Open Thread: British Open, Round 2

I was watching the coverage early this morning – not so good today. Ernie Johnson Jr and Jim Huber didn’t seem to be up on what was going on.

Huber called Jim Furyk “JJ” and completely missed that Furyk had switched putters from day 1. Then he asked what it was like looking over his shoulder and seeing Greg Norman making a charge. WHAT ? Norman has been ahead of Furyk the entire tournament. (Furyk politely corrected Huber)

EJ just seems rusty since he’s not calling golf much anymore.

Hope it gets better by the weekend. Johnson’s a classy guy, and Huber’s been doing golf too long to do more interviews like that.

Owen Slot has an article in The Post today asking several guys who didn’t score very well about tee boxes at 6 and 11 and whether they should’ve been moved up because of the weather. Naturally, it was the guys who didn’t play well who screamed the loudest. Jerry Kelly and Pat Perez were the biggest whiners.

I wish an extra question had been asked to each of these guys. “For all your bad breaks today – how did Greg Norman and Tom Watson manage to play so well ?” Then again, they probably would’ve walked away after the question.

Sorry guys – it wasn’t the LENGTH of the holes – it was your inability to hit the ball straight. Maybe you should ask that they cut all the fescue on the dunes. This is England – you can play the ball along the ground.

On TNT this morning, Peter Dawson, the R&A chief executive, noted that the guys only complain when they can’t reach a green – but they never say a word when they can reach a par 5 with a short iron. He also said that par is just a number. Good for him – the idea is to get the ball in the hole in as few shots as possible.

Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/golf/article4354040.ece

Nice that you can count on the wife – the NEWLY WED WIFE – for all kinds of support for hubby. (this is from another weak Mark Cannizzaro article – but the finish is pretty funny with the Chris Evert-Lloyd-Mills-Norman section)

“Now, the question is how much more juice does Norman have for the week? Can he sustain the magic?

“I’ve got to keep my expectations realistically low,” he said. “I haven’t played a lot of golf. I was talking to [TNT course announcer] Judy Rankin coming down 13, and she said it was just like riding a bike. But even riding a bike sometimes after a long time (away) you’re a little wobbly.”

Pressed on whether he can wrap his head around winning this thing for a third time at his age, Norman said, “I’m not even going to put my head in that position.”

Even Evert said, “It’s Thursday. He’s got three more days. I’ll be very surprised, with as little golf as he’s played, if he can keep this standard up. I mean, he had no expectations (yesterday), and he was one of the best in the world.

“It’s probably too much to expect to keep this up.”

Yes – she was just that warm and caring towards Martina Navratilova, John Lloyd, and Andy Mills.

especially at 18 – their welcome for Tom Watson today was amazing. They really appreciate their great former champions.

and how about that roar for Harrington ? after the eagle at 17 and great approach at the last (to set up another birdie) – they were really cheering him on !

...on WEDNESDAY. And not Wednesday morning – he got them Wednesday afternoon according to the British commentators on the streaming feed of the last 3 holes.

So now he has a 1st and a last place finish at The Open.

DAMN that Butch Harmon !!