Two-faced Troon leaves two in lead
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
TROON, Scotland (AP) - British Open hopes built by birdies
on downwind opening holes were blown away on the final nine at
Royal Troon Golf Club.
The message written in whitecaps on the choppy Irish Sea was
simply this: Get the course early then hold on when the old links
turned for home into the shot-swallowing sea breeze.
Few could do it.
"It's sort of like playing the Chicago Bulls," Tom
Watson said after shooting an even-par 71. "You know at the
end of the game they're going to be coming back at you. So you
better get off to a pretty big lead at the beginning of the game."
Jim Furyk and Darren Clarke were among the few able to play
the back nine to a standstill and preserved rounds of 4-under-par
67 for a two-stroke lead over Greg Norman, Fred Couples and Justin
Leonard.
"The back nine was playing unbelievably difficult,"
Clarke said after going out in 32 and holding on for 35 on the
closing nine.
"I would say the par was probably 34 on the front nine
today and par was probably 39 on the back nine," Clarke said.
In fact, the average score on the front nine was barely over
par of 36, while the back played to more than five strokes over
its par of 35.
Three par-4 holes on the back nine - Nos. 10, 11 and 13 - played
to a stroke average of more than 4.8 and no hole on the back nine
averaged under par.
The wind was responsible for it all. Finally, it was a real
British Open.
"I've always felt the British Open hasn't had enough wind
the last couple of years," Norman said.
"And looking at the forecast, ... here we are," he
said. "We're at one of the longest British Open golf courses
we play and yet get some of the heaviest wind we've had in five
or six years."
Among the trio tied for second place, only Leonard matched
the par of 35 on the back. Norman shot a 37 and Couples a 38.
Showing the difference between playing with the wind and against
it, Couples said he hit a driver and a sand wedge on the 423-yard
ninth hole and a driver and a 3-wood on the 457-yard 15th hole
- and was short.
The casualty list on the back side was long and impressive.
Ernie Els went out in 35 and came back in 40. Corey Pavin followed
a 36 with a 42 and Lee Janzen backed a 35 with a 43. Defending
champion Tom Lehman, who won in almost completely calm conditions
last year at Royal Lytham, had a 34 and then a 40.
Hometown hope Colin Montgomerie shot a 76 with a 39 on the
back nine.
Even those high on the leaderboard were battered on the brutal
backside, where six par-4s measure over 431 yards and all but
one played into a wind gusting at more than 25 mph.
Davis Love III, who said he hit a 5-iron on the front nine
272 yards with the wind and a 5-iron on the back nine 149 yards
into the wind, followed a 32 with a 38 and was in a group of four
at 70.
Watson, a five-time British Open champion, backed up his 33
with a 38 and was in a group at 71 along with Nick Faldo, Ian
Woosnam and Curtis Strange.
Tiger Woods, who rallied with two birdies on the last three
holes for a 72, squandered opportunities on the front nine, then
made a triple bogey 7 on No. 11, but was still very much in contention.
"I was disappointed that I didn't birdie any of the first
three holes," Woods said after driving into the greenside
bunker on the 364-yard No. 1.
He did make a birdie on the 557-yard fifth hole when his drive
rode the wind for 435 yards. But Woods had little accuracy on
the gusty day, missing the fairway on nine of the first 10 driving
holes.
The most costly of those was on No. 11 when he hit into the
thorny gorse right of the fairway, took a penalty drop, failed
to get the ball out of the rough, missed the green and missed
a 5-foot putt.
Woods had his own wind story. He hit a 4-iron from 165 yards
out on No. 15. Asked when the last time was that he hit a 4-iron
from 165 yards, the long-hitting Woods said: "When I was
11. It's been a while."
Furyk and Clarke, two of the best young players in the world,
played Troon the way the weather dictated. They attacked it early
and held on late.
Furyk, the 27-year-old who has finished in the top-10 in his
last six PGA Tour events, made birdies on four of the first eight
holes, three of those coming on putts of less than eight feet.
He balanced two bogeys on the back nine - one on the final
hole - with two birdies.
"I'll just have to stay patient the rest of the week,"
Furyk said. "This (the wind) makes a guy go out and hit a
lot of different shots.
Clarke, a 28-year-old from Northern Ireland who is third on
the European Ryder Cup team points list, made birdies on four
of the first seven holes, and - like Furyk - also got the second
of his two back nine bogeys on No. 18.
Couples, Norman and Leonard also did what they had to do on
the front nine. Couples made five birdies, most after mere sand
wedges to the green.
Leonard made only one birdie but added an eagle on the 577-yard
sixth hole when he got home with a driver and a 5-iron.
And Norman made five birdies and a bogey over the final seven
holes of the front nine.
"You only get conditions like this at the British Open,"
Norman said.
And that was just fine with at least one of the leaders.
"I enjoy these type of conditions," Clarke said.
That could make his next three days a wind-blown ball.
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