Newsday (N.Y.): Jordan Spieth dealing with high expectations from media

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Jordan Spieth is learning what so many athletes already know: After you win a championship — in his case, two championships, the Masters and U.S. Open — people nod their heads and then in so many words ask what you’ve done lately.

Not a great deal other than answer questions he doesn’t particularly like, any more than he didn’t like the way he played the 12th hole the final round of the Masters in April, taking a triple-bogey seven and tossing away the tournament.

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Newsday (N.Y.): France’s Clement Sordet writes ‘Pray for Nice’ on hat at British Open

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Clement Sordet said he tried not to think about it. But that was impossible for the French golf pro and for virtually everyone else.

Sordet finished his second round at the British Open on Friday and then spoke about the tragedy in Nice, where a truck rammed into a celebrating crowd during a Bastille Day fireworks display Thursday night along a seaside boulevard. Officials said 84 people were killed and 202 were injured.

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Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Phil Mickelson keeps lead in rainy second round

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — This was the kind of day Phil Mickelson rarely gets at home, golf against the elements, when a cool head and a dry grip are no less important than a consistent swing. The kind of day — classic Scotland, wind and rain — that Mickelson, a California kid, said he relishes.

It was the kind of day — gray, gloomy and mainly wet — that Soren Kjeldsen has experienced during much of his golfing life in his native Denmark. “I’m used to playing in bad weather,’’ he said. “You don’t stay inside, because you miss too many days.”

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Newsday (N.Y.): Rory Mcllroy is in contention at British Open despite double bogey

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — After others, especially those involved with Great Britain’s Olympic team, had taken their shots at him, verbal of course, Rory McIlroy on Thursday took his shots at Royal Troon in the British Open, the golfing kind. With one exception, they were effective.

In his first Open Championship round in two years — the winner in 2014, he missed 2015 because of an ankle injury — McIlroy shot a two-under 69. But for one 6 iron hit too well, he would have been further under.

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Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Phil Mickelson laments missed chance at history

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Phil Mickelson’s try at history missed by the distance of a gnat’s eyelash. An 18-foot putt on the final hole of the British Open’s first day agonizingly spun out of the cup, coming to rest oh so close to the first 62 ever in a major golf championship.

“I want to shed a tear right now,” said Mickelson, only half joking. “That putt on 18 was an opportunity to do something historical. I knew it, and with a foot to go, I thought I had it done.

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