BRITISH OPEN COUNTDOWN:TWO MEN, two different ways of doing things. Between them, they've shared the past four British Opens. More than anyone in the modern game, these two have found the key to success. Tiger Woods won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006; Pádraig Harrington won back-to-back in 2007 and 2008. But, yesterday, perhaps reflecting the different state of their games, their final tune-ups to this 138th British Open at Turnberry could hardly have been more different.
Woods, so confident with his swing he has left his coach, Hank Hainey, at home on the other side of the Atlantic, was first out onto the course – before the gates had opened for spectators, and watched by no more than a handful of people including police and a smattering of photographers early on – to enjoy the splendid isolation of the Ailsa links.
It was all business for the world number one, his head down and hands stuffed into his pockets as he played stinger after stinger – more often than not striping the fairways – and acknowledging a young fan’s observation of “good shot” on the eighth hole with a polite reply of, “Thank you”.
In contrast, Harrington’s day was spent on the driving range where his entourage included swing coach Bob Torrance, mind guru Dr Bob Rotella and a bevy of Wilson club techies as the Dubliner – looking for the key in his swing – worked driver after driver for hours, without going anywhere near the golf course.
The Harrington gang set up camp in one corner, the only permanent fixture there throughout the day. As one player after another rolled up for a stint before heading off again, Harrington and the two Bobs worked in tandem . . . at one stage, Torrance, his 78-year-old body defying age, took to bending down to plant golf balls atop tee pegs so his student could work to the required pace.
If the range was Harrington’s friend, Woods – who’d set eyes on the course for the first time on Sunday – enjoyed a second day of practice on the links, although his bodyguards and police outnumbered spectators for the first part of the dawn patrol until the gates opened and spectators located the world’s greatest golfer who enjoys his solitude on these practice days.
Notably, the driver was used only sparingly and was produced for the first time on the par-five seventh hole where Woods pulled his drive into the left rough. Thereafter, Woods relied on long irons and the three-wood (his favoured club for his robotic stinger shots) and the driver was left in his bag until the final two holes.
Just as he had done on Sunday, Woods sought to get the feel on the greens by putting one-handed to likely pin positions. And, at the end of the round, after obliging one couple with an autograph and stopping briefly to inform The Golf Channel that the course was tougher than people were making out, Woods and caddie Steve Williams headed for more putting practice blissfully immune to the fact Paddy Power bookmakers had lengthened his odds of winning from 15 to 8 to 12 to 5. Any takers?
While Harrington bashed balls on the range and Woods spent his time on the putting green, the one imponderable neither can legislate for this week is the weather.
Yesterday was clear and dry until rain showers arrived late in the evening. The forecast from the Met Office is not as bad as had been predicted: Thursday’s opening round will be “mostly dry with sunny spells and variable cloud, a 40 per cent chance of a few showers but less than 10 per cent risk of thunder” and winds between 10 and 15 miles per hour.
The forecast for Friday to Sunday is for sunny spells and “possible showers” with light to moderate northwest winds although there is “some uncertainty about the strength and direction of wind over the weekend”.
