Update 4:00 pm
- Rory-DJ: I’m not crazy about this pairing because I don’t want a long drive contest to break out to the detriment of both players.
- Victor Dubuisson: How about Dubuisson’s comeback from yesterday’s horrible start? He was +3 at one point yesterday, and now sits at -4. You can’t mention Dubuisson without thinking of Jason Day; I worry about Day’s thumb. He had to pull out of Greenbrier, and the media didn’t even mention it in the buildup to the Open. For two weeks, we got 24/7 Tiger Tiger Tiger, but the first time Day’s thumb got any attention was during yesterday’s live broadcast when Day was grimacing. How does that saying go? The golf media is horrid. Yeah, that’s it.
- Eating Crow: Some funny (now) headlines from yesterday… “Tiger Woods’ champion pedigree shows in first round of Open” (Steve DiMeglio)… “Tiger Woods can win this Open” (ESPN).
- Make-Me-Pay Update: Here’s hoping we write a check this week. Rory is one of our Make-Me-Pay players. Victor Dubuisson is another one who has a legitimate shot these week. Rose not completely out of it, nor is McDowell, but they will need two great rounds and probably some help from the leaders..
- Adam Scott: Scott missed many very makeable putts today. At the time, they just seemed like missed opportunities to entrench himself atop the leaderboard. Now it looks like he needed them to maintain contact with the leaders. The weather is a real wildcard at the British Open, to state the obvious.
- Zinger’s Paranoia: Woods couldn’t control his drives early. Then, late, he loses one out-of-bounds to the right, re-tees and yanks one a mile to the left. Paul Azinger wonders if such driving woes mark the end of Woods’s contention in majors. After a commercial break, Zinger frets that his comment “might make some people mad.” How could anyone get mad? They too have seen with their own eyes, for years now, that Woods can’t hit a driver. Hank Haney wrote a book about Woods, “The Big Miss,” the title referring to Woods’s fear of hitting driver.
- Spieth-Woods: Looks like Spieth and Woods will go off in the first group tomorrow. I believe Spieth is 3-0-1 in such head-to-head matchups. I have not seen the official tee times, but I don’t see how they wouldn’t be playing together.
- Rickie Fowler: Great play by Rickie. He’s a changed man this year; I’m not surprised he’s hanging tough. I don’t know if his new look reminds me more of Young Tom Morris or the V For Vendetta guy.
Update 8:00 am
- Golf.com Interactive Live Blog: Don’t forget to check out the Golf.com interactive live blog. No login required to ask questions. Michael Rosengart and Connell Barrett are hosting today. I have no idea who they are, but if they are anything like the guys in the past, they will be willing to discuss questions most golf reporters avoid, i.e., Woods and Galea and PEDs. Just be polite and respectful.
Update 6:00 am
- Casual Golf Fans: It’s a small thing, but I found it interesting. Last night, I stumbled upon one of a thousand Rah Rah Tiger Woods articles. A parenthetical thought in a sentence caught my attention: “The casual watchers (who, admittedly, many hardcore golf fans could do without) aren’t nearly as invested in a tournament, even a major, if Tiger isn’t playing.” The admission that casual watchers are just there for the reality show, and won’t be missed when they are gone, was a rare dose of honesty.
Lanny H Golf 
I’ve got a feeling SUDDENLY this major will be called BORING and HO-HUM very soon by the golf channel and article writers…..Can’t imagine why…..
Ha ha! I have wondered how this will be spun, should Rory (or anyone else) win running away, they won’t be able to say, “Ratings stink because no Tiger.” Should we have a Rory-Rickie Quail Hollow Redux and get monster ratings, then we’d hear, “My, but Tiger sure saved the day!” (even though he’s out of the picture)
Going off two tees for Saturday for the first time ever in the Open Championship ey? I don’t know, I kinda like the old school approach….Next we will build indoor golf stadiums to avoid inclement weather……Golf was meant to be played in ALL conditions…This is why we saw some VERY high scores win in the olden days….Now these players are pampered too much….Heck why not move the British Open to Florida from now on…..With that said, more folks are playing in the same conditions, instead of the luck of the draw type of thing…….Just get a little tired of the ‘tweeking’, especially for majors……My take is if you get drenched, then get drenched, but again, if you take away the conditions in the British Open, you might as well not have it there….
I didn’t even know this until you mentioned it. At least it’s more likely players will have similar conditions. One beauty of match play is that competitors play in same conditions, taking that luck weather element out of the equation. It’s odd, though. Is weather going to be THAT bad?
Hey, this means another day of early golf!
Yeah, early golf for everyone is somewhat unfair to the leaders…Since this is the FIRST time ever the Open championship has done the ‘dual tee’ thing….You wonder if it has ANYTHING to do with Eldrick just making the cut? Obviously, he would hardly be around by the time the leaders were to tee off, but now, they will try and make ET apart of the story, even though he’s not…….
Just saw the tee times, now how in the world does Mcllroy tee off at the same time as the worst group…..Granted they start on different holes, but this smells like a seriously bad rat here…..They will literally show every shot of ET for no other reason…..I don’t trust these companies that imo have decided to rig their coverage…..My theory is that if ET didnt’ make the cut, they wouldn’t have split the tees ect…..Since the first group goes off at 4 a.m., and the last group tees off at 6 a.m, then why isn’t the last tee time groups ALL hitting at 4 a.m….Why are you rewarding the +2 groups with going off last….
I have been wondering the same thing since I saw the tee times, but I think I have figured it out… You obviously want all the leaders teeing off in normal order. If you split the field in half, and have — for illustrative purposes, let’s pretend there are only 20 groups — the worst ten tee off worst scores first, what that does is have group 11 tee off far earlier than group 10, where a big weather differential might occur. Rather than do that, they fold it over like they do. I guess they assume the very worst groups are more or less out of it (much more true on Sunday than Saturday, of course.). Anyway, that’s the only theory I have.
I too picture them covering Woods to the detriment of the leaders. However, that said, I don’t think they will, as they know that would make them an obvious and easy target for ridicule.