Golf: Singh boosted by Watson heroics

Vijay Singh believes Tom Watson's showing at the Open can be an inspiration to him and his fellow 40-something golfers.

Singh, 46, has won 22 tournaments since his 40th birthday, more than anyone else in PGA Tour history, but even he was impressed by Watson's runner-up finish at Turnberry on Sunday when the 59-year-old lost a four-hole play-off to fellow American Stewart Cink.

Speaking ahead of his World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational title defence in Akron, Ohio, in two weeks, Fijian Singh was asked if Watson's performance had been inspirational to over 40s.

"Yes, definitely. People are still talking about Tom Watson, I've had more questions about his age and (how that) makes us old guys look great," Singh said.

"I said, 'hang on a second, I'm not that old'.

"But it does. It does give me a lot more inspiration. It would have been great if he had won, but what he did is just incredible. It shows how good of a player he is, and really, that age doesn't really matter.

"If you're healthy and you're fit and your golf game is good, you can play for as long as you want to play, and that gives me a lot more confidence.

"Just like when Tom won the TPC at the age of 48, 47, that shows that you are healthy and that if you can play with the boys, why not?

"That's the kind of feeling that I have, and I think that I can last out here as long as my mind says 'go ahead and do it'."

Singh, with 56 total career wins worldwide, became the oldest player to win a WGC event last August when he held off Lee Westwood, Stuart Appleby and Phil Mickelson with a final-round 68 at Firestone Country Club to land the Bridgestone Invitational.

The victory was his first of 2008 and it served as the springboard for the rest of the campaign as he moved into the PGA Tour's FedExCup play-offs, won two of the four events and captured the FedExCup itself.

After a below-par 2009 to date, with three top-10 finishes from 17 starts, the world number 11 is hoping for a similar kickstart when he returns to Firestone in two weeks.

"I'm really disappointed this year, but I came out of February well, and I just started playing a little too soon and it kind of put me back quite a bit," Singh said.

"Instead of taking two months off, I took a month and a half off, and going to the range created a lot of bad habits for my golf swing. And it took two or three months to get out of it because every time you get out of something, you develop something new.

"But, it was the first time in a long time that I won so late in the season (at the Bridgestone), and that gives me a lot of confidence going back there.

"I'm feeling really confident about the golf course. My golf game is coming around. I just can't wait.

"I have two weeks to practice, and I can't wait to get out there and do it again. So it will be great and I hope it will be the place where it started out."

Golf: Tiger Woods out early in the British Open

By Mark Sugden
Agence France-Presse

TURNBERRY — Tiger Woods crashed out of the British Open at the halfway stage after a second round 74 here on Friday.

An error-strewn display left the world number one on a two-round total of 145, five over par, one stroke above the cut mark and ten adrift of leaders Tom Watson and Steve Marino.

It was only the second time since he turned professional that Woods has missed the cut in a major tournament, the only precedent being the US Open in 2006 which he contested shortly after the death of his father, Earl.

There had been no hint of what was about to unfold as he followed six straight pars with a birdie at the long 7th hole to move to even par for the tournament -- a position from which he expected to mount a challenge to win.

But his round fell apart with a disastrous run of holes around the turn, with double bogeys on both the 10th and 13th ultimately proving fatal to his chances.

"There is no doubt I'm frustrated because I was playing well," Woods said afterwards. "After seven holes I was right there in the championship.

"I thought if I could post level par for the round I would probably be in the top ten. But I didn't do that. I went the other way.

"I had a few really poor holes in a row. I hit a few bad shots. It just seemed to be problem after problem and I kept compounding it.

"It is very disappointing. I just did not play certain holes well enough."

Woods has won three tournaments since coming back from an eight-month lay-off for reconstructive surgery on his left knee.

But he has not been able to add to his haul of 14 majors after finishing tied for 6th in both The Masters and the US Open.

"I have just not played well enough in the majors this year," he said. "In all the majors I've won I've played cleanly in all four rounds and I just haven't done it this year.

"I was on the range yesterday and I felt good. I was hitting it well. But unfortunately it was not to be today."

After bogeys on both the 8th and 9th, Woods sent his drive at the 10th flying into the long grass. With the help of dozens of spectators two balls were found but neither was the one they were looking and he was forced to mark his card with a double bogey six.

The situation was not totally desperate at that stage with the American then only four over -- right on the projected cut mark.

But a bogey on the 12th, where his drive ended in a fairway bunker, was followed by a second double bogey on the 13th.

The best golfer on the planet watched in disbelief as his chip failed to make it up the slope on the back edge of the green and rolled all the way back down. Woods then hit a poor approach putt and was unable to hole out from 15 feet.

A good approach to the 16th set up a 25-foot birdie putt which Woods holed to give himself a fighting chance of survival.

At the 17th, he had a lucky break when his second shot took a kindly bounce over the huge bunker at the front left of the green, the ball coming to rest just off the back edge, from where he was able to get up and down to get back to five over.

That meant a birdie at the last would enable him to squeeze into the last two rounds but a slightly over-hit approach meant he had to play a good chip to salvage a par that was just not good enough.

Golf: Tiger opens 1-over-71 in Turnberry

TURNBERRY, Scotland (AP)—For a course that was easy as it can be, Tiger Woods sure made it hard on himself.

Woods produced a pedestrian round Thursday in surprisingly calm conditions at Turnberry, making only three birdies and far more mistakes. He wound up with a 1-over 71, the first time since 2003 that he failed to break par in the opening round of the British Open.

“Realistically, I probably should have shot about 1- or 2-under par today,” Woods said. “But I made a few mistakes.”

It was reminiscent of the opening round at Bethpage Black in the U.S. Open, when Woods battled to get back to even par until dropping four shots on the last four holes, and never quite recovering.

There were a few exceptions.

The first round at Bethpage took two days to complete because of rain. This took just under five hours in a mixture of sun and clouds, a fine summer day along the Ayrshire coast.And unlike the U.S. Open, Woods was never too far from the leaders until it got away from him at the end.

He missed the 13th green, the ball stopped a yard in front of gorse bush, leaving Woods just enough room to pitch up the slope to 4 feet to save par and stay 1 under. His 2-iron on the 14th sailed right into rough so deep that he did well to hammer a sand wedge out to the fairway, advancing it some 80 yards. From there, his high wedge checked a few feet from the hole for another timely save.

With everyone around him making birdies, Woods was celebrating par.

But not for long.

He came up short on the par-5 15th, leaving himself an awkward angle over a slope. His chip was too strong, and he missed a 12-foot par putt. From the fairway on the 16th, he was aiming 10 feet left of the flag and hit it 10 feet to the right. It bounded down the shaved mound and into the burn, and he did well to make only a bogey.

Then came the par-5 17th, another tee shot to the right. Even with a good break—his ball sat up nicely only trampled grass—he popped up a 3-wood and cursed himself twice for the mistake. Again, the world’s No. 1 player had to rely on all his muscle to get out of the rough onto the green, some 70 feet away, to make par.

By the end of the day, he was the only player in his group who failed to break par.

Lee Westwood opened with three straight birdies, reached 4 under, and shot 68. Ryo Ishikawa, the 17-year-old from Japan, hit driver on just about every hole and finished strong for a 68.

Everywhere he looked, there was a leaderboard showing several morning scores under par, including Tom Watson at 65.

He was long gone when Miguel Angel Jimenez took the lead at 64. The seven-shot deficit is the largest Woods has ever faced in the first round of the British Open.

“This golf course, certainly you could shoot a good round today,” Woods said. “You saw a lot of guys at basically 3-, 4-, 5-under par. And that’s what you could do out there today.”

Just not him.

The last time he failed to break par in the first round of the British Open was a 73 at Royal St. George’s in 2003, a tough and breezy English links where Woods eventually tied for fourth.

Not many saw this coming, except perhaps for Woods.

“The misses I had were the same shots I was hitting on the range,” he said. “So I need to go work on that and get it squared away.”

Woods rarely hit driver, and didn’t find the fairway the three times he did. He stuck to his plan of laying back to avoid the bunkers. That didn’t sound as though it would change.

“We’re playing to certain spots, how we think the golf course should be attacked and played,” he said.

Golf: Tiger Woods turns in rocky first round, then ducks TNT

By Jay Busbee

There are days when it's good to be Tiger Woods, and then there's today. Tiger turned in a weak opening round at the British Open, 1-over on a relatively easy day. At the time of his finish, he sat six strokes behind leader Tom Watson. Tiger could close that distance with his eyes closed, certainly, but the poor performance -- he was tied for 49th when he finished -- had to rankle him.

But then he compounded problems by giving perfunctory interviews and declining an opportunity to appear in a one-on-one interview with TNT's Jim Huber.

Weak move. It doesn't matter who you are or how badly you played, you need to step up and meet your post-round commitments. Shoot, Ryo Ishikawa did it, and the poor kid is still on training wheels when it comes to speaking English.

This has nothing to do with Tiger making the sports media's job easier; Tiger never says anything of substance in his interviews, and likely wouldn't have spilled his guts to TNT. That's not the issue. This has to do with the fans who want to see him -- Tiger is one of the two or three most popular athletes on the planet. It's also about the people who have invested millions in this tournament with the expectation that Tiger would hold up his end of the bargain by throwing a few minutes of cliche-ridden love their way. Would that have been so hard?

Now, let's take a moment to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he'd eaten some bad Scottish food. Perhaps the kids needed to be changed. But if he ducked the on-camera interview simply out of frustration with himself, well ... to put it in more British terms, that's simply not proper.

Golf: World's longest course is in Australia

MELBOURNE (AFP) - – The world's longest golf course, stretching along 1,365 kilometres (848 miles) of desert highway with holes at 18 towns and service stations, is to open in Australia this year, organisers said Tuesday.

The Nullarbor Links, which will span two time zones and measure more than the entire length of Britain, is expected to be completed next month and will host its inaugural tournament on October 22.

"We're very excited about it. It's been a long time coming and a lot of effort," project chairman Don Harrington told AFP.

"This is the longest golf course in the world. It's unique terrain, there's something for everybody."

The course, conceived five years ago "over a couple of beers," is meant to attract tourists to the Eyre Highway which traverses the desolate Nullarbor Plain and hugs part of Australia's southern coastline.

Golfers will stop at one roadhouse, play a hole, then drive on to the next tee -- 100 kilometres down the road in some cases. The par-71 course will take three or four days to complete with each player awarded a certificate.

Each hole will showcase a local attraction, from whale-watching to ancient fossil beds and a working sheep station, and include sights such as the Big Kangaroo statue at Border Village straddling South and Western Australia.

"There's a lot of history and you can see all of that on a golf course," Harrington said.

"Both Australian tourists and golfing enthusiasts around the world have shown support for what we're doing."

The course was the brainchild of Bob Bongiorno, who was managing a roadhouse at remote Balladonia when he came up with the idea.

Bongiorno, now living in Kalgoorlie at the course's western end, said he tried hitting a few balls when he first moved into the Outback but got sick of encountering spiders when trying to retrieve them.

There should be no such hazards on the synthetic greens of the Nullarbor Links, although golfers who hit a stray shot into the desert will face a monster sandtrap.

Tiger and Turnberry back in golfing business

TURNBERRY, Scotland (AFP) - – If history is any guide, there can only be one winner of the 138th Open Championship, which tees off here on Thursday.

Turnberry has a good claim to be regarded as the most picturesque of all the venues on the Open rota, but what really makes local chests swell with pride is the Ailsa Course's unrivalled ability to produce champions recognised by their peers as the world's best.

Tom Watson, who provided Turnberry with its finest hour when he edged Jack Nicklaus in the 1977 Duel in the Sun, Greg Norman with his first major win in 1986 and Nick Price eight years later: all of them giants of the game.

If the record is to continue, the only outcome can be a Tiger Woods triumph and the world number one, a conscientious student of the history of the sport he dominates, acknowledges there can be no excuses if he is not at the top of the leaderboard by the end of Sunday afternoon.

"The guys that have won before here were some of the best ball strikers of all time, or certainly in their eras," he said.

"It shows that you just can't fake it around this golf course. You just have to hit good golf shots."

Nobody does that quite as well as Woods and, having finished tied for 6th place in both the first two majors of the year, The Masters and the US Open, there is a sense that major title number 15 is now a little overdue for the world number one, who has won three times on the US tour since coming back from reconstructive surgery on his left knee.

Woods had only just gone under the knife when last year's Open was contested and he was too preoccupied with the initial, painful stages of his rehabilitation to pay too much attention to the action at Royal Birkdale.

He did however take in the climax of a tournament that saw Padraig Harrington clinch his second consecutive Open title with a nerveless display over the closing holes.

"When it really mattered, Padraig had to shoot a number and he did," Woods said of the Irishman who, a year later, is embarking on his quest for a third straight Open win beset by doubts over a swing that he is attempting to reshape.

The result, to date, have not been great: six missed cuts in his last seven outings on the US and European tours tell their own stories.

Despite the doubts in his mind, the Irishman says he feels close to turning the corner and is confident that, if he puts himself into contention, he will stay there.

"The one thing I know is if I get in the position, I can win," he says, justifiably given that he followed up last year's Open triumph by winnning the US PGA.

Woods and Harrington have both identified driving, or more accurately strategy off the tee, as one of the keys to victory on a layout ringed by rough that has been allowed to grow thick and tall as a result of an unusually wet and warm spring on Scotland's southwestern coast.

Woods, who famously used his driver only once in 72 holes when he won his third Open title at Hoylake three years ago, suggested the longest club in his bag could be equally idle here if the wind dictates it.

But he also acknowledged that more benign conditions will tempt a lot of players to try and carry the fearsome fairway bunkers in pursuit of positions to attack the pins.

As Harrington put it: "There will be rewards for guys who hit the ball long down the fairway because shorter irons will lead to birdies but with the rough the way it is, you want to hit those fairways at all costs."

The premium on long, straight driving has convinced many that Lee Westwood is the most likely man to become the first home winner of the world's oldest major tournament since Paul Lawrie won at Carnoustie in 1999.

Paul Casey, currently ranked three in the world, and Ian Poulter, the runner-up to Harrington last year, also look capable of joining the ranks of major winners but it is hard to make a compelling case for anyone other than Tiger.

Cristie Kerr opens two-shot lead at U.S. Women's Open

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Former champion Cristie Kerr scrambled for a one-over 72 Saturday to take a two-shot lead over Eun Hee Ji of South Korea after three rounds of the U.S. Women's Open.

Kerr, the 2007 champion, was at two-under 211, the only subpar score after three rounds at Saucon Valley Country Club as she chases her second title in three years. Futures Tour player Jean Reynolds started two strokes off the lead, but stumbled down the stretch. She closed with a bogey at the 15th and back-to-back bogeys at 17 and 18 on the way to a three-over 74. She's tied for third at twp-over 215 with Teresa Lu of Taiwan, who had a one-under 70.

South Korea's In-Kyung Kim (72) and Hee Young Park (72), and Taiwan's Candie Kung (three-under 68) are tied for fifth at 3-over 216. Brittany Lincicome had a two-over 73, Suzann Pettersen had a one-over 72 and Kyeong Bae of South Korea had a two-under 69 and are tied for eighth at four-over 217.

The wind was blowing at the Old Course in the Lehigh Valley, drying out the putting surfaces and adding speed to the testy, undulating greens.

A handful of players took advantage of the USGA's move to shorten the distance of a number of holes to raise the risk-reward factor.

Those who took advantage included the 23-year-old Ji. She offset three bogeys with four birdies for a one-under 70 and even-par 213 total to earn a spot in the final group with Kerr on Sunday in just her second Open.

Others weren't so lucky, namely Paula Creamer.

Creamer teamed with Kerr to make up an All-American final pairing in the third round, but fell out of contention quickly. She had three bogeys on the front nine, a triple-bogey at the 10th and a bogey at 11. She's at six-over 219 after an eight-over 79.

Kerr has said all week that she knows what it takes to win the national championship, especially after winning at Pine Needles in 2007. She's confident her game matches up well against the narrow fairways and tricky greens of Saucon Valley.

The 12-time LPGA Tour winner has played the first three rounds with patience, never getting too aggressive. That plan seems to be working.

Kerr and Creamer bogeyed the second hole, falling to 2 under and 1 under, respectively.

Kerr pushed her lead to two strokes with a birdie at the par-3 fourth and led by three after Creamer made bogey at the sixth. The lead reached four after the 22-year-old made bogey at the eighth.

Kerr saw her lead shrink to a stroke over Reynolds after bogeying the ninth, but she managed to steady herself and play the back nine in even-par, including a birdie and a bogey.

Reynolds, a two-time winner this year on the Futures Tour and its leading money winner, is proving this week she has the talent to make an impact on more than the LPGA's developmental circuit.

She hung within a stroke of Kerr until her 15th hole, when she hit over the green and had a three-putt bogey. The consecutive bogeys to finish the round ended any chance Reynolds had of making the final group in the final round.

The focus Saturday was strictly on golf after a turbulent week during which the championship was overshadowed by a dispute between LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens and more than a dozen top tour players who signed a letter calling for her resignation.

The New York Times, citing a source, has reported that Bivens has decided to step down after the Open concludes. Golf Digest had previously reported that Bivens would be replaced, as soon as next week, and cited sources who said the letter from the players was the final blow.

In other finishes of note, Morgan Pressel shot 69 and moved to five over, a tie for 11th.

Former champion Laura Davies, playing on a special exemption, moved to seven over after a third-round 73. The 1987 champion is playing in her 24th Women's Open.

Lorena Ochoa's early charge from deep in the field came undone on the back nine. The top-ranked Ochoa followed a bogey at No. 12 with a double-bogey at 13th, posting a two-over 73 and falling to eight-over 221.

Alexis Thompson, a 14-year-old amateur playing in her third Women's Open, had three bogeys on three of the first five holes, four on the front nine and five in the first 11 on the way to a seven-over 78 and a nine-over 222.

Golf: Glover wins US Open

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Talk about guts. Yeah, Lucas Glover showed plenty of fortitude, knocking in that crucial birdie putt -- his first of the day -- at the 16th hole with the likes of Phil Mickelson and David Duval making the Bethpage mosh pit all the more uncomfortable.

But what about the cousins?

These guys truly had some nerve.

Todd Hendley, 25, and Billy Johnson, 29, are Glover's cousins. They saw Sunday how Lucas was faring at the 109th U.S. Open and decided they had to be here Monday -- even though they live in North Carolina. "We were in Boone [N.C.] for Father's Day," Johnson said. "And we just decided if he was within 3 [shots of the lead], let's think about going up. So we got in the car and made the deal on the way."

By "deal," he meant purchase tickets. Apparently, they decided not to phone up ol' cousin Lucas to ask for any extras or put any extra pressure on him. So they finagled a deal on eBay for $40 passes, recruited a buddy named Dave Yearwood, 30, to drive with them, printed up some T-shirts that said "Lucas Locos" on the front and "Lucas We Got Your Back" on the back, and hit I-95 for the 10-hour drive.

"Stopped just once," Hendley boasted.

And boy, were they rewarded.

It didn't look good for much of the day, as Glover's oil leakage was surpassed only by that of third-round leader Ricky Barnes, who shot 76. But Glover, who played the front nine in 38, steadied himself on the back nine, making the crucial birdie at No. 16 that gave him the breathing room necessary to get off Bethpage Black without fainting.

Glover, 29, the pride of Greenville, S.C., starred at Clemson and had but a single PGA Tour victory. "I caught lightning in a bottle," he said -- and became just the second player in the past 25 years to win a major championship in which he had never before made the cut. He shot 73, but it was good for a 2-shot win over Barnes, Mickelson and Duval and moved him to 18th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Given Glover's penchant for being unable to close the deal the past several years, he didn't look to be a safe choice Monday, especially after Mickelson had the crowd in full roar when he rolled in an eagle putt at the 13th to tie for the lead.

But Glover hit a perfect 8-iron from 173 yards to 6 feet at the 16th to set up a birdie that gave him a 2-shot cushion. He made a good two-putt at the par-3 17th, backing off the par putt when the wind suddenly came up. Then he played it safe at the 18th, hitting a 6-iron into the fairway. "I started thinking of some other majors where guys hit driver on the last hole and shouldn't have," said caddie Don Cooper, who could have been referring to Mickelson and his apparent gaffe three years ago at Winged Foot that led to a double-bogey and a crushing defeat.

Cooper has been on Glover's bag for six years and figured this day would have come sooner.

"He's so good," Cooper said. "He's got a good head, and he's a good kid. And he deserves it."

But Glover ran into some issues after winning his first tournament at Disney in 2005. Making the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup team became an obsession, and he was within the top 10 in points nearly all year but dropped to 14th, then wasn't selected by captain Tom Lehman.

Glover knew he didn't deserve to be picked, but he was spent from the chase and beat himself up over it. It didn't help that his longtime instructor, Dick Harmon, had passed away suddenly earlier that year of a heart attack.

Harmon, brother to other well-known instructors Butch, Craig and Billy and son of former Masters champion Claude Harmon, left a void that is still felt today. Twice on Monday, Glover had to compose himself when answering questions about his former teacher.

"I think about him every day," Glover said. "He always told me I was good enough."

For a time after Harmon's death, that did not appear to be the case. Glover had just three top-10s in 2007, and last year he dropped to 108th on the money list. Frustrated and burned-out, Glover decided to shut it down after a September tournament.

"I was too hard on myself," Glover said. "And I just had a bad attitude when it wasn't going right. The patience issues and the bad attitude was because of expectations through the roof and not getting results, but practicing just as hard and not getting any better. That was the frustrating thing." "He was so frustrated," said Glover's wife, Jennifer, who slogged her way through the Bethpage mud Monday to witness the victory firsthand. "When he decided to take all that time off, I knew it would be good for him. And it was."

Glover, whose best previous finish at a major was a tie for 20th at the 2007 Masters, had a different outlook this year. He tied for third at the Buick Invitational, tied for second at the Quail Hollow Championship, and made it through sectional qualifying to get into the Open field -- becoming the first qualifier since Michael Campbell in 2005 to win the championship.

Still, before this week, he had never made a cut at the U.S. Open. He had shot just one round in the 60s in 32 previous major championship rounds. (He accomplished the feat twice this week.) Then there was that stretch in the third round when he went bogey, double-bogey, bogey -- before shooting 32 on the back nine to position himself just 1 stroke out of the lead.

"Two years ago, if that would have happened ... no chance. I would not be sitting here," Glover said of the three-hole stretch when he went 4 over par. "No chance. But I've worked on it. My attitude's better. When something happens, I let it go. I doubled the first hole this week. Didn't slam a club. Didn't do anything."

With Glover's ball safely in the fairway at the 72nd hole, there was still some work to do. A Barnes birdie coupled with a Glover bogey would lead to an 18-hole playoff.

"I think I'm more nervous than he is," said Jennifer Glover, who walked with Glover's parents and couldn't rest easy until Barnes' birdie putt barely missed.

As Glover walked off the 18th green and into an embrace from family members, the crowd reaction was not nearly as boisterous as it would have been had Mickelson or Duval won the title.

But the cousins didn't know any better, nor did they care. The man they drove 10 hours to watch had made history, and they were delirious, screaming at the top of their lungs as cousin Lucas strolled past.

"Best day of my life," Johnson said. "Unbelievable."

Lucas Glover could not have said it any better.

Written by Bob Harig. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.