this year’s US Open, six of the top 10 were foreign players, and so were 14 of the top 20. We have some very good players, but if you look past Tiger, Phil (Mickelson) and Jim Furyk, it’s pretty thin.”

Neither is he especially impressed with the Europeans, save for a select two or three. Nicklaus, who is captain of the US Presidents Cup team, says the world’s best players are from neither continent.

“There are more good world players than there are US and European players combined. Maybe, in the Ryder Cup, it should be the US and Europe versus the rest of the world.”

Open Championship Final Reads Vol. 1

For those of you who didn't get to see The Golf Channel's "Nike Roundtable" segments from Hoylake featuring Stephen Ames, David Duval, Paul Casey and Stewart Cink answering Rich Lerner's questions, all I can say is, pray for a DVD. Though no price could be put on a 2-disc set of this charismatic and humble foursome discussing the key issues facing the game, we can always hope (that it'll cost less than those Hoylake limited edition photos they were peddling all week).

Ah, but you ask, how about The Open won by Tiger Woods doing Ben Hogan better than Ben Hogan. Yes that was pretty neat, as Lawrence Donegan writes:

Woods, who won at the Old Course of St Andrews last year, is the first player to defend his Open title since Tom Watson in 1982. He has now won three Opens and barring illness, injury or a sudden desire to pursue a career on the stage, he will win a handful more, not least because his contemporaries tend to shrivel at the crux, their talents disappearing into the black hole of Wood's presence.

At the start of the week he formulated a plan for negotiating Hoylake's tight, running links - long-irons off the tee, long-iron to the green -and stuck to it rigidly throughout, even when he found himself as much as 50 yards behind his playing partners on some holes. On a course like this control, not distance is what counts and, as the old golfing phrase goes, Woods had his ball on a string. Over the first nine holes yesteday he had eight tap-in pars and, courtesy of the 30-foot putt that fell into the centre of the cup at the par-five 8th hole, an eagle.

Come on, Hoylake played a big part in this too. This less-than-sexy links proved why Low and Darwin and Dickinson wrote about it years ago. So Peter Corrigan decided to bring up Ron Whitten's Golf Digest story, which definitely won't be remembered like the works of the aforementioned.

Among the most satisfied will be those happy to be described as crusty traditionalists. For this tournament was a throwback to the days when golf's problems couldn't be solved by graphite shafts, titanium faces or self-propelled balls. The course needed thought not torque; guile and gumption not power and passion. And while the figure of Tiger Woods was awesomely dominant, the rheumy-eyed could still visualise the long grey beard and top-buttoned tweed jacket of Old Tom Morris, the ghost of Opens past.

And this is really funny...

I spoke the other day to Golf Digest's esteemed editor, Jerry Tarde, who doesn't necessarily agree with the views of his contributors but pointed out that Whitten is regarded as the world's foremost expert on golf architecture.

And Jerry, who was it who branded him that?

That probably makes his words even more depressing, because if he is an example of golf's modern visionaries, the old-fashioned fraternity must fear for the future.

After rubbishing Hoylake he went on to predict that "sooner or later, every Open course will become obsolete, the Old Course at St Andrews included".

What! Every links course around these shores? The very foundations of the game to become museum pieces? He neglects to say what sort of courses will supersede them for eminence.

The Telegraph's Martin Johnson salutes Tiger and Hoylake, and sadly, gets it right about American golfers too.

Hoylake, a thinker's golf course, attracted the usual nonsensical criticism from some Americans, including the author of an article in Golf Digest with the headline "Royal Out Of Bounds". They really don't get it over there. Unless a course is full of palm trees, dyed blue water and motorised cart tracks they think the place must be a municipal pitch and putt. But it's their loss.

And...

Gary Player has been here watching and, in between his customary routine of telling everyone that four million press-ups before breakfast is the way to eternal youth, he hasn't particularly enjoyed watching Woods hitting iron after iron. "It's not very exciting for the galleries, and I'm quite sure the crowds would have loved to see him booming the driver," Player said. "Mind you, the way technology is going, I promise you this. In 100 years' time they'll be saying, 'That Tiger Woods was a helluva player. But wasn't he a short hitter!'."

The crowds might well have preferred to watch Woods booming it out there, but this tournament continues to attract galleries so enthusiastic that there was even a crush around the practice area yesterday morning to watch Retief Goosen chipping. In the list of unexplained mysteries, this would rank somewhere between the Mary Celeste and the Bermuda Triangle.

Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame knows her golf as evidenced in this examination of Sergio's lousy Sunday at the Open.

Woods grows in stature exponentially, and he continues to make terrific golfers look completely ordinary. Maybe the yellow outfit was not just a sartorial mistake on García’s part; maybe it was meant to be a secret weapon, to make Woods think continually, “But why? Why wear yellow? Even the hat?” But even that failed to put him off his stroke.

Speaking of Sergio, thanks to reader Van for this Graham Spiers story in the Herald:

Yet following his round, it was almost as if Garcia's personal psychologist had grabbed him on his way to meet the media and told him: "Don't be negative. Don't be down on yourself. Talk yourself up." Because what we encountered was a young man with a strange set of comments on a very poor final day, and never more so than on the green.

"I hit some great putts today and I felt very good with my putter," said Garcia. "I hit some great putts that just didn't want to go in. That's the best I've felt with my putter, but they just kept lipping out."
Then, most bizarrely of all given this last-round lack of a challenge, was this from Garcia. "This shows me that when I'm in this position the next time, I can handle it."

Putting, in the wider context of golf, is a complex matter. We know this because, earlier this week, Peter Thomson claimed "never" to have been "a good putter", and Thomson won the Open five times between 1954 and 1965.

Yet the fact remains, this duel yesterday between Woods and Garcia delivered a cruel lesson. While Garcia's putts wouldn't drop, those of Woods in the main usually did. In truth, over these five hours over Hoylake, we saw why Woods is a great golfer, and why Garcia is merely a very good one.

We also saw again why Woods is a godsend to the world of sport. He has now won 11 majors, seven short of his ambition of equalling and beating Jack Nicklaus' magical record of 18. Up there, Earl Woods will be excited by the chase.

In a business renowned for its crocodile tears, not all emotion in sport is contrived or artificial: anyone who witnessed Tiger Woods disintegrate into uncontrollable sobs after winning the 135th Open at Hoylake last night will testify to it. For Woods, this was a win imbued with special feeling.

In the odds and ends department, Ed Sherman offers his birdies and bogies from Sunday's round. Like many writers, he's not wild about Sergio's outfit that appears to have come from one of Doug Saunders' garage sales.

And here's an AP story on the purple paint vandalism.

Finally, Paul MacInnes writes about the spat between the BBC's Peter Alliss and Gary Lineker, which will mean something to those of you lucky enough to watch the BBC's weekday coverage:

But sometimes the crunchiest matters cannot be avoided and so the question must be asked: do Peter Alliss and Gary Lineker get on? Ever since this month's issue of Golf International hit the shelves, it has been clear that the pair are not seeing eye to eye. In a sizzling Alliss exclusive, the Voice of Golf said of Lineker and his infamous Masters debut: "He's very good at reading the autocue. Knowing how nervous he was, I'd have given him a seven out of 10."

Tiger's Post Final Round Q&A

After the round, a few good questions and answers:

Q. Can you talk about the genesis of your strategy to not hit driver this week? You had said that you didn't know much about this course. Did you read about it on the flight over?

TIGER WOODS: Nope.

Q. It was just when you first got here. Was there a moment when it happened?

TIGER WOODS: No. As I was playing the golf course, I would hit a couple of drives, and the driver would go 350, 370 yards. How can you control that out here? You can't control that. The fairways become they're hard enough to hit as it is, and you add driver and they go that far, now how hard is it to hit? So I just felt in the end if you stayed out of the bunkers this entire week and had just a decent week on the greens, I felt that I would be in contention on the back nine.

And I hit the ball well the entire week and I felt like I had wonderful touch on the greens, except for the last nine holes yesterday. Other than that, I felt that my strategy was sound. It was going to keep me out of trouble.

Guys who were trying to hit the ball over the bunkers, they're going to have shorter clubs on the greens, no doubt about that, but a lot of these flags you can't attack with wedges. On 4, I had I'm aiming 30 feet left of the hole, and I couldn't keep it on the greens. That's the nature of the golf course and the way it was playing this week.

I felt the conservative approach was the way to go. And it lent itself to that this week, especially with four par 5s. And you figure if you just handle the par 5s, that's 16 under par right there. You sprinkle in a few more here and there around the golf course and you're looking pretty good.

Q. Has Hoylake stood the test of time and should The Open come back here, and if so, why?

TIGER WOODS: I think it's a fantastic test. With the golf course being this fast, it lent itself to just amazing creativity. Granted, if you would have had easier pins I'm sure it would have gone lower. These are the most difficult pins I've ever seen at an Open Championship. And a couple of times you feel like if you hit a putt too hard you'll actually putt it right off the green, and you never have that feeling at an Open. But this week it certainly was the case.

And I think because the yardage played short, in some cases, because it was so fast, you hit 3 wood, driver, hitting it 380 yards down there, you're going to have a lot of short irons in there. The only defense they had was pin locations and hard, dry conditions. And we couldn't really go all that low.

Q. Should it come back here?

TIGER WOODS: Yes.

And here he talks about controlling spin into the greens:

Q. Your strategy off the tee and having to hit all the long irons sort of takes for granted the fact that you have to be hitting your long irons really well. How well were you hitting them? How tough might it have been if you weren't, especially your approaches?

TIGER WOODS: As far as my control, probably one of the best ball striking weeks I've ever had, as far as control. That's shaping the ball, moving my traj and different heights and really controlling my spin going into the greens. It wasn't getting away from me. Yeah, probably one of the best ball striking weeks I've ever had.

If I wasn't hitting it well, as you alluded to, it would have been pretty difficult around here. This golf course you had to really control your ball in order to have a chance. And I was able to do that the entire week.

Also you have to remember that if you're with the flags the way we they were, you're going to have a bunch of 40 and 50 footers, and my pace was good all week. A bunch of tap ins, my pace was really, I felt, sound all week, especially today when I really needed it. I had a lot of kick ins and putts that I thought I made just kind of skirt off on the edge.

Got To Get You Out Of My Life

Let's get right to the good stuff:

Clampett on the preparation Phil Mickelson will take for the PGA Championship in Medinah, IL: “I think he’ll get there very early.  His whole focus after this championship will be on Medinah.”

Profound.

Clampett on Sergio Garcia being paired with Tiger Woods for the final round of play:  “I think it’s going to be intimidating for Sergio to play with the world’s number one player, especially Tiger.  Look at Tiger’s record, the last 10 times he’s held a 54-hole lead he’s gone on to win.”

Gosh, I wish I had said that.

Clampett on Luke Donald:  “He’s like a duck on the water, he looks calm on the outside but he’s paddling like hell underneath.”

Bet you can't wait for the PGA!

Hoylake The Winner?

Nearly every major venue of late where the winning score has been kept below double digits under par has been declared the answer to modern technology. (Even as surprise winners and unsastisfying finishes clearly occurred due bizarre and extreme setups.)

But at Hoylake as with St. Andrews, we finally witnessed a venue that, left relatively in tact, tested all aspects of a player's game and produced a leaderboard of diverse styles.

Though it likely would have been a far more fascinating design with the ball rolled back 25 yards and the landing zones widened a bit to allow for even more strategic tee shot placement (maybe tempting Tiger into more drivers), Hoylake proved that fast and firm golf mixed with thought-provoking architecture can still produce a great championship, assuming that the committee in charge can look past the dastardly, horribly humiliating, sheer awfulness of an 18-under par winning score.

I know I can. Unfortunately, our governing bodies and many golf fans all too often can not get past that.
 

You've Got To Hide Your Driver Away?

Another question after Tiger's brilliant retro performance: why didn't more players approach Hoylake the way Tiger did (long irons off tees)?

Is it because they hit their drivers straighter than Tiger?

Or because they have a different philosophy and aren't as confident in their long irons?

Or is he just that much more shrewd than everyone else?   

First Question For Tiger

Despite Terry Gannon's comment about Hoylake taking driver out of Tiger's hands, it was clear he made a strategic decision to hit all but one driver off the tee because it gave him the best chance to win.

I'd love to ask Tiger why he hit so few run-up shots to the greens. In other words, was part of the strategy of laying back to allow him to hit higher approaches with more spin?

Live Blog Sunday, Open Championship

All times Pacific Standard Time, hit refresh to update page... 

6:21: So glad I woke at 5:30 am so I could enjoy all of the commercials. Let's hope they were getting some out of the way. Early highlight: a dog painted like a Tiger and Nick Faldo talking about his fish and chips Masters dinner.  Early theme: hole locations are brutal, wind is up a bit.

6:23: Sean O'Hair posts a 67, so there is a low score out there.

6:27: Ernie has 197 into #1. The wind is definitely up. 

6:30: Tiger hits 3-wood off #1.

6:39: Cabrera triples #2, Faldo: "I think that was the Roberto cinderella story out the window already." 

6:40: Tirico mentions Floyd Landis wearing the yellow jersey and likely winning the Tour de France today, segue's to Sergio in his all yellow outfit. Faldo: "it's certainly tight enough, isn't it, to be a yellow cycling jersey."

6:41: Sergio leaves his birdie putt on #1 way short after Azinger talks about how he left everything short yesterday. Faldo: "Zing there's your opener, your starter for ten, 6 feet short."

6:44: Ernie drives it 360 on #2. Tanihara looming just 2 back...

6:51: Tiger (2-iron) has 208 into #2, Sergio (driver) 112 from the fescue rough.

6:53: Phil's doesn't look hung over for today's interview with Terry Gannon. 

7:12: Sergio misses second shortish par putt. Alliss: "he's missed two 'tiddly" putts." Sergio three back of Tiger, Els one back.

7:17: Alliss reviews the best scores from the week, "I think the course has stood up remarkably well. Every pundit has said they are going to eat this course alive, and they haven't done so. We've had four 65s, six 66s, bout 8 or 10 or 12 67s, so that's not ripping the course to pieces when you've had the most perfect weather, and hardly any breeze. So those great pundits, whether they be golf course architects or inky-fisted peasants, they really don't know much about the game."

Faldo: "We should bring a fire extinguisher into the booth to cool Mr. Alliss down."

Alliss: "It just makes me cross when...you come and you play and you have a winner. If it's 20 under, so what." 

7:45: Well, not much was happening thanks to these hole locations. Tiger hits beautiful second into #5, eagles. Leads by 2. Alliss just mentioned Tiger's mom and the "Oriental" influence.

8:00: Alliss says he expects that Hoylake will see another Open in 6 or 7 years. He mentions it might be green just as I'm looking at the overhead shot thinking, soak up the lean conditions, because it'll all be lush golf the rest of the year! 

8:05: Tiger three ahead of DiMarco and Els and "looking comfortable" according to Alliss. "But you never know."  

8:06: Tirico asks Alliss if the school kids still operate the big yellow scoreboards. Alliss lists various public schools with names like Giggleswigs, Charterhourse, Cramley...and Faldo chimes in, "Hogwarts." You gotta love him!

8:06: ABC graphic: Tiger 54.3% on the PGA Tour this year in driving accuracy (179th), this week: 85.1%. 

8:07: Note to BBC: the tee shot camera view that shows the spectators following the ball while the player is but a small speck on the screen? Getting old. 

8:17: Garcia makes another bogey, Faldo and Azinger's bickering is the only thing keeping this entertaining, Lord knows it's not the R&A's anti-birdie setup. Oh, and Tiger and Sergio are a hole behind.

8:21: Azinger: "Tiger is putting on a clinic right now with his ball striking." 

8:23: Els in furrowed lie in bunker on 10. 

8:29: Tiger -15 (9), DiMarco -13 (10), Els -12 (10), Andres Romero -11 (12). Adam Scott -10 (12) 

8:30: Tiger backs off 10 tee shot, yet another camera phone. "Everything over here is about 10 years late," Azinger on why there's no rule banning cell phones. 

8:44: DiMarco is three through 11 about the only hope of anyone giving Tiger a run at this point. 

8:59: Yet another camera phone causes Tiger to back off on 11, hits horrible approach, DiMarco drains long putt on 13, do we have a tournament? Yes, Tiger fails to get up and down.

9:04: Azinger: "if the R&A can't control the crowd, then they should not force these guys to play a pace that's unattainable." (On Woods-Garcia being on the clock and the camera phone nonsense.)

9:08: Another camera phone on 13, Tiger backs off. "This is getting really ridiculous. It's actually becoming part of the story, isn't it?"

9:12: DiMarco drains 45-footer for par, Scott chips close on 16 for a tap-in (3 back), Azinger has "chill bumps," and Els makes birdie to get within 3.

9:26: Tiger hits beautiful approach to 14, nails birdie putt. Well, we had some excitement for a few minutes.  

9:35: Tiger birdies 15, DiMarco birdies 16, lead is still two.

9:45: DiMarco gives his birdie putt a great run on 17, Tiger continues his flawless play on 16, driving in the fairway, hitting it safely left of the hole and two putting for birdie. Andy North: "he's made it look so simple."

9:56: DiMarco and Els tell the camera "see you tomorrow," Els mentioning South Africa. Faldo: "it's nice to have a G-5 waiting for you at Liverpool airport." 

9:59: Azinger: "Tiger has squashed anyone's question marks now" about his swing changes. 

10:06: Azinger wonders if Tiger will "reign it in" from now on after this performance. "He's beaten the field from where the field is driving it."

10:09: Purple paint cannisters are thrown onto 18 green. Azinger: "that'll solve whatever they're protesting about." Azinger hopes no one writes about it. Sure.

10:10: Walking down 18 fairway, Tiger and Stevie try a handshake/hi-five of sorts. As usual, they miss. 

10:12: First engraver shot. Tirico says he looks at 1999 every time and swears he sees a bit of a smudge. Faldo: "You mean Jean Paul Lawrie." 

10:16: Tirico: 10 of the last 12 Open Champions are American. 

10:17: Love the helicopter hovering over the green as Tiger's preparing to finish up. An all around great security effort this week. Oh wait, they are the security according to Tirico. Wonder what they'll see up there.

10:19: Tirico declares this one's for pops. Tiger hugs Stevie. Tiger's sobbing. Wow. what a moment. 

10:26: Tiger to Terry Gannon: "It's been a long week. The golf course played very difficult." 

10:28: Gannon: "You know in an era when they're making golf courses longer to Tigerproof them, now you come to a course that takes driver out of your hand, you're hitting longer approach shots than anyone else, yet you win the British Open again, that's a statement in itself." Tiger: " Well, from what I've been told by a bunch of people in the press is that I only do well on bomber's courses, so hopefully this will silence that a bit. This golf course, I just played it for what it was. I played very conservative. And I had a lot of lag putts and I just trusted my putting all week."

10:42: Tiger, holding the Claret Jug: "To come here and have the course in such fantastic condition and where you have to think and shape shots and be creative, I think all of us, all of the players, would like to thank the staff here for presenting just one of the greatest championships ever staged." 

10:45: Tiger: "Today was my best ball striking day of the week."  

10:47: Faldo: "I don't know how he can hang onto his emotions there in the final ceremony. It's been a fantastic week, the golf he played was absolute perfection. He talked about his inner calmness, which was great. I think it was also created by hitting iron off the tee. He didn't hit it all over the show, didn't put himself under any extreme pressure. Well done Tiger." 

Player, Harmon Call For Rollback

Alex Lowe on SportingLife.com, writes about an interview given by Gary Player on BBC Radio Five Live:

Player has been saddened by the sight of Tiger Woods and Ernie Els using long irons off the tee this week because their drivers would send the ball too far on the bone-dry links at Hoylake.

He has urged the Royal and Ancient, the world body in charge of setting golf's rules and regulations, to take immediate action.

"As a spectator, I want to see Tiger and Ernie and the top players taking a driver," Player said.

"They are all hitting off with three irons and four irons. The ball is going so far that they can do that and I find it very sad the Open championship has come to that.

"The R&A and the USGA (United States Golf Association) have to cut the ball back by 50 yards.

"In 30 years' time players are going to be hitting the ball 50 yards beyond Tiger.

"It is a technology issue. The galleries have said to me 'I want to see these guys hit a driver'. These fellas are all hitting irons off the tee.

And...

Butch Harmon, Woods' former coach, agreed with Player and insisted there is no problem with the professional game operating under different regulations to amateur golf.

"The ball is the big problem. It goes so much further than it ever did," Harmon told Sportsweek on BBC Radio Five Live.

"If you take these players back to equipment Gary won his three Opens with they wouldn't take irons off the tee because they would then have to hit woods onto the green.

"The R&A and USGA have to step up to the plate and decide what they are going to do with it. Professional golf can have own rules compared to amateur golf."

Open Championship Sunday Reads

Perhaps the lack of air conditioning, paltry ice cubes and no SportsCenter has caught up to the inkslingers, because after a week of inspired writing Saturday's third round did not create much in the way of great reads. Most of the stories are built around the Wood and Cabrera comments appearing in the posts below this. 

Alan Shipnuck wins for best lead of the week, and not because he gave this site a really nice plug in the same post.

Crikey, I can't believe these people ruled the globe for so many years. You've already heard my sob story about the air conditioning (or lack thereof) in my hotel. Tonight the elevators went out, too. Upon trudging up the stairs to my room after a grody dinner I discovered that the Internet service was also kaput. This second-round wrap-up is hours overdue, but don't blame me, blame the Queen!

Rich Lerner delivers his hooks and cuts from Liverpool, and like Shipnuck, is just loving the accomodations.

I miss the 500 channel American television universe. Our hotel features five stations. I watched The Golden Girls in German last night.

Kevin Mitchell in the Observer reports what the bookies think about Sunday's showdown:

Cabrera, 36 and sporting a belly that betrays a love of life, will have to conquer the considerable presence of Tiger Woods, the precocious, unreliable talent of Sergio Garcia, the eccentric putting of Chris 'Claw' DiMarco, the equally odd whirlwind golf of Jim Furyk and the icy science of Ernie Els. The bookies think he has little chance. He is at 14-1. Odds on the others are predictable: 4-5 Woods, 4-1 Els, 6-1 Garcia, 7-1 DiMarco and 10-1 Furyk.

Golfonline's Cameron Morfit looks at the on the variety of styles that work at Hoylake and links golf in general.

Ed Sherman is the first to give Hoylake a passing grade.

It is hard to argue with the quality and the variety of the leaderboard produced at Royal Liverpool this week. The big names are in the hunt, and there's a good combination of power players and short hitters.

"It's a very fair golf course," Tiger Woods said. "You can play it so many different ways and it lends itself to a bunch of different styles. [If you hit] quality golf shots around this golf course, you're going to give yourself plenty of opportunities."

Here's a birdie for Royal Liverpool. It may not be flashy, but it is getting the job done.

Lorne Rubenstein writes about ways to enjoy the Open on the web and kindly mentions this site. In case the link doesn't work, here's a Google Canada search link that should let you find the article that will direct you to some sites you may or may not know about.

And Will Buckley checked out Ben Crane's game Saturday.

Watching him in on the 1st tee, it was easy to see why playing with him might be wearisome. There was a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a double wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a final wiggle, and then he hit the ball.

Off the fairway, he was no quicker. A test for wind, a chat to his caddy about yardage, a club selection, caddy tests for wind, Crane positions himself two yards back from the ball, a couple of practice swings, he approaches the ball, a look, a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, a look, a wiggle, and the ball is struck.

And, sad to say, he is no faster on the green. Here he spends plenty of time in the crouch position with his hands cupped round his ears for maximum concentration, then, once he is composed, makes five little practice swings before after five trademark looks finally putting the ball.

All in all, he has the potential to be one of the slowest players seen for a while, right up there with Bernhard Langer at his most phlegmatic, Sergio Garcia at his twitchiest and Glen 'All' Day.

Tiger's Post 3rd Round Q&A

Bold question here from a scribbler considering he has a one shot lead and was 3 made short putts from having another "flawless" round:

Q. How risky is this approach with no drivers in terms of having to hit so many long irons? If somebody should start to push ahead in front of you, would you have to abandon that and start trying to whack it over those bunkers?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I don't see any reason why, unless I absolutely had to. The problem is if you hit the ball over the top and you put the ball in that wispy stuff, you can't stop the ball near the flag. You're better off you can control your spin with 7 irons and 8 irons better than you can a sand wedge out of that stuff, because you just can't control your spin. And with these pins you've got to be precise.

It's gotten me to the lead so far. Hopefully tomorrow I can putt better. If I putted normally and took away my three putts, I shot 4 under par today.

And someone's working on a great-courses-bring-out-great-leaderboards story:

Q. There's a terrific leaderboard, a lot of different styles, and I'm just wondering why? Why here? Why now? Your thoughts on the golf course and on your competitors.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it's a very fair golf course. It's extremely fast. You can play it so many different ways and it lends itself to a bunch of different styles, but ultimately it's fair. It's not tricked up at all. Quality golf shots hit around this golf course, you're going to give yourself plenty of opportunities. And when you've got four par 5s where you can hit normal drives in play you're going to have irons to, I think generally when that happens you're going to see the leaderboard bunch up.

Cabrera's Post 3rd Round Q&A

Some fun stuff here:

Q. We've heard so much about guys playing conservatively around here; I don't believe you have. Do you still like to hit the driver here?

ANGEL CABRERA: I played a practice round with Seve and Seve said I said to Seve, "How do you play this golf course?" And Seve said, "The closer you get it to the green the more chance you have," and that's the way it's played.

Q. So you're hitting driver a lot?

ANGEL CABRERA: Whenever I can. I played iron off the tee on the 2nd, 4th and 8, and everywhere else I hit driver, except the par 3s. The last nine holes all driver.

Q. Did you like the course at first glance when you got here and have your feelings changed since you first saw it?

ANGEL CABRERA: It's a British Open golf course, special in the sense it is difficult, complicated and can come up and bite you if you don't play well. You have to execute the shots to be able to play this sort of golf course.

Q. Do you enjoy playing links golf?

ANGEL CABRERA: When I play well I like every sort of golf course.

Donald: "Everything I do in my swing is geared towards hitting it higher and farther."

Following the third round, Luke Donald talking to the media:

Q. Is it a problem that playing so much in America you don't play on linksy courses? Jack was saying yesterday that you should be able to play on any course.

LUKE DONALD: Everything I do in my swing is geared towards hitting it higher and farther. That's very much against what you need on a links course. But in saying that, most people are doing that, even over here in the European Tour. It's not an excuse.

While My Head Gently Sleeped

Yes, shocking as it may seem, I did not rise at 4 a.m. to hear more of Bobby Clampett's supreme wit and wisdom. Besides, I have TNT's PR department to capture the highlights.

Clampett: “You know what (the media is) going to do?  They are going to write about Phil Mickelson if he doesn’t do that great this week and say that he over prepared.    What a bunch of hogwash.  The poor guy just can’t win.”

"Poor" would not be a word I associate with Phil.

Clampett on the definition of a “links course:”  “I thought for years that a “links course” meant that the 9th hole didn’t return to the clubhouse, but that has nothing to do with a links course.  It’s the stretch of sandy soil land along the edge of the ocean or the sea that really describes links land, and thus a links course.”

He gets it right, but then Gannon can't resist shoveling some horse puckey on top:

Gannon:  “It links the town to the sea.  You can’t farm on that land…but it’s great for golf.”

It links the town to the sea?!?! Hopefully he was joking.

Oh, and I missed more of Clampett on bunching.

Clampett on the difficulty of the course:  “This golf course lends itself towards “bunching.”  You have to take your medicine on a certain number of holes and birdies are hard to come by.  And the combination of the two leads to bunching on the leaderboard.”

Birdies are hard to come by at Hoylake?

Clampett on Phil Mickelson’s demeanor after completing 10 holes of Round #3 with a score of 75 (+3 over par):  “(Phil Mickelson’s) just about got the demeanor of a guy playing with his buddies in a practice round.  The competitive spirit is just gone.”

Clampett on Tiger Woods’ demeanor as he steps onto the course:  “(Tiger Woods) reminds me of a boxer entering an arena.  That look, all business like, and the stare down.”

Almost poetic. Almost.

Live Blog Saturday, Open Championship

All times Pacific Standard Time...refresh page to update. 

6:11 - Scott and Jimenez tee off on #1 and I just realized the R&A forgot to hang those gaudy Lexus signs all around the tee.

6:13: Faldo says he and Tiger "sorted things out" early in the week. But I thought there was no there there? 

6:18: Azinger: "it's not the hardest course they're ever going to play, certainly not Winged Foot." Unfortunately, no one pointed out that this is not necessarily a bad thing. 

6:19: Tirico again brings up how "crammed" things are at Liverpool, points out that the practice tee is setup at a public course across the street because the actual practice area between 3 and 18 is too small. Faldo, sarcastically: "It was right in the middle of the hospitality! Slightly inconvenient, with balls flying everywhere." 

6:30: It sounds like someone gooses Ivor Robson just as he announces a player's name. 

6:31 - Every leader is hitting driver off No. 1 except Tiger. Ernie outdrives him by 79 yards. Tiger lips out for birdie, Els drops second into front bunker and makes bogey.

6:42: Sergio opens with ho-hum 29, he's one back. 

6:53: ABC is off to their usual fine start, with plenty of good natured fun and solid commentating. What a difference a day makes. Though the scoring crawl appears to be designed for widescreen and HD televisions, because only half of it is showing on my old Sony.

6:57: Tiger bogies No. 2, Els birdies, and now with Garcia they are tied for the lead. 

7:07: First Tom Rinaldi essay on "chance" in links golf and the Open. Meanwhile Furyk joins the group at -11, Garcia puts old stroke on birdie putt on 11, leaving 7 footer short.

7:24: Ernie pulls driver on 5, Faldo and Azinger are skeptical of the choice. Tiger hits iron, can still get home in two. Azinger points out that the cool IBM hole overview graphic is incorrect on No. 5's hole location, but after seeing Tiger's solid approach, the graphic was right. Els drive ends up okay, but bad angle to come in from (again). Tiger birdie, Ernie par.

7:42: Terry Gannon interviews Phil Mickelson. Phil is unshaven, looks tired.

7:48: ABC previews each par-3 with their overhead graphics, Azinger asks if they're the easiest set of par-3's in major championship golf. Says that won't be the case at Medinah. First reminder of the day to really soak this up, because the next major is going to be tedious. Oh and Woods hits his shot tight on 6, trickles birdie putt in, while Els hits draw that doesn't spin, makes par.

7:49: Tirico calls Steve Williams a "hall of fame" caddy. There's a hall of fame for caddies?

8:20: Geoff Ogilvy is interviewed by Terry Gannon. Names Ian Baker Finch his favorite player growing up.

8:21: Steve Williams asks someone to put camera phone away. Nick Faldo: "that's the first time he's said that...in the last 5 seconds." 

8:22: Cabrera plays 5 hole stretch -4, jumps to one shot back. 

8:32: Tiger hits 3-wood, 6 iron to par-5 10th. Sergio is just short of 18 in two with a very lofted iron. And the relentless commercial breaks continue.

8:52: Tiger rolls in 20 footer for birdie on 11, third day in a row he birdies the 393-yarder. Faldo is asked if there was an aura around Tiger, he hesistates in answering with an emphatic yes.

8:54: Azinger declares he's shocked that Calcaveccia doesn't kiss his hot blond caddie. Who is she?  **His girlfriend, which Azinger apparently mentioned.

8:56: Furyk admits to Terry Gannon that making himself a better player in the States cost him when it came to links golf and that he's learned to adjust to links golf better. 66 today would back that up. 

9:01: DiMarco hits it tight on 13, makes his third straight birdie to get to 11 under, and H.S. Colt still hasn't gotten any credit for that neat little redan like par-3.

9:03: Sergio tells Gannon that the greens are firming up, says driving the ball is vital, says pars are good.  I bet you're glad I documented that great moment in television history.

9:06: ABC graphic: Tiger and Ernie were 14-under yesterday, 1-under today through 12. Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" returns for the lead in to the commercial break after Steve Miller Band makes bizarre appearance at previous break.

9:16: DiMarco uses normal grip on long first putt at 14, then uses claw for 5-footer for par.

9:18: ABC graphic, Tiger through 13 today: 1 Driver, 8 3-woods, 29 irons off non-par-3 tees.

9:30: ABC having major technical difficulties. We see Tiger and Els approach 14, then only see Els making a par save putt and the end of Tiger's 3-putt. But we get the commercials and that plug in for the Senior British Open!

9:41: DiMarco birdies 16 to join Tiger and Sergio in the lead, then the sounds of Lady Madonna mean yet another commercial break.  

9:46: The commercials keep coming. The first hour wasn't this bogged down with ads. What happened? 

9:48: ABC returns from commercial, shows Tiger on 16, DiMarco on 17, Els on 16, CMA Music Festival plug, then goes to commercial at 9:50. Because of the tee times moving up an hour, don't they have an hour to kill when they could pay some of these bills?

10:00: Azinger: "for the first time I can remember, Tiger Woods is playing from the same places as us mere mortals with his strategy this week. He's not really taking advantage of his massive power. And he's beating everybody from where everybody hits it. You say Tiger's great when he hits it long. But he's great when he hits it the same distance as the rest of us." 

10:20: Maybe they could get more reporters, camera carts and other minglers following the last group?

10:24: Els scrapes around in 71, same with Tiger, who will be paired with Garcia, while Els will play with DiMarco, Furyk with Cabrera. Round time for leaders: 3 hours and 55 minutes.

10:25: Faldo on Tiger: "He doesn't need a driver at all. That's amazing." 

10:32: Tiger: "I didn't putt very well today." And "three three whips." Tiger says ball is rolling different speeds through different colors. Clampett said it first! Tiger: "these pins are not easy."