Up & Down: Champagne Louis? Could be the start of a beautiful friendship
After a week along the Scottish seashore, absorbing all that Mother Nature has to offer and tracking her impact on the world's oldest major championship, CBSSports.com senior writer Steve Elling is wringing out his clothes and his notebook and adding up the aftermath. Cheers.
Up
Then Champagne Louis, it is
The last time a player claimed his first major championship at St. Andrews was in 1964, when American Tony Lema won and delivered champagne to the press room, reinforcing a nickname that stuck with him until his untimely demise. When Louis Oosthuizen delivered bottles of bubbly to the same motley crew about an hour after his win Sunday at the Old Course, it actually drew a cheer from the scribes, who are notoriously hard to impress. The fact the huzzah was, by far, the highlight of a coma-inducing day was also due to Oosthuizen, who applied a tourniquet to the tournament drama at the turn Sunday and kept right on twisting until numbness set in. In other words, the unassuming son of a South African dairy farmer did his job and milked the tournament dry of any drama. Just like he was supposed to do. With a 54-hole lead, he played more like Tiger Woods than Tiger Woods has lately, except he smiled as he slit everybody's throat. Champagne Louis? "I rather like the sound of that," an R&A official admitted Sunday night as he poured the bubbly for the assembled hacks.
Raining on their reign
It was a terrific idea, but the biggest pity of the week came when fans braved the awful rains Wednesday to watch past Open champions like Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player tee it up alongside younger winners like Woods, John Daly and Nick Faldo. Rain took care of that, washing out the Champions Challenge and canceling might be the coolest idea in golf. It was set to be a four-hole exhibition, and the players flew long distances to play. "Some of the old guys were really looking forward to it," said Tom Weiskopf, a past winner. So were some of the fans, who forked over 40 pounds for naught. If it's possible, they should reprise this idea, and perhaps before the Open comes back to St. Andrews, presumably in another five years, though the rota hasn't been set that far in advance. Because, after all, guys like de Vicenzo, Player, Trevino and Palmer aren't getting any younger, and neither are we fans.
Poulter's peers proving his point
It was an eyebrow-raiser to start the week, to be sure. World No. 10 Ian Poulter, one of the most outspoken and flamboyant players in the world, told a Scottish newspaper that the window for American dominance at the majors was closing because of the ages of the prime-time players like Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker, all 40 or beyond. While Poulter personally flopped last week, the crux of his prediction didn't. The European contingent was splashed all over the leaderboard, with eight players in the final top 13, including a handful of certain Ryder Cup players. The low Yanks were youngsters Sean O'Hair and Nick Watney, who finished 10 shots back. Everybody knows that today's alarming trend often proves to be tomorrow's punch line, but at the moment, England alone has a 5-4 edge over the U.S. in terms of players positioned in the world top 18.
Saluting Seve
He is the European Arnie, a description that is used often because it's damned correct. Seve Ballesteros couldn't attend last week's Champions Challenge because he is still suffering the effects of brain cancer and resultant surgery, but plenty of players were thinking about him last week. "I just wish Seve was here," said Phil Mickelson, whose slash-and-dash style on the course has closely resembled the dashing Spaniard's mode of play over the years. The prognosis remains largely unknown, but Ballesteros made more than a few fans choke up with the closing comment in a Telegraph newspaper article printed last week. "You know, for everything in life, there is always a beginning and there is always an end," he said. "This is the tough part, the most difficult thing, when you see that it's coming: the end."
Amateur hour
British Amateur champion Jin Jeong, 20, cemented his silver medal as the British Open's low amateur by being the lone non-professional to make the cut. Apparently still unfulfilled, then he briefly contended for the bigger title as well. Jeong, a South Korean who moved to Australia four years ago to hone his game, was on the leaderboard well into the weekend rounds before finishing T14, which was better than Woods, Mickelson and more superstars than you could name -- including K.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang. Amazingly, Jeong, who plans to turn pro next year after playing in the Masters, didn't play his first links golf until three weeks before winning the British Amateur in June. After 36 holes, only Oosthuizen and Mark Calcavecchia were ahead of him. Chuka hamnida, kid, which is "congratulations" in his native tongue, or good on ya, which is the same notion in Oz-speak.
Shrek, the golf sequel
Because the sun rises at 4:30 a.m. and sets at 10:30 p.m. at the British Open, there is plenty of time for diversions, if not outright opportunities for daydreaming. When Oosthuizen cruised to the 54-hole lead on Saturday, and the media had good-natured fun with his nickname, Shrek, here's the list of players we'd pick to play roles as the cast in another sequel if the movie used actual folks attending the tournament. Oosthuizen as the loveable lead ogre, Tim Finchem as Lord Farquad, Alejandro Canizares (in the Antonio Banderas role) as the cat, Mark Calcavecchia as the wiseacre donkey and Colin Montgomerie as Princess Fiona.
Down
Road kill redux
After all of the harrumphing and hand-wringing, it's interesting to note how the controversial new tee box on the most famous hole in golf affected play over four rounds. Amid some consternation from the game's purists, who were rightly alarmed that the Road Hole was being changed for the first time in 110 years, the R&A added 50 yards. Here's the data dug from the dirt: The 17th averaged 4.79 in 1984 and 4.71 in 2000. Five years ago, it surrendered 4.63 strokes. Last week, the Road Hole averaged 4.67 shots to rank as the toughest hole on the course. Fifty yards meant a difference of .04 shots, and for that, sacred ground was defiled? The hole produced a course-high 174 bogeys (next-most was 137), course-high 68 double-bogeys (next was 20) and a course-low 16 birdies for the week (next lowest was 24). The unanswerable question is what the hole would have averaged from the old tee, so maybe it was worth the public-relations disaster the decision precipitated for the host R&A, even at a paltry .04. Officials wanted to see players hacking balls off the road, and two of the more memorable shots of the entire week were the ricochet ball off the 17th's rock wall by Miguel Angel Jimenez and the travails of Germany's Martin Kaymer in the gravel Sunday. Still, tweaking a hole for the first time in over a century, at a shrine like St. Andrews, it just doesn't feel right.
All the putter mutter
To many, it was yet another red flare fired across the bow of the USS Tiger Woods. He was changing his putter, his trusty and irreplaceable "gamer," for the first time since 1999. He'd won 13 majors, around $100 million worldwide with that wand, but he swapped it out for a Nike model last week, though not a single pro had ever heard of anybody changing putters because of slow greens, the reason Woods cited behind the move. Some thought it was a stunt to invigorate Nike sales, since they stuck with him during the nadir of his scandal. Well, he used 99 putts over the first three days, ditched the Nike and switched back to the original putter in the final round. Woods hasn't putted well in months, and it's been unusually spotty for the past two seasons, if not longer. Forget the psychological baggage he's sorting through as a result of his marital issues -- if he can't get his short stroke figured out, or if it continues to deteriorate, the Swoosh switch at the Old Course will be viewed as a seminal moment in his career.
The 1-2 punch
Let's hear from you: Which player was more disappointing last week, Phil Mickelson or Woods? Lefty was more upbeat at the British Open than he had been in years, then he let bad weather in his draw totally ruin his week, an unforgivable psychological setback for a player of his experience. He also booted yet another chance of reaching world No. 1 for the first time, a feat he could have accomplished by finishing third or better. It has been a long time since I can recall Mickelson muttering to himself more often than he did last week, clearly affected by the winds, rain and his poor play. It was just another in a series of bad weeks abroad at the British for Lefty; he started the week as the co-second favorite with Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy, who certainly played to their capabilities. In fact, Westwood, at No. 3 in the world after finishing second at two majors this year, seems destined to reach No. 1 before Phil.
Where's the love, not to mention the fans?
No question, St. Andrews has an aura and atmosphere like no other major-championship venue in the sport. But it was downright sad that Tom Watson's likely farewell at the Old Course came with barely anybody watching. Because of the economy and a weird confluence of weather, Watson was in the final group off the course to finish Friday night as play was suspended because of darkness. Woods had finished moments earlier, yet there were perhaps 1,000 fans on the 18th to welcome Watson as he missed the cut and finished off the 18th hole, likely for the last time, since the Old Course hasn't been placed on the upcoming rota schedule and Watson is already 60. Attendance on the first two days seemed sparse and the R&A crowd estimates felt ridiculously inflated. It picked up on the weekend to be sure, but Watson, a five-time British Open winner, deserved a better so-long salute. Especially after nearly winning the event last year.
Demystifying John Daly
He showed up for a prom dance in a clown suit. Some would say that analogy fits John Daly, the ultimate square peg in golf's round hole. In case you missed it, a group photo was staged Tuesday night featuring all the past British winners who had consented to play in the Champions Challenge exhibition the following day. As some of the greatest players ever to walk the Auld Sod lined up on at the R&A clubhouse for the shot, Daly stood out like a range ball in a box of Titleists. He wore a Loudmouth sport coat, made by the same folks who supply his garish pants, drawing embarrassed laughs from his peers. Look, the guy is starving for endorsement money, but after some of the fretful decisions he has made in his career, he doesn't need to dress like a clown at a buttoned-down affair, too. Standing next to conservatively dressed Woods and Padraig Harrington in the photo, it looked the gardener had sneaked into the shot, ridiculous smock and all.
