Saturday's Open Championship Clippings

A nice, diversified leaderboard--jeese, I sound like I'm writing about a mutual fund--has assembled at Carnoustie and Doug Ferguson's round two game story captures it better than I did. He also notes who will be missing:

Missing from the mix is Phil Mickelson, who missed the cut for the second straight time in a major.

Lefty figured he needed a par on the final hole to have any chance, then promptly hit a power fade into Barry Burn for double bogey and a 77. It was a setback for the three-time major champion, who lost in a playoff last week at the Scottish Open.

"I thought I was playing better than this," Mickelson said.

For the UK perspective, here's James Corrigan's Independent game story.

Douglas Lowe focuses on Jim Furyk's play and his activities off the course.

Lorne Rubenstein is swooning over the magic of links golf, oh and Mike Weir whose struggles may be coming to an end.

Steve Elling focuses on Sergio's opening hole shank.

Brian Viner looks at Tiger's opening tee shot that ended up in the burn.

Golf.com shares 22 photos from round 2 including our final Monty shot of the week, taken by Fred Vuich...

Kevin Eason gets a few words from Monty on his failed bid to make the cut.

Michael Bamberger ponders the wonders of evening golf in Scotland.

Chris Lewis asks ten burning questions heading into the weekend.

Will Buckley likes the less commercial atmosphere at Carnoustie compared to the K Club.

Tim Glover considers the OB on 18 and the various victims of this extreme finishing hole.

In terms of difficulty, the 18th, with a scoring average in excess of 4.7, was playing the hardest, followed by the 15th, another hardcore par four, which was nearly averaging 4.5. The toughest holes were to be found on the inward nine.

The 18th, though, is the scariest of the lot and only 29 per cent of the field were hitting the green in regulation after the first two rounds. This figure compares to 88 per cent at the 11th.

Gary Van Sickle talks to Arron Oberholser, who not surprisingly has fallen in love with links golf, though he too has doubts about the 18th hole's OB.

"I don't know why they have that fence there, they don't need it," he said. "It would be a shame to have a guy come to the last hole with a one-shot lead, pull his second shot just a little bit and it goes out of bounds, and you've lost the British Open. This is 18 holes of great golf but that last one is questionable."

And notes from the Independent include several fun items, topped off by this, which you had to see on the telecast or later on The Golf Channel to full appreciate (and which I would post on YouTube if I had the capability): 

Alliss came up with another cracker when the television cameras lingered on a rear-view shot of a couple of certain age out on course. The woman was repeatedly tapping and tickling her chap's posterior. "Good job the cameras aren't the other side," Alliss said, alluding to the effects of the playfulness. "Or we might get a big surprise."