Open Championship Clippings, We're-Still-Writing-About-Tiger Edition
/
The great thing about this Open is that we won't have to read many stories about Tiger, instead we're getting...wait, no, really?
Yep, will golf/The Open/the planet survive without him? Of course the answer is no, but everyone does their best to say otherwise.
Lawrence Donegan at The Guardian blog:
Less understandable and forgivable has been the rush in some quarters to argue that a victory this week will be devalued by Woods' absence, that Sunday's winner might go down as the "asterisk champion".Mark Cannizzaro and Ronan Rafferty duke it out over what Tiger's absence means. Steve Elling (here) and Derek Lawrenson (here) also tackle the subject and quote various players.
"Does the trophy engraver know how to do an asterisk?" joked Geoff Ogilvy when asked about the impact of Woods' absence on the week ahead. "He adds to every tournament he plays in. But the Open is the Open. If any tournament is strong enough to stand up when he is not around it is this one."
Ernie Els also paid homage to the player who time and again has stood between him and major championship victory, suggesting that the atmosphere around the course felt "very different" because Woods was not around. But, like Ogilvy, he preferred to make light of the subject. "I am not overly disappointed he is not around - as a player," he said, smiling. "But this is the first major he has missed since he turned professional and it feels different. We are going to miss him."
Bob Harig files a killer column on the Open Championship betting fun, how it works, where you go and why it's kind of silly that we don't allow it here, sharing this from Lee Trevino:
"We gamble billions of dollars in this country, and the Internal Revenue Service doesn't get a dime," Trevino said. "Instead, they spend millions of dollars trying to catch these people. I don't see anything wrong with it. And I bet more players are doing it than will admit."
He also includes a follow up on the Tiger effect on betting this year, with an interesting quote from a bookie about the "premier betting situation of the whole year."
Peter Dixon offers a nice, succinct overview of the various ways players are preparing in the stiff breezes and based on what he's seen so far, suggests that it could get ugly if forecasted winds arrive.
Lynne Truss considers Birkdale's standing as a spectator course.
Rich Lerner, still waiting on his luggage to arrive (Kelly, can I borrow some foundation?") offers "hooks and cuts from Birkdale."
Gary Van Sickle makes his picks and installs Sergio as the favorite.
Matthew Syed profiles Nick Faldo and offers a few Faldo riffs on various subjects. This caught my eye:
“I learnt my lesson with my son, Matthew. I kept nagging him to let me give him a golf lesson, but he did not say yes until he was good and ready. That is why I have not been pestering the Ryder Cup players. Instead I said, ‘If you want me, call.' It is as simple as that. A couple of guys have taken me up on it. Nick Dougherty came to talk about Augusta before the Masters and Ian Poulter, pictured, also expressed an interest in meeting up, but it hasn't happened yet. Things won't really come alive until the end of August.”
David Dusek with a great little golf.com blog post about the disgraceful way Ian Poulter treated the Birkdale putting green. 
And finally, John Garrity says all of the other greens should be rebuilt to look just like No. 17, and that's why he writes about courses instead of designing them.
