Tiger Woods briefly flirted with the lead yesterday at the British Open before stumbling with a pair of bogeys, while Mike Weir and Kenny Perry shared the early clubhouse lead as the wind picked up at Royal Troon.
Woods, winless in his last eight major championships, got to within two shots of the lead with two early birdies before familiar problems with wayward tee shots and a missed 3-footer for par dropped him back to even par for the day and 1-under for the tournament through 12 holes.
Weir, meanwhile, birdied three straight holes on the front side on his way to a 68 that put him at 3-under 139 through two rounds. Perry, one of the few Americans on the leaderboard, birdied the 18th hole for a 70 to tie Weir.
PHOTO: AP
The two first round leaders, England's Paul Casey and France's Thomas Levet, had late tee times as the wind began blowing harder on Scotland's west coast. Both shot 5-under 66s in the first round.
Woods, whose lone British Open win came four years ago at St. Andrews, appeared poised to make a run when he birdied the fourth and sixth holes to get to 3-under, just two shots off the lead.
But he missed a 3-footer for par on No. 7, a 12-footer for birdie on the Postage Stamp eighth and then banged his putter in disgust after missing an 8-footer for bogey on the ninth hole.
The most international of Opens lived up to its reputation in the opening round Thursday, offering up an eclectic collection of international players at the top and a pair of unlikely leaders in Casey and Levet.
Woods shot an opening round 1-under 70 on Thursday, a day in which the nearest American to the lead was tied for 13th.
If you're keeping track -- and they like to do that at the Open -- the last time an American wasn't in the top 10 on the leaderboard after the first round was in 1959 when American Bob Sweeny was tied for 59th.
That has something to do both with the increasingly better play of international players -- who have won the last six tournaments on the PGA Tour this year -- and the fact that 52 PGA Tour pros didn't even try to qualify to fly across the ocean for a major championship.
Before this, Americans had been on a nice streak in the Open, winning six of the last nine as well as the last five held at Troon.
"You would think you'd aspire to play in the greatest championship, the one with the most history," said Rich Beem, who is one of the Americans tied at 13th after an opening 69. "This is one of the great tournaments we'll ever play, if not the best tournament in the world."
Some up-and-coming international players certainly felt that way after the wind off the Firth of Clyde died down and Royal Troon played about as easy as it will get in the opening round.
Ernie Els had a hole-in-one, England's Gary Evans had a rare double eagle and 56 players ended the day at par or better.
The shots were spectacular, and the scoring wasn't bad, either.
Campbell was a stroke back with a 67, while a veritable United Nations of players that included Vijay Singh, K.J. Choi and Scottish amateur Stuart Wilson were another shot behind at 68.
"I saw my name on the board, and it was tremendous," said Wilson, the British Amateur champion.
It wasn't as easy for a pair of Americans whose names always seem to pop up whenever there is talk about a major championship.
Woods had to make two key par saves to finish with a 70, the first time he has broken par in the opening round of a major since the 2002 PGA Championship.
"As easy as you'll ever see it," Woods said about Royal Troon.
Phil Mickelson, the Masters champion, played in the tamest conditions, but only had a 73.
"I didn't hit the ball the way I wanted to and I didn't putt that well," Mickelson said.
Casey, a 26-year-old, played in the same group with Mickelson and put on a good show, finishing with birdies on two of the last three holes and raising hopes of a British gallery that has gone five years without one of its own holding the claret jug.
"I still left quite a few shots on the golf course," Casey said. "It could have been very, very low."
The crowd liked Casey, but loved Colin Montgomerie, who turned in a nifty 69 on the course he played hundreds of times as a youth growing up in the area.
Montgomerie survived a mid-round crisis to bag a couple of birdies coming in and get in contention for the tournament he so desperately wants to win.
Montgomerie has played in 14 Opens and never finished better than eighth. He's going through a divorce and a tough spell in his career, but that has made the crowd seem to love Monty even more.
He said he got a boost from the loud roar that greeted him on the 12th green after he had just dropped three shots in the last two holes. Montgomerie promptly birdied the hole and added another one at 15 to post his score.
"There's a lot more support from what's happened to me the last few months and they respect that," Montgomerie said. "I'm delighted to have it. I think it enabled me to break 70."
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was