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Connell Barrett, editor at large for GOLF Magazine, will be blogging the afternoon action at Turnberry for the third round of the British Open Championship. Michael Walker Jr. was our early morning blogger. Join the discussion early by leaving a comment below.
Continue reading "Live British Open Championship coverage: Round 3" »
We can all agree that the first 36 holes at Turnberry were surprising, but there is a debate brewing among (between?) sports fans and golf fans -- What's the biggest story of the day? Some would argue it's Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all time, missing the cut at a major championship for only the second time in his career. Others would say it's Tom Watson, arguably the greatest links golfer of all time, leading at age 59 on an artificial hip. Want to join the debate? Leave a comment below.
Tiger's worst shot of the day wasn't one of the 74 strokes he took on the course at Turnberry. It was his refusal to do a one-on-one interview with TNT after his round.
Tiger's refusal is indicative of a pouty aspect of his persona that often crops up after his rounds, especially bad ones. Tiger knows he's a rock star who draws nearly as much attention as the president. He knows the world wants to see and hear him describe his rounds in a personal interview.
Yes, Tiger gave a group interview on Friday, but he often refuses one-on-one chats, and it bugs me.
He is on track to becoming the first billionaire athlete with the money earned out of his fans' pockets, and the graceful thing to do would be to give the network, and in turn his fans, a couple of minutes -- no matter what he shoots.
More random musings from Turnberry ...
• Hooray, the weather finally got nasty. This is what a British Open is supposed to feel like. On Thursday guys were sweating in short sleeves, and that's just not kosher. Aside from the aesthetic reasons, Turnberry simply needed more bite, and the testy conditions have already begun to separate the men (Goosen, Cabrera, Kaymer, Calc) from the boys (Curtis, Senden, Mahan, Gay). I hope the weekend brings more wind and rain and punishment. At least outside the press room.
• Steve Marino is not going to win the first British Open he ever shows up for but he's a very legit player. A couple of veterans have told me they think Marino is the best player on Tour who has not yet won a tournament. He has a lot of firepower off the tee and very soft hands and more imagination than most, which has been evident during his two stellar opening rounds. The best shot I've seen so far at this Open was his 5-iron at 17, from 227 yards out. Marino hit a big, high, slinging cut that rode a stiff left-to-right breeze, falling out of the sky 20 feet from the hole for the eagle that keyed his 68. Pretty macho.
• Turnberry is sometimes called the Pebble Beach of Scotland because of the beautiful holes that hug the craggy coast but the similarities don't end there. Both courses are in a remote spot accessible only by a two-lane road. The drive into Turnberry is such a lovely way to start the day. It winds through green hills dotted with sheep and meadows exploding in wildflowers. The majestic ruins of two old castles are an evocative reminder of all of Scotland's ancient history. Just when you're getting antsy to arrive at the Open the road reaches the crest of a steep slope and then plunges downhill, revealing the course and coastline below. It's breath-taking, and sure beats the Long Island Expressway.
• I'm officially off the Geoff Ogilvy bandwagon. Dude made exactly zero birdies Friday en route to a sporty 78. For the week he had more double bogeys (5) than birds (3). Good thing he stole that U.S. Open a few years ago because he's looking increasingly star-crossed in the majors. The only positive for Ogilvy is that he finished one stroke ahead of Ian Poulter, a popular pick to win coming in. (That means you, D. Hack.) After his strong runner-up finish at last year's Open I think Poulter got Andymurrayized, which is too say, overwhelmed by the crushing expectations of being Great Britain's best hope on the home soil.
• One of the pleasures of being at the Open is getting to read the prose of the Euro golf writers. Ian Chadband in the The Telgraph had this to say about Woods's uneven first round: "He drove like a sizzled learner…He has that John McEnroe knack losing his rag -- the cry of 'Godamit!' after a shocking drive at the third had been replaced by something rather shorter and more Anglo-Saxon by the 13th." Can't wait to read what Chadband's brethren have to say on Saturday morning. As jingoistic as the press is over here, the loudest spontaneous eruption of the day was when T. Watson made his ocean-goer on the 16th hole. Just goes to show that more than country, all reporters love a good story.
• After watching a couple hundred fans fail to find Tiger's ball in the weeds on the 10th hole I suddenly don't feel so bad at failing to locate a couple balls in the Royal Troon rough during a glorious twilight round last night. Every fairway over here should be framed in red stakes because once a ball buries in the long grass it's a lottery as to whether it ever gets found.
• Fearless weekend prediction: Retief Goosen plays the best golf but, as has become a habit, lets it get away late on Sunday, handing the Claret Jug to... drumroll ... Stewey Cink. Tweet, tweet.
Connell Barrett, editor at large for GOLF Magazine, blogged all the exciting action at Turnberry for the second round of the British Open Championship. Read the recap below.
Continue reading "Live British Open Championship coverage: Round 2" »
After carding an opening-round 64, Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez was pleased with his day's work. And looking forward to a good night!
On the course where he defeated Jack Nicklaus in the famous Duel in the Sun, Tom Watson shot a remarkable 65 Thursday at Turnberry. Here what he had to say after his opening round at the 2009 British Open.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- If you’re watching on TV, you may be wondering why the grandstands at the Open Championship are only half-filled. That’s because attendance is down sharply from last year -- 23,500 for today’s opening round versus 36,500 for the rain-lashed first round at Royal Birkdale. “But remember,” an R&A clerk just told me, “we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
That’s one way of saying that Turnberry, with the most magnificent scenery of all the Open links courses, is underserved by hotels, restaurants, and roads. But there’s a second explanation for the empty seats. Today’s mild temperatures and mostly sunny skies have lured many fans to the tented village, where they can follow the golf on a giant screen while sipping lagers and licking ice creams.
One suntanned Brit, hustling off to see what’s happening at the 17th green, shouted back to his mates: “Mind my place!” His pals didn’t seem to hear him. They were watching Ernie Els finish his round on the big telly when a young lady snuck up from behind and dragged the empty lawn chair into the shade of a nearby umbrella.
(Photos: John Garrity/SI)
Random musings from an intriguing first round of the Open Championship...
• Tiger Woods's nasty push into the burn on 16 is one of the worst shots I've seen him hit in a major. Ever. He followed with a great up-and-down to save bogey, and I'm not saying he can't still win, but that skanky short-iron at 16 was a pretty ominous sign. Tiger's untidy 71 is of a piece with his play in the majors so far this year. There has been an uncharacteristic inability to convert opportunities, and we've seen more loose shots than what we're used to. It has always been assumed that Tiger is immune to the human emotions felt by mere mortals but perhaps he is pressing just a bit, eager to win his first major since knee surgery and prove to the world, and himself, that he is whole again. Whatever it is, he needs to play a clean round on Friday or this Open is going to slip away in a hurry.
• I'm surprised no one shot sixtynothing, especially given the perfect conditions and Turnberry's history of yielding very low scores. At a major you don't often hear guys grumbling about missed opportunities after a 68 or 69 but that was the sound track to the first round.
• What to make of all the golden oldies populating the leader board? Watson, Calc and O'Meara all produced some vintage highlights, proving again that there is golf and there is links golf, and they are not nearly the same thing. The reason there have been so many repeat winners at the British is because the quirky, sometimes maddening linksland is an acquired taste. Many good players never quite get comfortable with the turf and the weather and the crazy shots and blind shots (to say nothing of the bad food, weak water pressure in the showers and the mold smell that defines most hotels here). The trio of old-timers on the leader board have the know-how and patience to finesse their way around the auld sod. Turnberry is also a good venue for the infirm because it's a position course off the tee, unlike, say, the Old Course, where the longest of the long can blow their drives over all the trouble. This week likes of Angel Cabrera and T. Woods and other ball-bashers are laying up short of all the pot bunkers, meaning that on many holes they're playing from roughly the same spot as a short hitter like O'Meara. Can he or Calc or Watson hang on till Sunday afternoon? I doubt it, but it's sure fun to have them around for a while.
• Round of the day might have been Ryo Ishikawa's 68, accomplished playing in front of his hero Tiger Woods and his nemeses--the hundred or so Japanese reporters that obsessively chronicle his every twitch. For his first spin around a true links course, to say nothing of the holy Open, the kid displayed admirable imagination and tremendous poise. Take that, Rory!
• David Howell made a lot of noise with a front-nine 31, and I'll be quietly rooting for him over the next three days. The droll Englishman is one of my favorite people in golf, possessing both good humor and an admirable perspective, both of which were born in Swindon, the old railroad town where he grew up. While trying to get his playing career off the ground Howell spent his winters working menial jobs, beginning with two years of installing rain gutters for the princely wage of 10 pounds a day. "I wasn't much use because I didn't like heights," he once told me. "I'd get to top of the ladder and hold on for dear life." By sheer pluck he played his way onto the Euro tour, and Howell loves to tell the story of his first tournament. "I was as unprofessional as you could possibly imagine," he says. "Baggy shirt, clubs all knackered, wooden driver with a frayed grip…" Standing on the first tee for the first round he overheard the following conversation between grizzled veteran Roger Vessels and his leathery caddie John McLaren.
"What chance has he got?" McLaren asked, eyeing Howell.
"You never know, but it doesn't look good," said Vessels.
• Best development of the first round was Boo Weekley's surprise appearance on the leader board with a sweet 67. He's been a non-factor since the Ryder Cup but I've always felt the British is Boo's best chance to win a major, because of his head-high ball flight and the fact that the slower, flatter greens deemphasize the importance of putting. The Scottish fans and Euro reporters love Weekley's good ol' boy schtick, and if he happens to take this tournament he'll be one of the most popular winners ever. But I'm going to remain loyal to my pre-tournament pick, Steve Stricker. At least for another day.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Mark Calcavecchia, 49, won the British Open 20 years ago. After a first-round 67, and an early-morning, four-hour round, he's in position to win another. Except for one thing: he doesn't think he can. Well, I'm not so sure. Yes, his putting is iffy, and he's not as strong out of the rough as he used to be, but he hits it unbelievably well. Fade shot after fade shot after fade shot, the man's in play. Maybe he can't win, but he can contend, funky putting and all.
In his postround remarks, he spoke of his beer-and-Advil formula for keeping his bad back in check. It aches all the time, and goes into spasms now and again. He spoke of a dream he had Wednesday night in which he was playing golf again with his old buddy Kenny Green, the Champions tour player who recently had his leg amputated. He talked about hitting hybrids for the first time in his life. He talked about preparing for the senior circuit.
He talked about everything except his chances to contend. I think he can. But to do so, he's going to have to back up his 67 with another strong showing in round two, something under 70.
TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Tom Watson’s first-round 65 was the big morning story, leaving those who shot 66 feeling like wallflowers at the Elks Club summer dance. Camilo Villegas, playing in his second Open Championship, had to settle for a greenside interview. “I’ve learned you’ve got to be patient,” the muscular Colombian said, reading from the Official Major Championship Script. “You’ve got to realize you don’t have to play pretty golf, you just have to hang in there.”
The only way to play pretty golf this week, he didn’t have to add, is by staying out of Turnberry’s thick rough.
Another morning 66 belonged to American Steve Stricker, who was still enjoying the afterglow of his Sunday-past victory at the John Deere Classic. “I feel good about my game,” Stricker said after his 6-birdie performance. “The only uncertainty was the emotional hangover from victory last week. And the jet lag. I kissed my wife and kids goodbye, and I was on the plane and I was here. It was almost like last week didn’t happen.”
Next to pull off Route 66 was five-time PGA Tour winner Stewart Cink, who said that the soft conditions partly -- but only partly -- explained why a 59-year-old was leading the tournament. “The weather is allowing some of the guys who may not be as long anymore to attack the holes. And the golf course is set up where there’s a lot of guys that have a lot of power that are laying back on some holes because of the bunkers on both sides.” Cink added that Watson is “one of the best ballstrikers of all time. He knows the way around here, and I’m not surprised to see him up there.”
The only 66-shooter to get the full press-room treatment -- because he finished before Watson -- was Australia’s John Senden. Naturally, he was asked to weigh in on the Ashes, the historically portentous cricket series between England and Australia, which currently stands even after an overmatched English side salvaged a draw in the first test. “We always hope that the Aussies kick a little butt over here,” Senden admitted. “With the second test starting in Lord’s today, I think I’ll get to watch a little bit on TV.”
Finally, we had a morning 66 from 35-year-old Matthew Goggin, who hails from Tasmania and resides in Scottsdale, Ariz. Goggin finished with birdies at 17 and 18, leaving him somewhat giddy. “You couldn’t get a much better day to play golf than this,” he gushed. “You don’t expect to be standing on the water there, and it looks more like a lake than it does the sea. It’s so calm. Stunning.”
Goggin summed up: “That was the highlight of the week so far. It was such a pretty day.”
He obviously hadn’t heard about Watson’s round.
Marck Calcavecchia took advantage of ideal scoring conditions Thursday morning to shot an opening-round 67.
In the first round of the British Open, I'll be eager to see what kind of score Tom Watson can post. He's playing the first two rounds with Sergio Garcia and an amateur, Matteo Manassero. I've seen Watson interact with a lot of amateur golfers over the years. He asks them questions, and he leads by example. Sergio will learn a thing or two, playing with Watson.
Unless he plays unusually well, Watson's getting near the end of the line. I don't see him making another cut in a Masters, unless the course is really hard and dry. He's become short off the tee and the course has become crazy-long. This week, at Turnberry, he returns to the scene of the crime, where he nipped Nicklaus by a shot for the '77 Open, and where he won a Senior British Open in 2003 in a playoff. Next year, the Open goes to St. Andrews, and then Watson will be 60 and at the end of the line. No more exemptions, unless he plays his way in. Five Open titles. Golf's greatest championship defined his career.
At the Masters, on the practice tee, Watson made the same up-and-down rhythmic swing he's made forever, but he shot a thousand. A links course is a different matter. I know this will sound crazy, and maybe I've been listening too much to my friend Neil Oxman, Watson's caddie, but I think Watson can shoot good scores at Turnberry. Like, within 10 shots of the lead when it's all over.
He belongs to a fading era, when golf was more manly and independent. When he lost, he took it on the chin, almost proud about it. There's something about him: he's hard to talk to, you never feel like you're getting anything like the full story when you listen to his interviews, but I still find him as compelling as anybody in the game. Like a lot of us, I grew up on him. He was never lovable. But if you loved golf, you respected the man. Sound like somebody else in game today? I can think of one guy.
More on Watson
Watson discusses Duel in the Sun: Interview | Video
SI's John Garrity recalls the Duel in the Sun
Dan Jenkins: A Braw Brawl for Tom and Jack (July 18, 1977)
Michael Walker Jr., senior editor for GOLF Magazine, will be blogging the action at Turnberry for the first round of the British Open Championship. Alan Bastable blogged the early rounds. Join the discussion by leaving a comment below.
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Continue reading "Live 2009 British Open coverage: Round 1" »
If you want to know when the economy is going to make a turnaround, forget about the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Fortune 500. The most accurate barometer of the worldwide business outlook is Greg Norman's playing schedule, and unfortunately the news is pretty bleak.
Take a look back at the past 12 months since Norman's improbable run at Birkdale in last year's British Open, where he nearly became the oldest major winner ever at age 53. Sure, the economy was not great at the time, but it hadn't gone into free fall yet. Norman treated his appearance at Birkdale as a lark. It was his honeymoon, he laughed, as his recent bride Chris Evert followed his every shot, and he was just using it as practice session for the Senior British Open the following week.
We all knew that Norman was into business now, not golf. Of all the ex-jocks who moved into the corporate suite, Norman was the most successful. He owned golf-club manufacturers, wineries, restaurant chains, housing developments, courses and even developed new strains of grass. Norman found a whole new arena for his competitiveness in business and he wasn't going to be a has-been grasping for lesser glory on the senior tour.
That was last year. Now, Norman appears to be playing everywhere. He was at the Masters, he'll be at the Open this week, he's playing a Champions Tour event in Oregon next month, and he recently committed to playing in the next three Australian Opens. Did he rediscover his love for the game? Doubtful. More likely, in the current business climate, he can't make any deals, so he's decided to pursue the one thing he still can do to make money: play golf.
Norman revealed as much in an interview this week with The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson, saying that laying off workers was much more painful than losing a golf tournament. Norman doesn't see much hope on the horizon either.
"[The American economy is] dead and it's a long time before it's coming back," Norman told the Daily Mail. "Run what's considered a small to medium business like mine, in the $200 million to $500 million turnover range and there's no incentives to grow. It's going to take a long time for business to recover and the rest of the world is going to recover quicker than America."
Let's hope he's wrong, but we'll know things have turned around when Norman is off the golf course and back in the boardroom. That's the sign to call your broker, and say, "Buy!"
Donald Trump knows a thing or two about running a business, and he’s none too impressed by how former LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens ran hers.
“Other people want to be politically correct and say what a wonderful job she did,” Trump said in an exclusive interview Tuesday evening. “She did a horrible job. It’s a really sad thing what her regime did for this great group of unbelievably talented ladies.”
Trump is more than a distant observer. From 2001 to 2008, the LPGA conducted its season-ending ADT Championship at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Fla. The tournament died this year when ADT and the LPGA couldn’t come to terms on a sponsorship deal. Trump blames the tour’s greed.
According to Trump, ADT paid $3.8 million for sponsorship rights in 2008 and Bivens wanted the company to spend $12 million in 2009. “The commissioner said, ‘Take it or leave it,’ ” Trump says, and ADT President John Koch “couldn’t believe it.”
“He’s too polite to say 'go screw yourself,'” Trump said. “So what he did is he bought time with the NBA and he took the Skills Challenge and did some other things. And then the LPGA came back to him and said, ‘Listen, we’ll take the number that you gave us [originally] and even less.’ But by that time John had spent his advertising money.
“That’s horrible business,” Trump said.
Trump also didn’t care for the way the LPGA handled his request to give a business associate of his a place in the ADT pro-am. The tour obliged Trump, he says, and then hit him up for the $5,000 entry fee.
“Five thousand dollars!” Trump recalled thinking. “For what? We pay millions of dollars and you’re not going to give us one slot?”
“They nickel-and-dimed us,” he said. “That’s the kind of thinking that was there. You really became incensed with dealing with these people.”
Trumps’ beefs with Bivens don’t end there. He said the LPGA recently approached him about holding the LPGA Championship at his course in Bedminster, N.J. “They totally loved the course, and then we never heard from them again,” he said. (Trump told the New Jersey Star-Ledger last month that he declined the tour’s request because they wanted him to commit the course for more that one year.)
Some pundits have suggested that Bivens’s aggressive style didn’t go down well because she was a woman, and that if she were a man, she would have been lauded as a tough, no-nonsense manager. Trump doesn’t buy it.
“This has nothing to do with her being male or female,” he said. “This has to do with bad business decisions and bad business people and people who were absolutely not equipped to handle that job.”
Trump also refutes the notion that her demise was triggered by the recession.
“A tremendous step backward was taken [by the LPGA] over the past couple of years, and it’s not because of the economy,” Trump said. “What happened was that in bad times, she pushed too hard.”
TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND -- Courtroom lawyers have a rule: Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to. Newspaper reporters have a different rule: Keep asking your question until you get the answer you want.
The latter rule applied today at Tom Watson’s pre-tournament press conference, where a British reporter needed just one strong quote to complete a story that was half-formed in his mind. “It’s been 32 years since your duel with Jack,” the reporter said from his chair, referring to the fabled “Duel in the Sun” between Watson and Nicklaus in the final round of the ’77 Open. “There’s not an Open goes by where it’s not mentioned, and there’s probably not a day that goes by that’s it’s not mentioned somewhere in the world. Do you think it was the greatest afternoon in golf and maybe one of the greatest --”
A smiling Watson cut him off. “No, it’s not for me to [say]. I was fortunate to be able to play some of my best golf against the best player in the world and ended up winning a few times.”
“But when anybody looks back on golf” -- the journalist wasn’t letting go of his premise -- “that afternoon is held up probably in the top three moments in sport. Do you recognize you were part of an amazing afternoon in the history of sport?”
The five-time British Open champ kept smiling, but he wasn’t willing to go the hyperbolic extra mile. “Well, it was pretty good. It was pretty good theater, let’s put it that way.” And just so no one would think he didn’t treasure his Turnberry triumph, Watson conceded that it was one of the top three moments of his career. The other two? “The chip-in at Pebble Beach” -- where Watson topped Nicklaus again for his only U.S. Open title -- “and winning the Kansas City Men’s Match Play when I was 14.”
That last one pretty much blew up the reporter’s quest for the “I-knew-I-was-making-history” quote. (Imagined headline: WATSON COMPARES DUEL IN THE SUN TO SCHOOLBOY TRIUMPH!) But Watson wasn’t trying to be a wise guy. He was making the point that a sportsman’s greatest thrill often comes early in life, when he is only beginning to appreciate his potential. In Watson’s memory, a hot afternoon at the hilly, tree-lined Blue Hills Country Club is right up there with his two Masters titles.
“That was the tournament,” Watson said, “that gave me the boost to say, ‘I can play this game.’”
For the record, the 14-year-old Watson beat Bob Devine, 4&3, in the final. It was (for the winner, anyway) the greatest afternoon in the history of sport.
(Photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)
For bettors who like value, this year's British Open is like Christmas morning, according to Las Vegas sportsbook insider Chuck Esposito.
Tiger Woods, currently at 2 to 1 at Las Vegas casino sportsbooks, is the favorite by a wide, wide margin. If you think Woods will win, Esposito says you should grab him now. "Those odds will drop pretty quickly," Esposito said. "My guess is Tiger will be at 8 to 5, 6 to 5, or even before the British Open starts."
The odds are so skewed toward Woods--especially with his only near rival, Phil Mickelson, not competing at Turnberry this year--that the next player on the board, Sergio Garcia, is a 12-to-1 bet to win. Other contenders drop even further: Defending champion Padraig Harrington is 20 to 1, Henrik Stenson is 20 to 1, Paul Casey is 20 to 1, Rory McIlroy is 25 to 1, Geoff Ogilvy is 25 to 1, Ian Poulter is 25 to 1, Ernie Els is 35 to 1.
"There's real value there in players in that 20 to 40 group," Esposito said. "In fact, with those short odds, the house ends up rooting for Tiger because if one of those long shots come in the casino can really get burned."
The house also ends up rooting for Woods because he creates excitement around the casino when he's near the top at a major, Esposito said.
"We do really well at all the majors, and we'll have the British Open on all the big screens," Esposito said. "But if Tiger's in the lead, we get tremendous crowds."
The only real competitor to Tiger Woods on the board in Las Vegas is "The Field," currently at 8 to 5 odds. Keep in mind that "the Field," in the form of Lucas Glover, won the U.S. Open and paid off at 10 to 1.
AYR, Scotland - The British Open is the rare tournament that requires a red-eye flight, a passport, and endless patience. The Open Championship, as it is known on these shores, is easily my favorite tournament of the year, but it is not always easy getting settled into a new environment. There are driving rules to re-learn and money to exchange and a long flight across the pond.
My journey began on Sunday evening, when I arrived at Newark Airport and met up with two golf scribes (Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post and Hank Gola of the New York Daily News) and one PGA Tour caddie (Ron Levin, Fredrik Jacobson's looper) for an early dinner. We talked golf, watched the Angels hammer the Yankees for the umpteenth time, and raced over to our gate.
Joe LaCava, Fred Couples's long-time caddie, was already on board. He was with me in coach, preparing to loop for Davis Love III.
"Who won the Deere?" I asked him. "I missed the finish."
"Stricker, I think," LaCava said (he was right).
"Cool, good guy," I said.
I settled into my window seat on Continental (I counted more than 20 golf bags being loaded onto the plane) and quickly browsed the movie selections. Ferris Bueller's Day Off? For old time's sake. The Wedding Singer? Who doesn't love Sandler and Barrymore? Big? Can't go wrong with Tom Hanks.
On the six-hour-plus flight, I ended up watching all three movies and, later, got lured into a computer game of blackjack. At customs, I bumped into ESPN's Mike Tirico, who was sporting a Detroit Tigers cap, and met up with Gola, who was driving our group to our flat about 30 minutes from Turnberry.
I was working on an hour sleep. When I finally arrived at our house, I was pleasantly surprised to find wireless internet and a comfortable bed. I logged onto my computer and spied a stack of new email messages. One said that Tiger had already made an appearance at Turnberry. Another said Padraig Harrington would be in the interview room Tuesday morning. Open Championship week had begun.
Milwaukee, Wis.—At least a dozen PGA Tour players won’t be on site Tuesday at the U.S. Bank Championship here at Brown Deer. They’ll be boarding a plane to attend a memorial service in Peru, Ind., for the wife of tour player Chris Smith, who was killed last month in a car accident.
A dozen players have signed up for the flight so far, plus two spouses, and more are expected. Among those attending will be Brett Quigley, who qualified for this week’s British Open at Turnberry by virtue of his second-place finish Sunday at the John Deere Classic. Because of the memorial service, Quigley opted to take a pass on going to Scotland and play instead at Brown Deer. Quigley told the Associated Press, “My heart’s not into playing the British.”
Beth Smith was a passenger in a car with her two children, Abigale and Cameron, when it collided head-on with a bus carrying the London Silverbacks, a Canadian semi-pro football team, near Fort Wayne, Ind. Police said Abigale was at the wheel of the Smiths’ sport-utility vehicle when it crossed the I-69 median and collided with the bus. The memorial service had been delayed while the Smith children recover from injuries.
The plane for the day-trip flight belongs to Sentient, the official private jet provider of the PGA Tour, and the cost of the flight is being underwritten by U.S. Bank Championship officials, although each passenger is being asked to pay $500 to defray expenses.
The flight will leave early Tuesday morning from Milwaukee and arrive in Peru for the service, followed by a reception at a golf course owned by the Smith family. The flight will return to Milwaukee later that evening.
During last week's John Deere Classic, a flight carried a number of tour players to a visitation service for the father of tour player Jonathan Byrd, who lost a long battle with brain cancer.
For a student of history, the United Kingdom is wonderful place to visit. You can learn about the illustrious kings and queens of the past, the poets and playwrights who created the world's richest body of literature and the origin of epochal movements like the Industrial Revolution. You can also see what television looked like 20 years ago.
Thanks to the backwards BBC, you won't be able to watch the British Open in HDTV this week. Not even on American broadcast partners TNT and ABC. The reason is that TNT and ABC have to use the international feed provided by the BBC, and that feed will be in standard definition, the 2009 equivalent of a black-and-white broadcast. (TNT and ABC will "up convert" the standard definition feed for HD broadcast, but that will just allow people to see the broadcast in full-screen format -- in other words, no black bars.) In case you think we're being too hard on the BBC, here's a list of events broadcast in HD: the Tour de France, Wimbledon, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the PGA Tour, the game show Jeopardy!, etc. ABC and TNT don't sound too happy about it either.
"The American broadcaster is required to take the world feed," says Mark Mandel, an ABC/ESPN spokesman. "As much as possible, we want all our events to be in HD. It's great for the sports fans and it's great for the event."
HDTV is an especially good fit for the British Open because the TV-friendly tournament is invariably played at a dramatic, photogenic course (except when it's at Carnousite) and the early morning start on the East Coast -- and witching-hour start in the West -- means you can watch all the golf you want and still have the rest of your Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Also, of all the majors, the British Open is the one American fans are least likely to get to see in person, so the high-definition feed is as close as most of us will ever get to those magical Open rota courses.
The BBC's deal with the Royal & Ancient doesn't expire until 2011 and the BBC has a long history with the event. Still, R&A boss Peter Dawson has to be frustrated with the BBC's inability to present the game's oldest and arguably most important tournament in a state-of-the-art format. Next contract, the R&A needs to make sure it gets the best broadcast possible, which means dropping the BBC.
UPDATE: Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson answered questions about the British Open in HD on Wednesday. Here's what he had to say:
On the high definition point, we have had a lot of discussion with BBC
about their introduction schedule for high definition. We have an
absolute guarantee that it will be introduced next year. There's a huge
investment being made by the BBC on the trucks and the mixing units
required for high definition which are being delivered later this year.
And so it will be fully high definition in 2010.
Would we have preferred it this year? Yes. But we have to understand that these things cost a lot of money and can take time. So we're looking forward to it next year, and I'm quite sure this year's coverage is going to be very adequate.
