2011 Open Championship Clippings, Round 1
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The predictions of a vicious Royal St. George's didn't pan out due to light winds and surprisingly mellow greens, signaling that the R&A might have learned from last year's St. Andrews play-stoppage fiasco?
Letting the players play worked out beautifully as a slow day blossomed late with several great storylines. Let's go...
LEDES
Lawrence Donegan for Rupert Murdoch's favorite paper:
Romance knocked out reality on the canvas of Royal St George's as Tom Lewis, a 20-year-old amateur from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire with a glint in his eye, and Thomas Bjorn, an out-of-form 40-year-old whose last visit here lives on in golfing infamy, seized the opening day of the 2011 Open with rounds of 65, five under par.
James Corrigan of The Independent went the boy wonder route.
There is a boy-wonder atop the Open leaderboard, but not the boy-wonder everybody – or indeed, anybody – expected. Tom Lewis eclipsed Rory McIlroy and all but Thomas Bjorn in his debut major by shooting the lowest score by an amateur in the 151-year history of the Championship.
Doug Ferguson, filing for the AP:
His parents named him after Tom Watson, so Tom Lewis was thrilled when the pairings for the British Open came out.
Tom and Tom were in the same group.
It can’t get much better than that, right?
Think again.
With the five-time Open champion watching every swing, Lewis became the first amateur in 35 years to lead a round at a major. The 20-year-old settled his nerves with one up-and-down after another on the front side Thursday, then ripped off four straight birdies down the stretch to match Thomas Bjorn with a 5-under 65.
Martin Dempster gives his Scotsman lede a bit of home seasoning:
SHORTLY after an earthquake struck nearby in the English Channel, English amateur Tom Lewis made his Scottish grandparents proud by sending shockwaves through the 140th Open Championship yesterday to grab a share of the first-round lead with late call-up Thomas Bjorn at Sandwich.
Larry Dorman for the New York Times coverage:
The arc of European Tour dominance in major championship golf, which began at the 2010 United States Open with the surprise victory by Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, did not merely continue Thursday in the first round of the British Open at Royal St. George’s. It also got younger.
"Young" Tom Lewis
Kevin Garside on "Young Tom" and "Old Tom" (nice!), with this anecdote:
Youth comes first. Lewis draped boy-band aesthetics all over Royal St George’s. Even 61-year-old playing partner Tom Watson was tapping his feet.
“Tom Lewis. How about that? He could be my grandson. We had a few conversations today. I said, 'Do you still go to school?’ He said 'no’ but one of his teachers was jogging along the 14th hole and said hello.
Steve Elling on the dynamic between the Toms.
For example, he didn't even have the nerve to tell playing partner Tom Watson that he was named in the Hall of Famer's honor.
"I would have been embarrassed to say that," Lewis said.
No need, since it's the ultimate compliment. He beat Watson, who nearly won the Open two years ago, by seven shots.
"I just had to smile inside to watch him play," Watson gushed afterward.
If you think McIlroy feels a tad older today, what about Watson? He's 61.
"How about that?" he said. "He could be my grandson."
Oliver Brown talks to Lewis' chatty 18-year-old brother Jack after the round.
But Jack, 18 and a seven-handicapper, spoke on Thursday night of the profound debt of gratitude he and Tom owed to their father, who grew up with Nick Faldo before becoming a teaching pro.
“He made so many sacrifices to help everybody out,” he said “You couldn’t ask for more. My dad spent 15 years making Tom what he is today. He’s the type of guy who, if Tom wasn’t going to make it, wouldn’t have let him to do it.
His mother, Lynda, explained: “We have driven a lot of miles, and have a massive mortgage. My husband is with him full-time. He knew from when he was little that Tom was going to be good.”
And if you missed the earlier posting, Sean Martin's profile of Lewis includes some background info gleaned from an interview several months ago.
Here's is Tom Rinaldi's post round interview with the lad:
Bjorn Borg
That's what Curtis Strange called the first round co-leader on the ESPN telecast. I didn't hear it, but there were plenty of insistent witnesses!
John Huggan recently interviewed Bjorn, co-leader with a 65, and shares some of those insights and also reminds us that it wasn't just the disaster on 16 Sunday that cost Bjorn the Open, but another incident.
Strong feelings, of course, have always played a big part in the career of the ten-time European Tour winner. On the opening day of that 2003 Open, Bjorn was penalized two shots when, after failing to extricate his ball from a bunker, he thumped the sand in anger. The final round, of course, was notable for his leading by three shots with four holes to play, then dropping four shots to lose by one, a run that included a double-bogey at the short 16th, where he took three ever-more agonizing swings to escape from a bunker.
Paul Mahoney on Bjorn's triumphant return to the Sandwich.
Bjorn has spent all week avoiding talking about 2003 but he knew he would have to face his demons again sometime. How ironic it was again, then, that on a day when he should have been celebrating his finest round at the Open, he was obliged to re-live his most gut-wrenching failure.
"I'm always honest with you guys," he said. "A couple of people asked me if I would rather go home. This is the Open Championship. Where else do you want to be? People want to talk about that Open because we're back at Royal St George's. That's only natural. I have always been fine with everything I did that week. I played the best golf of my life. And I made a mistake. Things just didn't go my way."
Credit then to Bjorn for offering a blow-by-blow account of his implosion. It must still drive him crackers.
Steve Elling on Bjorn's return to the 16th for the first time in competition since 2003's disaster.
He even made amends with the hole that really cost him the title, the 163-yard 16th. Eight years ago, still leading by two strokes, his 6-iron settled into the sand and he got cute with the explosion shots. Both of his first two attempts landed on the sloped green, but tricked back down into the bunker.
Thursday, he hit a high 9-iron that ballooned into the headwind, barely cleared another greenside bunker, yet bounced forward and rolled to four feet, where he tapped in for his third straight birdie. Bjorn stoically insisted the hole doesn't owe him a thing for what happened in 2003, then indicated that the incident is still stuck in the cobwebs of his mind.
After the ball tricked toward the hole, he looked at a trio of reporters stationed along the ropes, rolled his eyes, sending those bushy fescue eyebrows shooting due north, and made a hand gesture noting how lucky he had been on the shot.
Bob Harig captures Bjorn's best quote about his return and the story also includes video of Bjorn's emotional post round press conference.
On Thursday, with the pin in a different position at No. 16, Bjorn hit a 9-iron shot that he feared was short. But it landed over a bunker, took a nice hop, then trickled up near the hole, and he made a birdie. Sweet revenge?
"The hole owes nobody anything, and no hole in golf does, and no golf course does," Bjorn said. "I played that Open, and I played fantastic the whole week. I tried to hit the right shot every single time, and I didn't hit the right shot on 16. That happens in golf. That's the nature of this game. You've just got to deal with those things."
Rory Who?
While he was overwhelmed by the support he received, he put a tough start behind him to finish the day just six shots behind leaders Thomas Bjorn and amateur sensation Tom Lewis.
“The support was great. I probably didn’t take it in as much as I could have - I was just trying to concentrate on that first tee shot and get that out of the way.
“But it’s fantastic and hopefully I can give them something to shout about. I felt relatively calm surprisingly. Usually I do get a few first-tee nerves, but I felt good.”
He three putted the opening hole from a swale behind the green and then bogeyed the 240-yard, par three third when his tee shot kicked off a downslope and ran through the back of the green into deep rough.
Oliver Brown in the Telegraph wasn't as impressed:
The contrast between this monochrome round and McIlroy’s vivid flourishes at Congressional last month was stark. McIlroy managed not to record a single three-putt in his first 70 holes at the US Open and yet he did so at the very first here.
James Lawton almost breaks out the pom-poms over Rory's 71.
What he needed to do most vitally yesterday was keep his nerve, and he did it well enough to declare a good day's work in all the circumstances. The swing through celebrity land was fun while at lasted, he said, and so were the nights which produced an estimated four hangovers, but in the end he was both pleased and relieved to step back inside the ropes.
"I said to myself, 'Just keep it around par', and I was mentally very good. I felt I could have hit it on the fairways a bit more but I holed a few nice putts for par in the middle of the round and that's what you need to do, especially in majors and tough conditions."
Most importantly of all, you have to answer the sound of the bell. McIlroy said, reasonably enough, that he would sleep well. He had, after all, stayed in the fight at a time of maximum pressure. He had done the least of what champions have to do.
Gene Wojciechowski describes the scene following Rory:
The galleries following McIlroy were as swollen as a set of tonsils. He got the loudest cheers, the most TV coverage and attracted the largest amount of pre- and post-round attention. This is what happens when you win the U.S. Open a month earlier by a thousand strokes.
Don't get me wrong: It was a 71, not 61 that he shot. McIlroy couldn't figure out the pace of Royal St. George's berber carpet greens. It took him 31 putts to wheel around this place. He bogeyed two of the first three holes and only hit eight of 14 fairways. Yuck.
As for his prospects, Martin Samuel writes:
McIlroy's Open could go in any direction from here. He was not blown away by the sea breezes of Sandwich, as some had predicted, nor was he able to maintain the form that saw him lead every major this year at the end of day one. There was nothing to suggest he will not be slightly wiser from this experience and there is no stellar name at the top of the leaderboard to intimidate the field. This Open is very, well, open.
Other Players
Steve Douglas of AP on Graeme McDowell's impressive salvage-job that produced a 68.
Weeks of preparation were threatening to be undone there and then. Thank goodness, then, for caddie Ken Comboy.
"I've got to thank him for keeping me in the moment because my head was spinning after a few holes," McDowell said. "That's what this course and what major championships can do to you. Maybe four or five years ago, I wouldn't have been able to turn that round."
McDowell, ranked No. 9, managed to recover his poise, and four birdies in a back nine played in benign, still conditions saw the Northern Irishman come home at 2-under 68. He is tied for sixth, three shots off the lead, and clear of many of his chief rivals for the claret jug.
"The old cliche [in the first round] is, 'You can't win it, you can only lose it.' I tried to lose it but I managed to hang in there. I'm in a great position," he said.
Ron Green Jr. on Webb Simpson's late evening 66, his second time in the UK for links golf.
During his pre-tournament practice rounds, Simpson got a taste of what he missed in the first round -- the high winds that are so common along the English coast. He liked the challenge, which should come in handy over the weeknd when the wind is expected to be strong again.
"I haven't played a whole lot of links golf, but I love using my imagination and touch around the greens, so it's
fun. It's a totally different style than we play back home," said Simpson, who moved from Raleigh to Charlotte last year.
Working closely with caddie Paul Tesori to pick the right lines off tees on St. George's rolling fairways, Simpson said he'll attempt to stick to the same plan through the weekend, understanding the fickle bounces that are part of playing St. George's.
Martyn Herman on Lucas Glover's back nine 31 that included a 2-3-3 finish.
"The way the wind was blowing and the way I started out hitting it I didn't think I would get to four under," Glover, sporting a lush layer of facial hair, told reporters.
"But the way I turned and the way I started hitting it on the back, I knew I could make some birdies coming in.
"Coming in we had a little bit of wind but not enough where you have to lower your ball flight significantly to get it to go the distance you wanted.
"For me "comfortable' would be the right term I'd use."
Bill Fields on an ailing Dustin Johnson and his first round ace at No. 16.
It was Johnson's third ace on tour -- he made his previous ones at Riviera and Colonial -- and the first by a competitor in an Open at Royal St. George's since 1981. Johnson tossed the ball to a spectator, added a birdie at 17 before making a 5 at No. 18, then looked forward to getting some rest.
"I'm not very excited at all," he said. "I'm going to go home and sleep. I'm a little bit under the weather. My glands are all swollen. I've got some kind of infection. I'm on some antibiotics, so hopefully it'll go away."
Ian Chadband says Luke Donald's 71 wasn't as shabby as it looked.
If it had not been for four putts which lipped out, it was not inconceivable that he could have been five under at the turn, even if he did have some degree of fortune with a 30-footer which rattled the hole before deciding to dive in but which might have slid 15ft past had it missed.
He faltered when the rain began to gnaw into his face halfway through the round but his pedigree shone on the 17th when an exquisite wedge recovery from the rough set up a birdie.
"Seventy-one is still solid," he said. "But it really could have been a very good round."
Jim McCabe explains that awful hat Padraig Harrington was wearing.
• Always a crowd favorite, Harrington made even more of an impression with his choice of headwear. He explained that the hat allowed him to show off a badge that he was wearing honor of a friend who is battling cancer. When reporters kept asking him about it, the Irishman laughed. “Who likes it?” he asked. “Hands up.” For the record, the hat was hugely popular and he conceded that if links conditions arrive, “I would definitely wear it again.”
Well don't I feel like a jerk!
Cameron Morfit on Miguel Angel Jimenez's first round 66.
Playing with Peter Uihlein and Geoff Ogilvy, Jimenez made four birdies and no bogeys Thursday. He averaged just 257.5 yards off the tee, or about 35 yards behind the field average, and took only 24 putts, which is pretty good considering he came into this week having missed the cut at the French Open and the U.S. Open. (He did manage to find a tapas bar in Washington, D.C.)
Ian Chadband explains why Jimenez has had enough of the Seve tributes.
“The tribute to Seve here is very nice because we miss him and we have to thank him for what he do for golf,” said Jimenez. “But I’ve already said that. This is the third interview today and the third time I’m going to answer the same question, you know.
"We all miss Seve and I think we need to keep moving on. It’s nice that they made the tributes for him but now I think is a moment also to start to concentrate on the golf tournament and keep moving on.
“I think here in this country especially, they love him. And I think it’s time to concentrate on start moving on, because if not, you cannot play.
"We are human, and it’s the moment to say, OK, go.”
Derek Lawrenson shared this Jimenez anecdote:
One man who has never had any problems on that score is Jimenez. When his round was over he took his two sons to the merchandise tent and bought them shirts with The Open logo on them.
Doesn’t he get enough shirts free? ‘They don’t have The Open logo,’ he explained. ‘I’m a fan of The Open, too.’
Stories like Lewis, Bjorn and Jimenez make fans of us all. Will he celebrate his round with a glass of Rioja, Jimenez was asked.
‘It doesn’t matter what I score,’ said one of the great characters of European golf. ‘I always have a glass of Rioja.’
Alex Hoad posted this note on qualifier Andy Smith, whose amazing story was told on US television but is worth checking out if you missed that part of the telecast. He struggled in his opening round to an 81, but just making it was an accomplishment.
One of Smith's most staggering revelations is that the clubs he used for his qualifying success were not even his own.
He said: "I used borrowed clubs. My own irons and wedges are older and don't conform to the regulations now so I had to borrow a set from a member at Tudor Park.
"I found another wedge in my garage without grooves which I was able to use and luckily I borrowed another one from the lost and found at Tudor Park.
Aladair Reid with notes on Nicolas Colsaerts pulling out after a scooter accident. He rented the scooter to avoid traffic, but as Reid notes, traffic in town is light during the day because the R&A, to the dismay of local traders, has instituted a single-entry ticket policy.
Stat, Media and Photo Watch
3. More Lewis: He broke the Open Championship 18-hole amateur record of 66 held by three men: Frank Stranahan during the fourth round at Troon in 1950; Tiger Woods during the second round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 1996; Justin Rose in the second round at Royal Birkdale in 1998. He also became the first amateur to lead an Open Championship since Sir Michael Bonallack began with a 70 to tie Brian Barnes in 1968 at Carnoustie. Bonallack shot 70-77-74-79 and tied for 21st.
John Strege with some of the more ridiculous things said on the air and Twitter during round one.
GolfChannel.com posts a nice image gallery.
Round tee times, in American ET.
And ESPN.com's round one highlights:
