Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
A look at the isolation of Turnberry, great course but terrible area, will Stewart Cink be a villain for beating Tom Watson, some thoughts on getting ready for play in Ireland and some observations on how much better BBC has gotten and how ABC were a bit rough around the edges.
BRITTAS BAY, Ireland --Usually we try to get up some of our observations and recap stuff the Monday after a championship. But for the British Open we are a bit late, thanks to a major travel error. Now I have to admit that Turnberry is a great venue for the golf, but for those that have to "live" there for a week, let's say that it's a bit like camping out. Now I have nothing to complain, I stayed at a very nice hotel in Maidens called the Malin Court, one of two hotels right on the edge of Turnberry. So for convenience I was basically waking up at the time that folks were leaving their hotels in Ayr.
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Now the R&A have stated that yes attendance is always poor at Turnberry, but the course makes up for it which it does, but honestly it's a bit like having a tournament in the middle of say Bandon Dunes or some small isolated town without the creator comforts of what we get at say a Augusta National, Bethpage or Hazeltine. So hopefully the next time the Open rolls around to Turnberry in ten or so years maybe they will have a few more choices near the course
. Now in the beginning of this I told you about a major travel error I made, it's one of the biggest I have ever made. After an Open Championship I try to get to Ireland and visit my friend Pat Ruddy who owns the European Club. It's one of the great getaway spots in the world and making the visit is a great way of winding down from a tough Open week. Two months ago when making my plans, I was told to take the ferry from Stranraer to Dublin, but five years ago I took the ferry from Troon to Belfast and remember that they had a wide assortments of journey's to places in both Northern Ireland and Ireland. So I was very thickheaded and thought how much easier it was to drop off a rental car at Prestwick Airport and then go the short distance to Troon and take the ferry over.
Best laid plans of mice and men, I never bothered to ask which town the ferry went to, when I was told that the Ireland ferry left at 10am, I thought perfect. But I didn't realize until I checked in that the ferry was going to Larnes. At that time I didn't think anything about it until I found out that Larnes is a half hour north of Belfast, only about 130 miles from my destination of Southern Dublin. So instead of playing golf at 1pm on Monday, it's was a nice five hour drive to European Club and a waste of a day, oh well.
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Now many have written me and said that Watson seemed to have choked on not only the putt at 18 but in the playoff. I see it totally differently. Watson played great golf for 17 and a half holes, he showed the nerves of a person in there 20s, was able to use his 35 years of golfing knowledge perfectly and played great on Sunday. Yes he didn't hit a very good putt on the final green but I wouldn't of called it a choke. The same with the playoff, I just think that his age finally caught up with him and he wasn't able to muster up any energy for the playoff.
Now it will be interesting to see how history judges this? Will Cink be some villain for being the only person in Tom Watson's way to history? Honestly the great golf he played and has played over the last decade is replacing the hurt of Watson not winning. Yes Cink will always have the stigma of what happened to Watson, but it's not going to be like how history remembers Jack Fleck beating Ben Hogan in 1955. That's because Cink will win again and should win another major before he is finished. This wasn't a flash in the pan victory, he played great and deserved the victory.
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Now I do wonder what this shows of the generation of golfers of today that a 59 year old man could come so close to winning a major championship. Another thing, this year has been a very weird one. In three majors we had Kenny Perry who should of won but the Masters came down to Angel Cabrera getting a great bounce off a tree and ruining a great story with Perry winning. Then we had all of the rain and the great story of Phil Mickelson possibly winning the U.S. Open in New York on the eve of his wife having to go through breast treatments. Gosh that story not happening and unheralded Lucas Glover winning was shall we say very forgettable. So now we have the story of Tom Watson coming 8 feet away for winning a Open Championship at 59 and joining Harry Vardon as the only six time winners of the Open.
Now a couple of other things about Turnberry, has anyone noticed but Stewart Cink thinks his preparation by playing in Ireland the week before had a lot to do with the victory. I don't know why more players don't do this? For the third year in a row, the winner has used Ireland as a warm-up for the British Open. Remember in 2007 and '08, Padraig Harrington played the Irish PGA at the European Club and it helped him get ready and win both years so maybe this isn't a bad idea. Now I don't want to get on Tiger Woods case because he knows better than I, but in the days before he got married he spent a couple of days in Ireland getting ready and did OK winning a couple of titles after that. Now we can point out that in 2006 he didn't come over and did OK at Hoylake, but as Dermott Gillece was wondering, maybe Woods next year will want to try something different because this year didn't work. It's easy to explain when Tiger lost, he didn't hit the ball straight especially in the middle of Friday's round but you have to wonder what is up with Tiger to win all of the events before a major and fall flat. Gosh, you have to wonder if he wins again at Firestone at the Bridgestone if many won't be thinking this is a curse the next week at Hazeltine.
Now I don't think that Tom Watson choked but I have to say that Lee Westwood again found a way to choke away a major championship. Just don't think his DNA is made up for majors, he reminds me a lot of Fred Couples or a Davis Love who we lost faith in on majors. Oh, maybe this is sore grapes on my part since I am looking at a 50 pound win ticket for Lee Westwood that at 33 to 1 would of put about $2,500 in my pocket.
One person that I think will win a major is Ross Fisher, he has shown us a lot and will be somebody that we think of in the future. As of Tuesday night no news on the baby front, gosh he played terrible on Sunday but had to have a lot of pressure on him, especially after making birdies on the first two holes to take the lead.
Lastly we have to talk about the television coverage. For TNT this was there last year as cable provider at the Open. On the surface this is sad, TNT has done a great job, it was nice having Ernie Johnson, Jim Huber and Ian Baker-Finch doing the shows. They are great to listen to and a nice change of pace from the ABC/ESPN announcers. But the new deal in place giving it to ESPN is a great deal for the R&A because of the cable networks reach around the world and on the wideworld internet. The R&A showed a lot of looking into the future in choosing ESPN and the cable network worked very hard in getting the deal in place. It's really funny how they went after this after saying no to the PGA Tour in there contract talks.
George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN has been very savvy on getting the major championships and will have everyone of them with the exception of the PGA Championship, that was redone by TNT. The one thing we can see is that ESPN is being very bullish in spending money at the British Open. This year was no exception and the production values are pretty high. Now I have never been a big fan of ESPN, they are more of a supermarket for putting on shows and do most of them very cheaply. They rarely spend money and most of the time don't make a show special, like NBC does. This year they had a lot of features and nice openings and rejoins but for the first time I kind of liked what the BBC is doing. Yes the old Beeb has gotten hip, they have some great announcers between Peter Alliss, Ken Brown, Sam Torrance and Hazel Irvin to name a few. They were even smart to have Jim Nantz join them for a half hour which always adds a lot to a broadcast. But they are doing a lot more pieces, have some good animation hole graphics and there camera work is better along with there shot selections. In talking with Paul Davis, who is the main producer of BBC coverage he talked about how hard they have worked to make things better and said that a lot of folks are disappointed that the BBC didn't show things in HD, but next year will have it.
But let's be frank, there are two things that made the BBC better for me this year. I watched both shows together, thanks to Slingbox technology and the two things that I found BBC better at, first no commercials, it was a drag watching all of the commercials live on ABC. But what the BBC does is have there announcers be nonobtrusive, they are easy to listen to and very golf knowledgeable. Over at ABC they are very stat orientated and may of given us too much information. This sounds weird because I wish that BBC would have more stats and information, you could tell they have no research department for some nuggets that ABC scored on, but ABC goes way overboard, you get a headache sometimes for too many stat items.
But the big turnoff, Tom Weiskopf was awful. Listening to him I found myself saying, when are you going to get the point across. He was a failure just like Ben Crenshaw was at television. Another failure is Rick Rielly, great writer when he was at Sports Illustrator but as a TV columnist a complete zero. He is very phony, self centered and frankly I would much rather see a Tom Rinaldi do those pieces. Rielly has been a part of ESPN shows for over a year now and I can't say that he has done one single piece that I like, let alone love. Everyone of them are contrived and come across as nothing special. Mr. Bodenheimer you want to save a few million dollars get rid of this high price nothing. After years of listening to the great wordsmiths like Jack Whitaker and Jim McKay, ESPN should reassess what Reilly does.
As for Mike Tirico, he is always great and could be the best golf announcer, too bad he only does a couple of year. As for Paul Azinger, he could be the second best announcer behind Johnny Miller. He is great with his thoughts and you can trust what he says is the bible, not like with Nick Faldo or some others that tell you what is convenient at the time. As for Curtis Strange, he doesn't sound as good without Tirico and for the first time in a while I felt like he was out of his element, maybe trying to one-up Azinger. But the big problem I saw with all of the announcers this year for ABC was their timing was off. They talked over each other and didn't have a feel for each other. Maybe it's because they only do one event a year but the trafficking this year was bad. I also have to wonder, since they do golf just once a year if anyone in America remembers Peter Alliss? Again all of this is a problem, they need to really introduce all of the folks that do the announcing and I didn't see this on Sunday, unless I missed it which I apologize if I am wrong.
Was the ABC show awful, no. But I just like the easy going, BBC which have figured out how to televise a golf tournament, have no commercials and easy to listen to announcers that don't make every other statement a stat orientated statement.
Now as a post-script on the British Open and how history may remember Cink, on Tuesday night Cink was in New York doing the top-ten list on the David Letterman show about his British Open win. Of course Cink loves to have a good time and he had a couple of great zings, including the # 6 item which was "I called up Tiger Woods, laughed and hung up". Now the number one item on the list was the best of them all when Cink said, "I was even rooting for Tom Watson". That encapsulates how this year's Open Championship will always be remember, not as much about Cink winning but because Watson came so close to making history.
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Sal and Dave talk about Stewart Cink's Open Championship win, what it means and the sad part on how close Tom Watson got to getting the job done.
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Stewart Cink snatches the Claret Jug away from Tom Watson, so how does everyone feel and hey, Cink won it in an impressive way with some clutch shots.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Feel like I have just gone to Disneyland and it was closed because someone shot Mickey Mouse and dragged his body through Main Street. You want to see the most unpopular Open champion of all time, it's going to be Stewart Cink for next couple of hours. Now granted, he may be the nicest person in the world but at Turnberry this afternoon he has just shattered what could of been the greatest story in golf.
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Of course the Scottish fans were the greatest and gave Cink his due, especially since he got into the playoff with that 15 footer on the 72nd hole. What is amazing about what Cink did was his timing. He has been on the PGA Tour since 1997 and has been one of the most successful pros financially, winning over $26 million dollars. It's hard to believe, the comparison between Cink and Tom Watson, Cink has played in 352 events and this is just his sixth win. Yes he has won a WGC event, but his other wins were a pair of victories at the Travelers Championship and the Verizon Heritage. Yes it's not bad but Watson has won more majors (8) than Cink has won PGA Tour events.
Before this week, Cink came close a couple of times in majors, first in 1999 he was 3rd at the PGA Championship, but that was Tiger Woods week so little of what Cink did is ever mention. In 2001, Cink was left with a short putt on the 72nd hole, in the interest of helping his playing partner and get out of the way, he carelessly stepped up to hit and missed it. Little at the time did he realize that the putt would of gotten him into a playoff with Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks in the U.S. Open, that missed putt has branded and cursed him in the years after. Finally in 2008 he finished T3rd at the Masters, but again he was four shots back of Trevor Immelman and nobody really cared.
Golf has seen a lot of times when a player won over a more popular person, Sam Snead beat Ben Hogan when he returned from his car accident in 1950. The crowds at Oakmont were astonished when Jack Nicklaus beat Arnold Palmer in the 1962 U.S. Open. At Olympic in 1966 many were shocked when Billy Casper beat Arnold Palmer and I will never forgot the disappointed people when Todd Hamilton beat Ernie Els five years ago at Troon.
But I guess that is golf, that is the mystic of the game and the wonderment of things. As Stewart Cink said to the media, it's survival to the very end and Tom Watson beat everyone but me. The disappointing aspect of all this, in my lifetime I will never witness what could of been the greatest story of all time. Yes, I watched Tom Watson beat Nicklaus in '77 here at Turnberry, yes I watch Watson chip in at Pebble in '82, yes I have watched everyone of Tiger Woods great victories in major championships but the bottom line, this is one that you could say, hey I have seen it all, I can die now.
Yes, we will see Tom Watson next week in the Senior Open Championship and yes Watson will be back for probably one last go at St. Andrews next year. Will he have another chance, probably not. But boy Watson has given us a lot of thrills and chills for 35 years and to think that a 59 year-old could do what he did, I need to go out and loss a bunch of weight and take up the game again. Even at 53 I guess anything is possible for me or anyone else that has reached this stage of our lives.
For Tom, we salute you and thank you for what you have done and showed us that can be done, no matter how old any of us are.
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Tom Watson's British Open performance at age 59 shows that the sky's the limit for Tiger Woods winning majors, but he may want to reevaluate the way he's preparing for them
Here’s something to ponder: If Tom Watson can play well enough to be in a playoff for a major championship at age 59, the prospect of what Tiger Woods might accomplish in his lifetime is downright scary.
Woods has won 14 majors in 13 years. If he can keep up that pace, he'll have notched 42 majors by the time he reaches Watson's age. Far- fetched, of course. Every great player has had to fight through dry spells. Jack Nicklaus, owner of 18 major titles, suffered through an 0-for-12 slump at the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship after winning major No. 7, the 1967 U.S. Open. He had a 20-major drought between the1980 PGA Championship and the 1986 Masters, when at 46 he notched his last victory at a major.
Watson, who lost an aggregate four-hole playoff to Stewart Cink at Turnberry, won the last of his eight majors when he was Woods’ age, 33. (Although you can’t completely discount Tom’s five senior majors, including three Senior British Opens.) He has had hip replacement surgery, endured an unpleasant divorce and overcome problems with alcohol abuse. Watson has always been one of the game’s best ball strikers, but his putting touch began to abandon him when he turned 35 or so (witness the 72nd hole at Turnberry).
Considering all the advances in training techniques, the marvels of modern orthopedic surgery, and the better understanding of nutrition, an extraordinary physical specimen like Woods figures to have a long and productive career.
True, Woods already has had knee surgery three times. He swings in such an aggressive manner that many speculate the stress it creates may shorten his career. Others question whether his ram-it-home putting style can hold up under pressure as Woods ages.
There's also the matter of motivation, or how long Woods wants to stay on the world stage. In his Sunday post-playoff press conference, Watson alluded to the different pressures players must contend with in the digital age compared to when he was in his prime.
"My hat goes off to Tiger for what he has to go through on a weekly basis," Watson said, "with all the things pulling at him, with as much as he wins and as much as he's in the limelight."
The manner in which Woods missed the cut at Turnberry is cause for raised eyebrows, as well. Clearly, Woods has issues with his game. For whatever reason, he has failed to demonstrate any kind of consistency in the majors this season. He seems to be putting too much pressure on himself, playing like a man who believes he’s running out of time. If that’s the case, Watson’s performance – as was Greg Norman’s third place finish last year at Birkdale – should dispel that notion.
Perhaps its time for Woods to reevaluate how he prepares for majors. Before he had children, Woods always spent the week in Ireland playing links golf as a tune-up for the Open Championship. He had never set foot on Turnberry before Sunday of Open week.
Or maybe Tiger would be better served playing in tournaments the week before majors, thus maintaining some sort of competitive routine and staying more in synch. Woods often points out how difficult it is to win majors, but that’s not much of an excuse for someone who sets the bar so high.
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Just like the previous two majors, only more so, the British Open had no respect for story lines
Golf can be a cruel game. Tom Watson had a one-stroke lead going to the final hole of the British Open and hit two perfectly-struck shots to the par four. The second, unfortunately, flew just a little bit too far. Then it rolled just a little bit too far after coming tantalizingly close to stopping on the back of the green, from which point the 59-year-old Watson could have two-putted for a victory that would have been one of the greatest moments--maybe the greatest moment--in the history of the game.
Then the ball trickled down the slope, and Watson's hopes trickled away with it. His 59-year-old nerves weren't quite up to the task of a difficult up and down, especially not on the eight-foot putt for the title.
Then his 59-year-old body wasn't up to the task of heading back out for a four-hole playoff. With a bunch of tired swings leading to hacks out of the long rough, Watson couldn't stay with Stewart Cink, who played beautifully in touring the four playoff holes in 2-under.
So close, and yet so far. And so ironic that after most observers were saying all week that at least Watson wouldn't lose it on a mental mistake, he did just that.
After the round, Watson said that he had considered hitting a 9-iron on his approach to the 72nd green, but decided to hit the 8-iron. And proceeded, unfortunately, to hit it just the way he wanted.
And so major championship golf continued in its complete and utter disdain for story lines in 2009. At the Masters, 48-year-old Kenny Perry was cruising toward a victory that would have made him the oldest player to win a major. More importantly, it would have represented the first major title for one of the game's nicest guys and one of the game's hottest players over the previous 12 months. Instead, he bogeyed the last two holes and lost to Angel Cabrera in a playoff.
At the U.S. Open, you had Phil Mickelson playing in his last event before taking a break from the Tour to be with his wife Amy during her surgery and treatment for breast cancer. He was playing in front of New York crowds who adore him and trying to make up for past near misses at the U.S. Open. Or, you had David Duval, who had tumbled all the way from No. 1 in the world out of the top 800, but was staging a resurrection right before our eyes.
With about a half-hour of play remaining, that duo was tied for the lead with Lucas Glover. Then Mickelson and Duval both bogeyed the 17th, and Glover won.
Of course, Glover made a key birdie on the 16th hole and held it together on the last two. Just like Cink won it thanks to a birdie on the 72nd hole and some great play in the playoff. Both are good players and, by all accounts, great guys. It just isn't what the script writers had in mind.
Oh, sure, at some point in the future the game will produce a Hollywood ending at a major.
But it will be too late for Tom Watson. This was his last chance. And this would have been a classic Hollywood ending to top all others, with the hero riding off off into the sunset at the end.
What did we get instead? Realistic cinema, where 59-year-old golfers don't win majors.
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Lewine with some notes on Chris Wood getting close, Tom Lehman looking for history with a Watson win, having a "Sir" in your car and Lee Westwood dropping some weight.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- It was only once he had finished that Chris Wood, 21, would have started thinking of how winning this Open was not exactly out of the question.
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“To follow up on ‘08 as well as I have is as good as I could have hoped for,” he said. “I felt so proud of myself and the way I stayed in every shot.”
Wood, who turned pro straight after Birkdale, never let his thoughts stray to how he might win over today’s last 18 holes and he did not want to find out where he was vis-à-vis the rest. The same, though, did not apply to his parents. Back at the 12th, they were savouring the sight of their son’s name alongside Westwood’s at two under par and the top of the leader-board.
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It’s not often you get a former Open champion walking round watching on the last day unless, of course, he has a microphone in his hand and the prospect of a lot of dollars in his pocket.
Tom Lehman, though, was out scaling the dunes with his young son Thomas, an eighth grader and a would-be professional. The 1996 champion wanted Thomas to see Watson’s bid to win a sixth Open. Lehman scoffed at the oft-repeated suggestion that having a champion in his 60th year would merely add to the impression that golf is an old man’s game. “It would be brilliant if he won,” said Lehman. “If it were any 59-year-old, it would be exciting, but for it to be Tom Watson is a simply fantastic story. I can’t think of anything that would beat it unless Jack Nicklaus were to come out of retirement and get his name up at the top of the leader-board.”
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After Sir Nick Faldo and his partner of the moment had finished dinner in the popular Wildings restaurant – the eatery where Tom Watson was most nights – the owner offered to run the couple back to the Turnberry Hotel.
They were halfway there when Faldo’s proud girlfriend felt the need to draw the owner’s attention to something about her man. “I don’t suppose,” she began, “that you’ve ever had a ‘Sir’ in your car before.”
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Lee Westwood has changed shape. Stuart Cage, who works for ISM, the player’s management group, was explaining on the range how the European Ryder Cup man has shed six inches from his waist at the same time as he has added half a stone in weight. The weight, apparently, is all muscle - and all down to his trainer, Steve McGregor, who has had him following a golf-specific series of exercises for the past two years.
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But it is the Englishman’s mind which has impressed as much as anything else so far at Turnberry, not least with regard to the way he handled going out with Tiger Woods over the first couple of days.
It is one thing playing with Woods when he is at his glorious best… According to those who have experienced it, you are conscious – often to your own detriment - of not getting in his way. On the other hand, it has to be almost as tough to play with the World No. 1 when he is having the kind of nightmare he had on Friday.
The present-day Westwood has enough in the way of poise and confidence not to feel awkward in such circumstances. “I was in my own little world,” he said afterwards. Yet it must have helped that Woods was doing as you would expect of him in trying not to disturb the others.
Not everyone in the golfing limelight is as well-disciplined in that area It was Ernie Els, for example, who once said light-heartedly of Colin Montgomerie, “If Monty’s playing badly, he certainly let’s everyone know about it.”
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There is not a single person on this planet that didn't feel the pain of Tom Watson not making par on the last hole to win the British Open.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Sorry to be a while to get back to you, wanted to be out there for what I thought would be historical moment.
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Just hope that Watson can regroup for the four hole playoff that will go 5, 6, 17 and 18. Are hats off for Stewart Cink, who shot 69 but made a great birdie at the final hole. Cink shot 66-72-71-69 and he has to be the big favorite in a playoff.
For those wondering, we have about three and a half hours of daylight left, this is a great way of determining a winner in a tie. They will play two par 4s, a par 3 and a par 5.
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It's a sprint to the finish line as Tom Watson holds on and is tied with 7 holes left.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- A lot has happened in just the last half hour.
First I would have to think that Ross Fisher, who led by two just 40 minutes ago is out of the tournament and would kindly like his beeper to ring and let him leave to join his wife. After his quadruple-bogey 8 at the 5th hole he made bogey at 7 and 8 and is 2 over par and six back. Fisher's problem is the driver, he has missed four of the first six fairways and as Tiger Woods have found out, that is disaster.
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We haven't mention much on Mathew Goggin, he bogey the 2nd and the 4th but has made a birdie at 7 and is 2 over. He seems to just be sitting there waiting for something to happen or should we say wait for people to fold. Goggin in a way is very lucky, he hasn't been very straight with his driver only hitting 1 of his first 5 fairways but he has taken only 11 putts with 3 one putts so he is still in the running.
Just like Goggin, Stewart Cink seems to be hanging in there and waiting for those in front to fold a bit. Cink is even par for the day, with two bogeys and two birdies, the last coming on the 11th hole. Cink has been in this position before but he has to make a few more birdies for any chance.
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Now for the leader. Myself I am on pins and needles because I have been a big supporter of him all week. I have felt that he is ready to win, the course is perfect for him and that this could be his time. I was so confident, I bet 50 pounds (about $75) on Westwood and got 33 to 1 to win. Now for a poor internet owner like me that is about a $2,500 payday so despite rooting for Watson by wallet is rooting for Lee.
After his eagle at 7, he par eight and nine but a bad tee shot at 10 way right has cost him a bogey at 10. So he is now coming home with 8 holes left to play at 3 under. You have to think that there is not many more bogeys that can be made by the leaders considering that Luke Donald shot 67 and is in the clubhouse at even par. Right now six players are under par and you have to think that they are the ones that the winner will come from.
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While I was posting this, Chris Wood made a birdie at 14 and he is at 2 under par along with Stewart Cink who birdied 13, but the big news is that Tom Watson dropped in a 20 footer for birdie at 11 and is tied with Goggin and Westwood at 3 under par
Here is the scoreboard at 4:40, British time:
Lee Westwood is 3 under after 12
Tom Watson is 3 under after 11
Mathew Goggin is 3 under after 11
Chris Wood is 2 under after 17
Stewart Cink is 2 under after 13
Retief Goosen is even par after 12
Luke Donald is even par and finished
Richard Johnson is even par after 13
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Ross Fisher was flying high until he made the most untimely quadruple bogey since T.C. Chen
It was the most ill-timed quadruple bogey in professional golf since T.C. Chen's at the 1985 U.S. Open. Ross Fisher came to the fifth hole having surged into the lead thanks to birdies on the first two holes, including a chip-in at the second. Ahead by two standing on the tee, he left the green two behind.
Hitting an iron off the tee was a good idea, but his execution was poor and his luck worse. He hit it into such deep rough that it took him two slashes and, finally, an unplayable-ball drop to get out. From there, it was a routine quadruple bogey eight.
Chen's quad--or "double par"--also came on the fifth hole of the final round at Oakland Hills, and stunningly wiped away the entirety of a four-stroke lead. The killer blow was a double-hit pitch shot. Mentally, Chen never was able to recover, and Andy North ended up winning that Open.
Fisher wasn't able to recover, either, making bogeys on the seventh, a par five that should be a birdie hole, and eighth for a 40 on the front nine, dropping him to 2-over and a tie for 14th.
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Lewine with some notes and thoughts on the defending champion.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Padraig Harrington, after he had finished his final round, would not have it that Greg Norman’s closing 77 in last year’s Open had anything to do with age. “Didn’t he have a 78 in the final round when he lost out to Nick Faldo in the Masters all those years ago?” he asked.
In Harrington’s eyes, players like Norman and Watson are still hitting the ball entirely well enough and far enough to win the Open. “At their stage, the limitations are more a question of whether they want it enough, whether they have enough fire in their bellies when they wake up. What they need to do is to hole putts and to believe in themselves.”
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“Anyone can get it under par today, so even the guys who started at two or three over par have a chance of winning.”
Come in Ernie Els… Three over par after three rounds, he moved to level with his third birdie of the day.
Harrington finished up with a 73 on Sunday and is at 12 over par.
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Last night, Watson suggested that Harrington’s problems were down to the fact that he had shortened his swing.
Today, Harringtron categorically denied that he had tried to do anything of the kind. “I’ve never tried to shorten it. I’m a great believer, as is Bob Torrance, that your swing finds its natural length as Tom Watson’s swing has found its natural length. It’s very nice that he would take time out and give a helping hand, but obviously he’s got the wrong information, as many people have. “Over life, your swing will get shorter. Mother Nature does that. But I’ve never tried to shorten it.”
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