Global Golf Post: 'Ye Here For The Golf?'
By Art Spander
GlobalGolfPost.com
GULLANE, SCOTLAND - Ay, laddie, Scotland, where Bobby Burns gave us "Auld Acquaintance"...
Copyright 2013 Global Golf Post
Newsday (N.Y): Phil Mickelson comes from behind to win British Open
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland - This was the one, the British Open, with a links-style setup, a type of course that had so long perplexed him, the one major tournament that Phil Mickelson doubted would ever be his.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Adam Scott back in position at British Open
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland -- Adam Scott says the weight is gone. The wait, however, still exists.
Newsday (N.Y.): Adam Scott back in position at British Open
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland -- Adam Scott says the weight is gone. The wait, however, still exists.
Newsday (N.Y.): Lee Westwood up two shots on Tiger Woods in British Open
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland -- The comment could be one of confidence. Or of arrogance. Tiger Woods insists he has the trophies, but going into the final round of the British Open, Lee Westwood has the lead.
Newsday (N.Y.): Jimenez leads British Open; Tiger, Phil in contention
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland - Tiger Woods sensed what was coming. So did Lee Westwood. They were early finishers Friday in the second round of a British Open in which a bright sun and an east wind turned Muirfield into a curse as much as a course.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Jimenez leads British Open; Tiger, Phil in contention
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland - Tiger Woods sensed what was coming. So did Lee Westwood. They were early finishers Friday in the second round of a British Open in which a bright sun and an east wind turned Muirfield into a curse as much as a course.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Zach Johnson shoots 66 for British Open lead
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland - Four days after losing a sudden-death playoff for a tournament in Middle America, Zach Johnson is leading the British Open on the eastern coast of Scotland.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Proud Scots host an Open
By Art Spander
GULLANE, Scotland – The church is in ruins now, but what do you expect? It’s 900 years old. That body of water? The Firth of Forth – we’d say Forth Estuary – lapping at the shore. And on the other side sits the magical land of Fife, beyond hills, St. Andrews.
Gullane, a tiny, historic town of granite and golf, of the Muirfield course, of the Honourable Society of Edinburgh Golfers, where another Open Championship begins Thursday on fairways too brown and under skies too blue.
Scotland, where the game originated. Scotland, the land of kings and kilts, of whins and whisky. Scotland, where the summer days seen to go on forever.
Such a proud people, the Scots. “You think if Andy Murray were English,” asked John Huggan, a writer and Scotsman, “the London papers would have called him a Brit?” We know the answer, and so does Huggan. Murray is a Scot.
He’s their man, from Dunblane, across the Forth, just the way golf is their game. They gave it to the world, and now for the 142nd Open the world, Americans, South Africans, Australians, Swedes, is coming to Scotland to seek the oldest of trophies, the Claret Jug.
“Scots wha hae,” it’s the national song, lyrics by Robert Burns, who also wrote the words to "Auld Acquaintance". “Scots Who Have,” it translates, “who have” with Wallace bled.
Patriotism is always in fashion here. The talk is of separatism, of government independent of Great Britain, which wouldn’t be so great if Scotland seceded. But that’s all speculation, much as who might be the Open winner.
What should we expect, other than huge crowds? Could Tiger Woods, the 8-1 betting choice, finally win another major? Might Justin Rose, an Englishman (although born in South Africa) make it a rare double and add this one to his U.S. Open victory of last month?
So open is the Open. Even Phil Mickelson, who only twice in 19 previous Opens even has contended, is given a good chance, undoubtedly because he won last weekend’s run-up, the Scottish Open.
What will it take for a golfer to take the Open? Accuracy off the tee, because the fairways are so hard balls are liable to skip into rough that, like a field of ripe wheat, is waist-high. A fine putting stroke on greens both large and rolling. And fortune.
Back in 1972, when Jack Nicklaus was going for the Grand Slam, having won the Masters and at Pebble Beach the U.S. Open, he was edged by Lee Trevino at Muirfield.
In the second round, Trevino’s shot out of sand at the 7th would have flown the green -- except it smacked the flag and dropped straight down for a tap-in par. In the final round, Trevino was short of 17 but chipped in for a par. Skill or luck? Probably some of both.
Linksland courses on which the Open is always played have uneven fairways, and the ball can take some strange bounces. Yet Nicklaus correctly pointed out that the people who get the best bounces are the people who make the best shots.
“The key to the rough,” said Phil Mickelson, stating the obvious, “is staying out of it. I feel the setup is extremely fair, because given the firmness of the fairways, and as much as the ball is running, you have to have a little bit of room to maneuver and keep the ball in play. The setup has allowed for that.”
Still, there will be players chopping out of long grass, after they stomp in seeking their ball. That’s golf on a links.
The area around the Open venue has been labeled Scotland’s Golf Coast. That’s not inaccurate.
Including Muirfield, there are 22 courses in a 10-mile stretch, courses called Kilspindie and Craigielaw and North Berwick, courses that every local has played and endorses.
On Sunday and Monday, some of the pros took a break from their Muirfield practice rounds to play North Berwick (pronounced "Berrick"), where there’s a brick wall in front of the 14th green and the 15th is the original and much replicated Redan Hole.
Numerous American journalists here for the Open are staying in a wee burg, Aberlady, at the Kilspindie House, a former village school dating from 1739 that some 40 years ago was turned into a hotel. It’s run efficiently by a gentleman named Malcolm Duck.
Duck is a restaurateur. Duck is also a golfer. But that’s understood. He’s a Scot.
Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods upbeat as British Open looms
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland — On a morning of sunshine, Tiger Woods spoke of gloom, about the last British Open at Muirfield when rain lashed, the thermometer plummeted and he shot his single worst round as a professional, a 10-over-par 81.
The Open Championship again is at Muirfield. So is Woods, who on Tuesday was besieged by questions about that tough third day in 2002 and about the five-year gap since his last victory in a major.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): British Open winner will have name among golf's greats
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GULLANE, Scotland — So it is back to Muirfield, eerie, haunting, wonderful Muirfield, where Jack Nicklaus' dream of a Grand Slam was nipped and Tiger Woods' was pummeled.
A course, two loops in opposite directions, called by most the fairest of the links layouts; a club, called by many the rudest of all.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Everybody loves Giants catcher Buster Posey
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN FRANCISCO — The statistics and fan votes for the All-Star Game tell more about the man than the man chooses to tell us. "I don't like talking about myself,'' Giants catcher Buster Posey said.
So others must talk about him — his manager, his teammates, a Giants radio and television commentator, and an executive from a sports drink firm.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Andy Murray becomes first Brit to win Wimbledon since 1936
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — He raised his fist, dropped to the grass, which for so long had been his enemy, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The country from which Andy Murray lifted the curse had no such decision.
It unleashed a collective shout of celebration. After 77 years, the Wimbledon men's championship belonged to Britain, where it was created.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Marion Bartoli wins Wimbledon women's crown
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON England — It was a mismatch more than a match, a women's final that given all that happened during a strange, bewildering Wimbledon turned out be perfectly imperfect and painfully one-sided.
Marion Bartoli is a champion with a past here, having returned to the All England finals six years after a one-sided defeat, and on a warm Saturday afternoon inflicted her own one-sided defeat on an overwhelmed Sabine Lisicki, 6-1, 6-4. In reverse order those were the same scores Venus Williams defeated Bartoli in the 2007 final.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray reach Wimbledon final
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — A virtually endless day of tennis outdoors and eventually indoors ended with history, controversy and the top two men's seeds of Wimbledon 2013 making it to the final.
The longest semifinal in the 127 years of the All England Championships, 4 hours, 43 minutes, was the match that enabled No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic to get past Juan Martin del Potro, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-3 Friday.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Marion Bartoli, Sabine Lisicki advance to Wimbledon women's final
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — Marion Bartoli caught up with her past. Agnieszka Radwanska was caught up by the future. So the most unpredictable Wimbledon of recent times will offer a women's final matching a 15th seed against a 23rd seed.
Bartoli, 28, of France, the 15th seed, needed only 62 minutes on a blue-sky day to defeat Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, 6-1, 6-2, in the first semifinal on Centre Court yesterday.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Andy Murray rallies to beat Fernando Verdasco and reach Wimbledon semifinals
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — Juan Martin del Potro literally picked himself off the turf. Andy Murray, did it symbolically. Toss in Novak Djokovic's relentless pursuit of perfection and the first male from Poland ever to make Wimbledon's semifinals and you have a dramatic afternoon of a spill, some chills and in the end for the home nation, thrills.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Sloane Stephens, last American, out of Wimbledon
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — This the type of Wimbledon it's been: There will be tennis players from Poland in both the men's and women's semifinals but there will be none from the United States.
The final American remaining this year was beaten on a Tuesday of rain and gloom, Sloane Stephens falling 6-4, 7-5 to Marion Bartoli in a bizarre match of eight consecutive service breaks in the second set.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Serena Williams stunned by Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — The winner, the stunning winner, was in tears. The loser in a state of acceptance.
"It's not a shock," Serena Williams insisted after she, and all of tennis, indeed were shocked Monday by Sabine Lisicki's 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 victory.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
Newsday (N.Y.): Serena, Novak still around as Wimbledon begins second week
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — There's a guy who once hit himself on the head so hard with a racket he drew blood. There's a young Englishwoman who's being treated as the Queen.
And, of course, there are top seeds, who despite so much chaos the first week of Wimbledon 2013, remain as perfect as they are supposed to be.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.