Ringo Schmingo

TNT actually send the following quotes out as part of a press release highlighting the first round Open Championship commentary, but neglected to include Bobby Clampett's declaration that John Lennon hated golf (which he corrected later). Clampett confused Ringo and Lennon. These things happen when you are making it up as you go!

Before we relive his most captivating quotes, here are my favorite Clampett redundancies from round 1:

dry hardpan fairway
big oversized driver
past history

Nice! And from TNT:

Clampett on Mike Weir: “Mike’s been licking his chops this week, because he saw the course set-up playing hard and fast, and that plays right into his game.”

Clampett on Hoylake: “I would not be surprised to see the scores this bunched throughout the whole championship. It’s a course that lends itself to bunching.”

Clampett on the wide open field this year at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England: “I believe there is a better than 50-50 chance of a player out of the top 50 winning here. The reason for that is it’s a golf course that doesn’t necessarily favor the longer hitter. The guys who are the short, accurate strikers have equally as much a chance to win here as one of the bombers.”

Clampett on Faldo/Woods: “There is no bad blood here, there just isn’t, and regardless of what the media is trying to build up these guys have no problem with one another. Tiger gets that (criticism) from everybody. All of us that are in the TV business have an opinion on what he is doing. We express our opinion and he respects that we have an opinion.