Turnout good for old guys
GULLANE, Scotland - They lined up four rows deep, craning their necks for a glimpse of Nick Faldo, 56, Tom Watson, 63, and Fred Couples, 53, walking onto the first tee at the British Open.
Turns out a few other older players grabbed the attention Thursday at Muirfield.
By the time Faldo, Watson and Couples trudged off the 18th green with a combined score of 16-over par, Todd Hamilton, 47, was already in the clubhouse with a 2-under 69. Then came Mark O’Meara, 56, who wound up a shot off the lead with a 67. Tom Lehman, 54, chipped in with a 68.
All former Open champions. All with plenty of links knowledge and experience.
“One for the old farts,” O’Meara said.
With 49-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez also shooting a 68, the leaderboard was starting to have the look of a senior’s competition.
Darren Clarke in 2011 and Ernie Els last year showed that age should be no barrier at the Open. Both were 42 when they lifted the claret jug. O’Meara, Lehman and Hamilton are taking it to a whole new level, though, as they seek a second title on the British links.
Miserable time
Rory McIlroy is one of a tiny group of players who could be considered the best golfers in the world.
Someone might want to remind him of that.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m walking around out there, and I’m unconscious,” McIlroy said Thursday in the moments after his first round of the British Open.
“I just need to try to think more. I’m trying to focus and trying to concentrate.
But yeah, I can’t really fathom it at the minute, and it’s hard to stand up here and tell you guys what’s really wrong.”
McIlroy shot an opening 79 on Thursday that featured 3 three-putts, one putt off a green and into a bunker, two double bogeys and countless puffed-out, exhaled cheeks joining sadly slumping shoulders. With that, the world’s No. 2 player must contend not for the claret jug, but for the right to play the weekend.
“It’s nothing to do with technique,” McIlroy said.
“It’s all mental out there.”
Ode to 2-iron
Dustin Johnson wasn’t tempted by the firm links of Muirfield to make any changes in his bag, such as putting in a 2-iron instead of a 5-wood.
That 2-iron appears to be gone for good.
The last time Johnson said he had a 2-iron in his bag was Sunday afternoon at Royal St. George’s in the 2011 British Open. He was challenging for the lead on the par-5 14th hole when he tried to lay up with a 2-iron and his ball sailed way to the right, out-of-bounds. He never recovered, finishing runner-up by three shots behind Darren Clarke.
That shot stuck with him.
Johnson said he believes if he had hit a 5-wood that day, even with a poor swing, he wouldn’t have lost as much to the right. Besides,he tried out the 2-iron on a Trackman radar device and found it only goes about 7 yards longer than his 3-iron.
“I tried a 2-iron on the range, and it lasted for about five minutes,” he said.
That was the last time he hit a 2-iron in competition.
“And it will never go back in [the bag],” Johnson said.
“If I wouldn’t have had one in there, it might have been a different story.”
Switch is on
Carl Pettersson’s golf bag was a little bit lighter and the burly Swede didn’t stand quite so tall Thursday, all because of his putter.
Pettersson has used a long putter that he anchors to his chest since he was in college at North Carolina State. For the first time in a major, he switched to a conventional putter Thursday.
“Putted nice,” Pettersson said without even being asked.
The USGA and Royal & Ancient adopted a new rule in May that will ban the anchored stroke starting in 2016. Pettersson was among those who were strongly opposed to the rule, and he was one of the players singled out as how the ban might affect a career. The long putter was all he had previously used as a pro.
No alternates
Joost Luiten of Belgium and Sweden’s David Lingmerth (Arkansas Razorbacks) were at Muirfield playing and practicing to be ready to play in case anyone had to pull out. They wound up having to go home.
Two players did withdraw, but only after their rounds started.
Peter Hanson, who has been coping with a bad back, pulled out after five holes. Louis Oosthuizen, playing with Tiger Woods and Graeme McDowell, withdrew with a recurring neck injury after a bogey on the eighth hole. He was 4-over for his round. It was the second consecutive major the South African couldn’t finish.
“I’m bitterly disappointed to have to pull out of the Open, and it looks likely now I am going to have to take some time off and give my neck the rest I’ve been told it needs,” he said. “I thought I would be OK today as I warmed up pretty well on the range hitting balls. But then as the round progressed, the pain in my neck translated into my hips and just found it increasingly uncomfortable to walk.”
Oosthuizen won the Open at St. Andrews in 2010.
His management company said the rest doctors have prescribed would mean Oosthuizen misses the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone and the PGA Championship.
First round at a glance
GULLANE, Scotland - A glance at Thursday’s opening round of the British Open at 7,192-yard, par-71 Muirfield.
LEADING Zach Johnson, who made only one bogey en route to a 5-under 66.
TRAILING Mark O’Meara, who won this major championship in 1998, and Rafael Cabrera-Bello. Both shot 67.
WHERE’S TIGER? Woods was three shots back at 69.
NOTABLE A dozen players broke par in the morning tee-time groups, but only eight in the afternoon as unseasonably warm temperatures and sunshine produced faster, firmer conditions throughout the day.
QUOTABLE “One for the old farts.” -56-year-old Mark O’Meara after shooting 67.
TODAY’S TV ESPN, 3 a.m.-2 p.m. Central
Sports, Pages 20 on 07/19/2013