Newsday (N.Y.): Rory's next test comes at Royal St. George's

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANDWICH, England -- The British Open this week returns to the course where Ian Fleming carried a handicap of 007 -- well, 7 -- where canines and females both were refused access; where France is visible across the Channel; and where Rory McIlroy is going to find out what it's like to be his sport's newest celebrity.

Royal St. George's is where Tiger Woods lost his opening tee shot in the rough in the Open of 2003; where Jack Nicklaus shot an 83 in the second round in the Open of 1981; and where a streaker darted out of the crowd only to be tackled by Peter Jacobsen at the 72nd hole in the Open of 1985.

When the wind blows, and Saturday it was around 20 mph, St. George's might be the hardest course in the Open rota. Unquestionably, it is the most southern, about 75 miles from London.

McIlroy, the reigning U.S. Open champion, will find out how it suits his game this week, and he hasn't played a competitive round since his overwhelming victory at Congressional.

McIlroy showed up at least twice at Wimbledon and jetted to Hamburg for last Saturday's Klitschko-Haye heavyweight championship fight.

"Some people may have wondered why I chose to go straight from one major to another, without anything in between,'' the 22-year-old McIlroy said this week. "The answer is simple. It's because of what happened at Congressional and the way it became such a big deal.

"I wanted to get everything out of the way and sorted, so when I did start playing again, I could just concentrate on golf.''

But Graeme McDowell, McIlroy's more experienced countryman and winner of the 2010 U.S Open at    Pebble Beach, and three-time major champion Padraig Harrington said just receiving congratulations is a huge distraction. Colin Montgomerie, captain of the 2010 European Ryder Cup team which beat the United States, seemed worried about the same thing.

"He's so natural, I don't think there are any fears about his game,''

Montgomerie pointed out, "but it's the locker room. Whether it was the French or the Scottish Open, he could have got that out of his system and out of the way so he can start the Open afresh.

"Now he's got that ahead of him and on the first tee, I think he will be mentally tired -- but who am I to say?''

While McIlroy was climbing the ladder of stardom when he won the U.S. Open, the last British Open at St. George's in 2003 produced one of the biggest "Who's he?'' champions, Ben Curtis of Ohio. He was a rookie then and benefited from back-nine failures by Woods, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III and Thomas Bjorn.

If that sounds like the plot of a James Bond novel, Bond's creator, Fleming, became a St. George's member in the late 1940s. In "Goldfinger,'' where Bond takes on Auric Goldfinger and his evil "caddie,'' Oddjob, Fleming named the course Royal St. Marks, but descriptions of various holes -- especially the fourth, the "Himalayas,'' with a bunker as big as a swimming pool -- are identifiable.

There used to be a sign near the entrance, "No Dogs, No Women,'' but ladies are now permitted.

So are American pros, although the English press has spent the week going after Bubba Watson, following Bubba's oafish remarks about France and the Alstom Open there, referring to the Arc de Triomphe as "The arch I drove around in a circle,'' and other such comments.

A writer for the Daily Telegraph said Watson had the "aesthetic appreciation of Ronald McDonald,'' and joined the gloating on this side of the Atlantic because Americans are winless in the last five majors.

The most recent was the U.S. Open last month at Congressional, where McIlroy of Northern Ireland -- part of Great Britain -- set records and golf on its ear.

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Newsday (N.Y.): After good start, U.S. sputters as Europe roars

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- Team America suddenly looked like Team Bewilderment. The Ryder Cup was being wrenched away. The only thing able to stop Europe on this long day's journey into night was, well, night.

"It's a shame it got dark,'' Luke Donald said. "We would have liked to keep going.''

Donald is an Englishman. Who won the NCAA championship for Northwestern. Who lives and plays in the United States. Who is on the Euro squad.

And his team was leading in all six matches that remained unfinished Saturday as the competition, dissected by a more than a 7-hour delay Friday, was reworked into a format that had golfers going from 9 a.m. to 6:50 p.m., and that still might not be enough.

There are four partnership sessions for the Ryder Cup. Two finished, sort of, and the United States was in front 6 to 4. But six more matches, two foursomes (alternate shot) and four fourballs (better-ball) hadn't finished. Europe is in front in every one of those.

After they conclude Sunday, assuming another storm doesn't rip across south Wales, then the 12 golfers on each team play singles.

"I just wanted to get even at eight points apiece before singles,'' said Colin Montgomerie, the Euro captain. The probability is he'll be ahead.

Eldrick Woods stopped playing like a Tiger. Phil Mickelson hasn't even started to play like Lefty. And Donald, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell have been rolling in putts practically all the way from London, 120 miles to the east.

"Well, momentum is a wonderful thing in Ryder Cups,'' said Colin Montgomerie, the European captain, "and it's evident that momentum clearly is with Europe at the moment, although the [posted] score favors the States.''

In the two foursomes still going, Donald and Westwood were 4 up over Woods and Steve Stricker, and it was 5 up before Stricker got a win on the last hole played, the ninth; and McDowell and Rory McIlroy, the two from Northern Ireland, were 3 up over Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan through seven.

In fourballs, Harrington and Ross Fisher were 1 up over Jim Furyk-Dustin Johnson through eight; Peter Hanson-Miguel Angel Jimenez 2 up over Bubba Watson-Jeff Overton through six; brothers Edoardo and Francesco Molinari of Italy 1-up over Stewart Cink-Matt Kuchar through five; and Ian Poulter-Martin Kaymer 2 up over Mickelson and Rickie Fowler through four.

"I have not seen points given in matches that were through four, five, six seven holes,'' said Corey Pavin, the U.S. captain, seeking optimism. "We have to try to turn momentum back in our favor.''

But how? The Woods-Stricker twosome was unbeatable in last fall's Presidents Cup in San Francisco. At this Ryder Cup it won both the fourball, which finished Saturday morning and the subsequent foursomes. But it couldn't do a thing in the third match, beginning with the first hole.

"I think Tiger's playing well,'' Pavin said. "Obviously Steve and Tiger didn't get off to a very good start [in the third match]. It happens.''

Mickelson and Dustin Johnson lost both matches, so Pavin split them up -- Mickelson pairing with Fowler, Johnson with Furyk -- for the third, but that wasn't working either.

"Everybody thought it was a pretty good pairing,'' Pavin said of Mickelson-Dustin Johnson. "Just didn't get it going. Why? You've got me. So change it up.''

What changed for Europe was on the greens. Fisher, an Englishman, birdied three, four and five, in his partnership with Harrington, who started off with a birdie.

"I felt there wasn't enough passion on the course,'' Montgomerie said. "It was a very important two hours of play this afternoon. I just felt we needed to get the crowd on our side. The crowd wasn't getting involved enough, because we weren't involving them enough.''

The crowd was into it quickly enough.

And the U.S. team was falling out of it just as quickly.

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Newsday (N.Y.): Ryder Cup captains try to quell Woods pick controversy

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- It's golf's version of Super Bowl week, a long buildup to a short tournament. The Ryder Cup will be played Friday though Sunday at Celtic Manor, just across the Severn River from England, but the hype started on a Monday so gloomy and chilled it seemed more like February than September.

The biennial matches between 12-man teams from the United States and Europe have the potential to be captivating, the Americans trying to win on this side of the Atlantic for the first time since 1993 and the Euros attempting to regain the Cup that they lost in 2008.

But until the first shot is struck on what forecasters predict will be a morning of rain, there's not much substance. The two captains, Colin Montgomerie of the Europe and Corey Pavin of America, have asked their players not to tweet or post anything on Facebook. And Montgomerie said he didn't set up the Manor for "a so-called home-course advantage." He wants the best team to win.

Golf isn't exactly the paragon of a group competition. Years ago, when he was at Wake Forest and criticized for "not being a team player," Lanny Wadkins asked justifiably, "What did they want me to do, pass the ball around?"

What Pavin neatly did Monday, not long after the U.S. team charter landed at nearby Newport airport, was bypass any controversy about Tiger Woods, one of his four captain's picks.

When a Brit asked Pavin whether he wanted Tiger to be a leader or "one of the guys trying to fit in," he responded with an intentionally bland comment. "Every player has a role to play," he said, "and all 12 guys have their own individual abilities and personalities."

Pavin was feeling a bit smug because of the way his alma mater, UCLA, pummeled Texas in football on Saturday. "I watched it," he said, "and enjoyed it."

What Montgomerie didn't enjoy was a tabloid story insisting he would not have selected Woods, who during his year that included revelations of infidelity and a divorce, did not win a tournament.

"I've always said Tiger is the best player in the world and in my opinion, the best player to ever play the game," Montgomerie said. "Of course he'd be in my team."

Because he is on Pavin's team, the question was what Tiger's role would be. The answer was noncommittal.

"Well," Pavin said, "I just hope he's just going to go out and play well and win some points. That's the role I would like him to play, just like everybody else on the team."

Woods hasn't played well in the Ryder Cup with a career record of 10 wins, 13 losses and two halves.

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