Monday, July 24, 2000
British Open Notebook
By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — Mark O'Meara recalled Sunday
how, when he won the Open in '98, his Florida friend and neighbor
Tiger Woods caressed the silver claret jug like it was his own.
“I think he realized in his mind that he wanted to see his
name printed on that trophy very soon,” said O'Meara, who
shot 5-under 283.
“The guy is just so good. I play with him, I practice with
him and I know him probably as well as anybody else besides him
mom and his dad, and maybe his girlfriend. He is one of those
sports figures that comes along every so often.”
———
IN PRACTICE: Paul Azinger feared it was too good to be true the
way he hit the ball in practice before the British Open.
“I thought at the time: `I hope I'm not peaking early,'”
Azinger said.
He wasn't, as he showed with a 5-under 67 Sunday to finish on
8-under 280 at the Old Course, 11 behind the winner Tiger Woods.
Azinger birdied six of the first seven holes Sunday, carding a
6-under 30 on the front nine, and only two bogeys on the back
nine slightly spoiled the day.
Azinger was 3 under after three rounds “and I could and should
have been eight or 10 shots better without asking that much. I
was really disappointed about where I was yesterday (Saturday).
I felt like whining about my position all night.”
“But only one guys leaves very happy,” Azinger said,
turning the conversation to Woods. “You have to take tour
hat off to him.”
———
36 BETTER: In winning his Grand Slam, Tiger Woods had an aggregate
winning margin of 36 strokes (Masters, 12; PGA, 1; U.S. Open,
15; British Open, 8).
Woods also set a record for lowest aggregate score for an Open
at St. Andrews, beating the 270 of Nick Faldo (67-65-67-71) set
in 1990. Greg Norman still holds the British Open record of 267
(66-68-69-64) in 1993 at Sandwich where the par was 71.
———
PGA ODDS: Tiger Woods is rated a 6-4 favorite for the PGA Championship
next month, the shortest odds for a major ever offered by the
British bookmakers Ladbrokes.
Ladbrokes, which stopped taking bets on Woods midway through Saturday's
third round, is also considering a handicap for golf's No. 1 player
to encourage people to place bets.
“What we may do, is handicap Woods with three or four strokes
a tournament and then offer odds of something like 5-1,”
said Ladbrokes spokesman Ed Nicholson. “It's an alternative
to taking bets on who comes second to Tiger Woods.”
———
GOOD FOR GOLF? The game's most sacred golf course took a record
beating from Tiger Woods. So did proud Scots seem to mind?
“No, not really” said John Berry, 46, of St. Andrews,
as he watched Woods close out the tournament on 18. “The
wind didn't blow, that was the problem. Competition will come
along, it did for Nicklaus. But the course is there to be conquered,
isn't it?”
One hundred yards away, 71-year-old Samuel Dick was watching his
23rd Open and praising the conquerer.
“I've bet on him, so I think he's good for golf,” said
the Glasgow resident. “I've won quite a few pounds on him
in his previous tournaments. He's a machine, I think.”
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