RED DEER ADVOCATE Monday, July 16, 2012 B5
Nothing like 18 at British Open PLAYERS ALL AGREE THAT THE ATMOSPHERE WILL BE ELECTRIC AT UPCOMING OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP BY DOUG FERGUSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — The cheer was so loud, the moment so big, that Padraig Harrington forgot what he was doing. It was his major championship debut in 1996 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and he finished off his second round of 68 by holing a bunker shot next to the 18th green. “I got so excited, I took the putter out of the bag,” Harrington recalled. “I’ve never been as excited on the golf course. The hairs on the back of my head stood up. It was just an unbelievable cheer that went up when I holed it.” The lasting memory of that moment, however, was more about the stage than the shot. “It’s like no other major,” Harrington said. No matter the links course, there is nothing like the atmosphere on 18th hole at the British Open anywhere in golf. The grandstands are enormous, about 10 feet above the ground and stretching 20 rows to the top, just below the iconic yellow scoreboard. They are on both sides of the fairway, starting about 50 yards before players reach the green. “It’s the best finish in golf,” Robert Allenby said. “Nothing would be more incredible than coming down here on Sunday winning the tournament, that’s for sure.” Dustin Johnson can appreciate what that’s like — as a bystander. He played in the final group last year at Royal St. George’s as the thousands of people in the stands celebrated Darren Clarke winning the claret jug. “Pretty cool,” Johnson said. “It’s almost like you’re in a stadium.” The stadium was relatively empty Sunday on a surprisingly sunny afternoon at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Six people sat on the right side watching Clarke finish his practice round. Four others were on the left side when Robert Rock came through. It won’t be like that a week from Sunday. There are 6,705 seats, and all of them will be occupied. One of them was taken on this quiet day. Alan Clarkin of nearly Ormskirk
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A member of the grounds staff prepares a bunker at the Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club before the forthcoming Open Golf Tournament, Lytham St Annes, England, Wednesday. The 141st British Open Championship will be held at the course in the northwest of England between July 19 and 22. was on the top row, three seats from the end, eating his lunch before wandering back onto the course. He plans to be in the same spot a week from now. Clarkin goes to all the Opens in the Lancashire region — Lytham & St. Annes, Birkdale, Hoylake — and he sticks to the same plan. He walks the course during the practice days and the opening three rounds. He will be at the course 10 minutes before the gates open at 7 a.m., and head straight to the top row of the grandstands. The top row is critical. Behind him is the par-3 first hole, so he can watch every player start the final round. More importantly, he’ll see every player finish. Clarkin was there in 2001 when Ian Woosnam discovered he had 15 clubs in his bag — a two-stroke penalty — and when David Duval removed his wraparound shades and squinted into the sun to hold the claret jug in his lone major triumph. “It raises the hair on the back of
your neck,” Clarkin said. “You see the players come through, and the cheer is almost like a crescendo.” That’s how it was for Harrington. He always told Ronan Flood, his brother-in-law who eventually became his caddie, that there was no greater feeling than walking up the 18th at the Open, with the gallery crammed behind ropes and metal railing, the grandstands full of people sitting elbow-to-elbow in the green chairs aligned so perfectly. “I kept telling Ronan for years, ’You’ve got to be coming down the last on a Sunday afternoon. There’s no experience like walking down the last and getting cheered onto the green,”’ Harrington said. “The first time Ronan ever got to caddie on the 18th hole was Carnoustie. It took us three years to get there.” Harrington won his first Open at Carnoustie in 2007, despite a double bogey on the 18th hole. Sergio Garcia made bogey on the last to set up a play-
off, and Harrington wound up beating him by one shot. So he made the trip down the 18th fairway five times that week — four in regulation, one in a playoff. “But I actually lied,” Harrington added. “There’s a better experience. It’s going down the 72nd hole when you’re actually winning The Open,” he said. “Then the crowds really come alive — if they have not been alive already. It’s a very special feeling.” Sunday before a major is getting busier, with a couple of dozen players getting in a practice round. One of them was Tiger Woods, who arrived at a nearby airport at 7 a.m., drove straight to the golf course and walked right onto the first tee. He stretched briefly, and without a practice swing, uttered his first words of his British Open week: “Get in.” He nearly holed the tee shot. Woods meticulously worked his way through all 18 holes, taking notes, hitting a 2-iron off a par 5 into the wind to avoid some of the 206 bunkers. One reason for being so meticulous on a Sunday was the weather might not be this pleasant the rest of the week. The forecast was for rain just about every day, starting on Monday on the first official day of practice. The grandstands are made by a company called Wernick Events Link. The grandstands will hold some 20,000 people across Royal Lytham & St. Annes, but it’s the three sets around the 18th — two on either side, one to the back left corner so as not to block the clubhouse, that are so majestic. Workers began installing them in April. The last three winners have been able to soak up the moment on the 18th. Stewart Cink in the playoff at Turnberry, Louis Oosthuizen at St. Andrews and Clarke last year all had safe leads. The engraver already was at work on the claret jug. Justin Leonard won at Royal Troon in 1997, though he was in the penultimate group and was busy grinding to make par. Still, he can’t think of a better stage than the closing hole of golf’s oldest championship. “There’s a lot of things you can understand just from watching on TV,” he said.
Chapman win U.S. Senior Open, joins trio of stars LAKE ORION, Mich. — Roger Chapman earned the right to be mentioned in the same sentence with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Hale Irwin. Not bad for a self-described former European Tour journeyman. The Englishman shot a 4-under 66 on Sunday to win the U.S. Senior Open by two strokes at 10 under at Indianwood. He won the Senior PGA Championship by the same margin two months ago on the other side of Michigan. Chapman, Nicklaus, Player and Irwin are the only players to win the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year. “It’s a true honour,” Chapman said. Before this year, his career highlight was a European Tour win in Brazil in 2000. Rod Spittle of St. Catharines, Ont., finished tied for 28th with 2-over 282 while Victoria’s Jim Rutledge was tied for 33th with a 3-over 283. Bernhard Langer (72), Fred Funk (67), Tom Lehman (68) and Corey Pavin (68) finished tied for second at 8-under 272 at the Champions Tour’s fourth of five majors. Pavin’s two-stroke penalty after his first round for hitting a ball that moved a fraction of an inch proved to be costly. Entering the final round, it seemed as if the only lingering question was how easily Langer would win. Langer, though, found out what the first- and second-round leaders — Tom Kite and Lance Ten Broeck — did the previous two days: It’s not easy to stay consistent at Indianwood. Langer took a four-shot lead into the final round and closed with a shaky performance that spoiled
his shot at winning his second U.S. Senior Open. The German said Saturday if he closed with a 2or 3-under round, it would be difficult for anyone to catch him. When Langer gave up two shots at No. 2, he gave the field a chance to pass him. Langer pushed his second tee shot to the right under a line of trees on the 396-yard, par-4 second hole. After walking more than 100 yards to examine the path of his approach shot, he hit a low shot that landed against the lip of a greenside bunker. Langer tried to play what he called a “special shot,” and ended up sailing it over the green to set up a double bogey. “I knew there was a lot of golf left and I was still in the lead,” he said. “If I shoot under par from that point on, I’ll still be in good shape, but I couldn’t make a putt.” The wind picked up considerably Sunday — with gusts up to 20 mph — and made it even tougher to keep tee shots on the unforgiving and tight fairways and to accurately approach hard, undulating greens. Chapman answered the challenge for much of the day with two birdies on the front nine and four through 14 holes. He chunked a shot out of the bunker at 16, leading to a bogey that he made up for on the next hole. The 53-year-old Chapman stepped to the potentially pivotal 195-yard, par-3 17th and calmly hit a 5-iron shot that was close enough for a tap-in birdie that restored a two-shot lead. “I have to say that was my best shot ever played,” he said. Chapman chose to use his driver at the 462-yard, par-4 18th and got a break when his tee shot was stopped by fans standing along the left ropes. That
Singh tops Molinari in Scotland BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INVERNESS — Jeev Milkha Singh had double reason to celebrate on Sunday after beating Francesco Molinari in a playoff to win the Scottish Open and secure a late berth in next week’s British Open. A final-round meltdown by local hope Marc Warren left Singh and Molinari on 17-under 271 and in a shootout for the first prize of 416,660 pounds ($645,000), which the 40-year-old Indian claimed by draining a 15-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole. Singh, the son of a former Olympic 400-meter runner, shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 for the joint-lowest round of a grueling final day, when the wind picked up to finally make the Castle Stuart links a genuine test. He then watched on television as first Warren then overnight leader Molinari (72) threw away shots down a tough closing stretch right into the wind. “I was just enjoying a nice cup of tea and some chocolate cake,” Singh said of his hour-long wait for the last groups to finish. “I said to myself that I’d see the finish and then leave for the airport. But as the chocolate cake went down, it got exciting out on the course.” Warren, playing in the penultimate group and also seeking that one remaining berth in the British Open, forged a three-shot lead with six holes remaining but faltered under pressure and dropped four strokes in the final four holes. He finished tied for third with Alexander Noren of Sweden (70)
on 16 under, his implosion costing him 275,000 pounds ($428,000). “It’s going to be a long drive home tonight,” said Warren. “You don’t get many chances to win your national Open. “I had it in my hands.” Warren’s collapse left Molinari back in front as the Italian attempted a wire-to-wire victory after a dominant week in the Scottish Highlands as he tried to emulate his brother Edoardo’s Scottish Open win in 2010. He bogeyed No. 15, though, and needed a 10-foot par-saving putt at the last to force the playoff. Molinari’s approach from the middle of the fairway at the first extra hole — No. 18 — landed at the back of the green and his long birdie putt came up well short, leaving Singh an opportunity he didn’t pass up. By winning his first title in more than four years, Singh not only will climb back into the top 100 from his current ranking of No. 192 but will play at the British Open for the only the second time in his 19-year professional career. “I was going to go back to India and spend some time with the family,” said Singh, who claimed his fourth European Tour victory. “I think God has been kind. I’m very fortunate.” After three opening rounds of very low scoring in improbably calm conditions, Castle Stuart finally bared its teeth — something many players asked for ahead of the British Open. A fierce westerly wind and heavy rain at times proved too much for top-ranked Luke Donald (73) and Phil Mickelson (74), who both finished tied for 16th.
gave him with a decent lie in the rough that he took advantage of with an approach that set him up for a two-putt par that sealed the victory and proved what he did in May at Harbor Shores was no fluke. “I wanted to prove to myself and to other people that Benton Harbor wasn’t a one-off event,” he said. “That was in the back of my mind.” He had a stunning wire-to-wire win at the Senior PGA Championship, beating John Cook by two strokes after closing with two bogeys without his wife, Cathy, there to watch because she had to work. Chapman’s wife was with him at Indianwood and gave him a huge hug as he walked off the 18th green and tears started streaming down his sweaty cheeks. “She’s been my rock for 26 years,” he said. “It was very special that she was here.” Player was the first to win the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year back in 1987, Nicklaus did it in 1991 and Irwin pulled off the feat in 1998. Until Chapman’s breakout this year, his shining moment was beating Padraig Harrington in a playoff for his first European Tour win in his 472nd start on that tour. He had a conditional exemption on the Champions Tour in 2010 and lost his status last year, finishing 84th on the money list less than $90,000 after failing to crack the top 10 in any of his 11 starts. Chapman receives $500,000 for winning the U.S. Senior Open after getting a check for $378,000 for the Senior PGA victory. “I guess when you read about him, you always hear journeyman or something like that,” Pavin said. “But he’s always been a very solid player. Sometimes, people bloom a little later.”
CANADIAN TOUR BY THE CANADIAN PRESS WINNIPEG — Golf fans got their money’s worth in Winnipeg on Sunday. After a four-hole playoff, American Chris Killmer defeated compatriot Vince Covello to win the Canadian Tour’s Players Cup. Killmer and Covello started the day tied for first at 13 under and finished regulation play at 15 under, setting up Winnipeg’s first playoff since 1989. Both players parred the first playoff hole, bogeyed the second and parred the third. But
Killmer won the fourth hole after Covello’s three-putt, picking up the $24,000 prize money. “I’m on top of the world right now,” said Killmer after his first Canadian Tour victory. Covello, the only player to shoot in the 60s in every round, said he was happy with his performance despite the loss. “It’s disappointing not to win but overall I am encouraged with my game and the way I handled myself today,” he said. Toronto’s David Lang was the top Canadian finisher, finishing in third place at 10 under. Lang took home $9,000 in his first start on the Canadian Tour.
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