Open Championship Thursday Reads

I'll spare you the stories about asking people to be careful with their cigarettes.

Lawrence Donegan previews play with this:

Ten days of baking heat have reduced Royal Liverpool's fairways to parched wastelands and its rough to a wispy irrelevance. But they have also transported the game back to its roots. Gone is the mind-numbing repetitiveness of modern golf, where a premium is placed on bombing the ball as far as possible off the tee and spinning it hard on the green with a wedge from 100 yards. In its place is the necessity for subtlety: the strategically placed long iron off the tee and ingenious bump-and-run from 30 yards short of the green.

And he reports that our lovebirds have made up. Well, not really by the sounds of this:

Faldo made the first move, approaching the world No1 on Royal Liverpool's practice range, but he was forced to wait a couple of minutes while Woods continued to hit shots.

Eventually, he deigned to acknowledge the Englishman's presence, shook his hand and engaged in some brief small talk before returning to the business at hand.

Perhaps Tiger didn't want to be interrupted because he was deep in thought, pondering a commentary...yes, that's right, he pens a guest piece in the Telegraph and doesn't say much. But hey, it's something.

Peter Kessler reviews Bobby Jones' 1930 win at Hoylake, which hasn't been talked about much this week.

Golf Gazette polled writers and Tiger was the overwhelming choice.

The Scotsman's Mark Garrod says the bookies are sweating a Tiger Woods win, with two £50,000 bets placed yesterday. There are plenty of other fun anecdotes in this piece.

Alan Pattullo provides an entertaining look at John Daly's performance at the Cavern Club. How far the mighty have fallen. I'm referring to the legendary Cavern Club, of course.

And this wire service story reports that the PGA Tour loaned Trevor Immelman its jet for a return trip to the U.S. to be with his wife and child.

Immelman was trying to catch a flight home, while first alternate Andrew Buckle of Australia was trying to get to Liverpool as soon as possible with the tournament beginning Thursday.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Tuesday night that Immelman would be flying on the tour's corporate jet back to Florida, which would arrive early Wednesday morning. Finchem said he understood Immelman's wife had already given birth, although he didn't know any other details.

Immelman has played in four British Opens, tying for 15th a year ago at St. Andrews.

Asked if Immelman would have to help pay for fuel, Finchem quipped, "He's already paying for it; he's missing the British Open."