Newsday (N.Y.): U.S. Open winner McDowell contends at St. Andrews

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- He's the U.S. Open champion, and that's been a disadvantage to Graeme McDowell. "People keep congratulating me on Pebble Beach,'' he said, "and it's difficult for me to move on. I've got to get refocused.''

McDowell seemed to do that Friday. He shot a 4-under-par 68 in the wind-whipped second round of the British Open and moved into a tie for sixth at 139, seven shots behind Louis Oosthuizen's 132.

On Thursday, it was McDowell's pal and countryman, young Rory McIlroy, who was the star of St. Andrews with a 63, eight better than McDowell. But on Friday, McIlroy ended up four shots back of McDowell.

"I was careless a bit on my putting,'' said McDowell, 28. "Two more careless three-putts. Four in two days, which is a little unlike me. But I felt a lot better today.''

Tiger Woods, who did it in 2000, is the last to win the U.S. and British Opens the same year. McDowell wouldn't appear to have a chance, but golf can be strange.

"For sure,'' McDowell said, "I'm going into this weekend with no expectations at all. I'm putting no pressure on myself. I've got myself in great position. I'll be out [Saturday] free swinging and just really trying to control the ball in this weather. I love being in contention. It's weird saying I'm in contention being seven back, but there's not too many guys ahead of me.''

McDowell figures some of those guys will fall victim to the ill winds that have been predicted.

"When the wind gets up on this course, it's a different kind of fish," McDowell said. "There's plenty of deep coffin-like bunkers to bury the wreckage out there.''

McDowell became the first European in 40 years to win the U.S. Open. He showed tenacity and fine touch on the greens, both of which are needed in this tournament more than ever.

"This golf course asks you to hit all the shots,'' McDowell said, and after winning a major, it's apparent that he has them all.

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Newsday (N.Y.): Oosthuizen brilliant again as Rory fades, Tiger hangs on

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- This was the British Open so many expected, a tournament at the mercy of nature with wind so strong that play had to be suspended for more than an hour.

This was the British Open no one expected, a young South African dominating after two incredible rounds.

What a Friday along the North Sea, when calm became calamitous, when Rory McIlroy was 17 shots worse than he had been Thursday; when Tiger Woods tumbled down, if not quite out; and when Louis Oosthuizen beat both the weather and everyone else in the field for the first two rounds of this 139th Open.

When in early afternoon the wind gusted up to 41 mph, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which runs the Open, said balls were being moved on the greens and it "had no option but to suspend play.''

Which it did for 65 minutes, turning golf into a long day's journey into night, which in Scotland in July doesn't arrive with total darkness until past 10:30 p.m. Late starters were out there for more than seven hours, and not everyone finished.

Oosthuizen went out at 6:41 a.m. So although he endured some rain and a lighter wind, he was long finished when the nasty gusts moved in, posting a 5-under-par 67. He had a 36-hole score of 12-under 132 and a five-shot lead over Mark Calcavecchia.

"I like playing in the wind,'' said Oosthuizen, 27, whose given names, after his grandfather, are Lodewicus Theodorus. He won't answer to either, however, always being known as Louis - or to his friends as "Shrek.''

In second place at 70-67-137 is Calcavecchia, 50, the Open winner in 1989. He was in the first threesome at 6:30 a.m., and if, like Oosthuizen, that meant arising at about 4 a.m., it also meant getting around the Old Course before being figuratively blown away.

That's what happened to McIlroy, who tied the course record of 63 Thursday and didn't make a bogey. On Friday, he shot 40-40-80, not making a birdie, and dropped from first to a tie for 38th.

"It could have been 82 or 82,'' McIlroy said. "I've never experienced shooting 63 and then going and shooting 80.''

Tiger Woods, with a birdie at 18, shot 73 for 140. The final putt dropped a bit before 10 p.m. After Tom Watson birdied 18 to finish at 75 for 148, the horn was blown to halt play, leaving 30 golfers to return Saturday.

"It was a tough day. For everybody,'' Woods said. "You just have to go out there and deal with it, whether you're on the good end of the draw or not the good end . . . I'm not exactly where I want to be, but after my start [he began bogey, bogey], I could have shot myself out of it.''

The projected cut was 145, and names such as Watson, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Geoff Ogilvy were among those above that score.

Oosthuizen won the Par-3 Contest at the Masters this year - then missed the cut in the regular event for a third straight time - but he won the Andalucia Open on the European Tour and said that changed his outlook, building his confidence.

The son of a farmer, Oosthuizen said he would not have been able to afford golf lessons as a child were it not for the foundation created by countryman Els to help young South Africans.

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RealClearSports: Old Course Is Old Friend to Tiger, Big John

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- This is an easy area to find enchantment, to be captured by the mystery of a town as well as the history of golf.

The ruins of a 900-year-old cathedral prove an iconic sentinel at one end of a place constructed as much on great golf as of gray stone. A few cobblestone streets away rests the Old Course, no less a benchmark than a landmark.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

Newsday (N.Y.): Daly shoots 66 on his favorite course

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- They are trousers here, not "pants." The ones John Daly wears these days, he calls them Paseltines, look they've been designed using a kaleidoscope. "I can get dressed in the dark," he said. "Any shirt is going to match."

Daly  -- 44, slimmed by Lap-Band surgery and seemingly reformed -- is trying to equal the golf he once played when, before the binges and the suspensions, he won the 1991 PGA Championship and the 1995 British Open.

The '95 Open was at St. Andrews, where Thursday Daly briefly held the lead in the first round with a 6-under par 66 that still proved good enough for a tie for third.

"I love this course," Daly said. "I fell in love in '94 in the Dunhill Cup. I don't know why. It just suits my game . . . It's a golf course that not only brings back memories but was a memory even before I played it because of the great players that have won here. It's my favorite course in the world."

The end of January, having missed the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open at San Diego, Daly announced he was quitting golf. He explained he was frustrated because "I wanted results quicker," after three years of pain from a rib injury.

The results Thursday were encouraging.

"I've learned a lot," he said of his alcoholism and divorces. "I have never run from my mistakes. I've always been honest with you guys [the media] and everybody around me. I'm on a comeback. I've been hurt. It makes it very tough to get your confidence up when you're working around injuries."

Daly said he hasn't had a drink since the band was surgically implanted in April 2009 and has lost more than 100 pounds. "I'm not dieting," he pointed out. "I just can only put a little bit of the bad stuff in my belly."

A British writer said, "You're no longer the Wild Thing. What can we call you now, please?"
Daly thought for a moment.

"I don't know," he answered. "The Mild Thing?"

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Newsday (N.Y.): McIlroy leads, Woods in hunt at windless British Open

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- For a day, Mother Nature, that most fickle of ladies, was as gentle as the heather on the hills. After all, this is Scotland, where the witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" conspired in weather as nasty as their reputation, and the forecast for the first round of the 139th British Open was for wind and rain.

Instead, after a light morning drizzle Thursday, golfers shed their waterproofs, their sweaters and their inhibitions. Until early evening, the Old Course at St. Andrews was a charm, and the opening scores were virtually ridiculous.

"It will never get any easier," said Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy shot a 9-under par 63, equaling the lowest Open round ever shot on the game's most historic course, where the tournament is being played for a 28th time. And the "old" Tiger Woods even shot a 5-under 67.

In between were a 65 by Louis Oosthuizen, a South African whose name appears here and there, and 66s by John Daly, Andrew Coltart, Steven Tiley and Bradley Dredge. Among those at 67 was Lucas Glover, who won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, and Lee Westwood, in search of his first major. Phil Mickelson shot a 73.

Linksland courses are defenseless without a brisk wind. For most of the long day - it doesn't get dark here until around 10:30 p.m. - there barely was a breeze. That meant there were a ton of birdies and in the case of the 21-year-old McIlroy, an eagle 2 when he drove the 352-yard par 4 ninth hole.

"You needed to take advantage of conditions," said McIlroy, who like Graeme McDowell, winner of last month's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, is from Northern Ireland. "It never is going to get any easier."

McIlroy equaled the lowest score ever in a major championship. His 33-30-63 (the eagle, seven birdies and no bogeys) was the 24th time the score was recorded in a major.

"Yeah," said McIlroy "it was a fantastic score."

He said McDowell's U.S. Open victory gave him a belief he could win a major, and then alluding to Padraig Harrington, from the Republic of Ireland, and McDowell, McIlroy quipped, "I wouldn't like to be the only Irishman at the Ryder Cup without a major."

McIlroy's hometown is Holywood, pronounced "Hollywood," But it's too early to be thinking of a cinematic story. "There are 54 holes to go," reminded Tiger.

Woods was pleased with his 67, if not satisfied, dropping a shot at the famed 17th, the Road Hole, and then failing to birdie the 357-yard 18th despite nearly reaching the green with his drive.

"It felt awkward, because there was absolutely no wind whatsoever," said Woods, "and you never play a links golf course with no wind. You knew with the conditions we had, you had to go get it."

Woods won the last two Opens at St. Andrews, in 2000 and 2005, and despite the struggles of his now-familiar marital infidelity and the departure of his swing coach, he looked like a golfer who could justify favoritism by the British bookies.

"It's getting better every week," said Woods of his game. "I'm hitting shots I haven't hit in a long time. It's building.

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