Friday, July 21, 2006

Tiger & Ernie To Battle For The Open Championship

When Tiger wentout early this morning, holed out for an eagle 2 on the 14th hole, shot 65 and posted -12, with no one else in double digits, the talk was that the British Open was all but over, because unlike Phil Mickleson, Tiger does not beat himself and relinquish leads, especially in majors.

But Ernie Els went out and matched Tiger's 65 to finish at -11, just one behind Tiger. So it is very much game on for the weekend. Those two will play together in the final pairing tomorrow, with the 2nd to last group being Retief Goosen and Florida Gator Chris DiMarco. Should be good stuff to watch.

With 3 par5s on the back nine, including two of the last 3 holes, there is a chance for anything to happen down the stretch on Sunday. One interesting thing about the 18th hole is that as a reachable dogleg right par5, there is O.B. all down the right side. I predict that on Sunday someone will block one out to the right, hit it O.B., and lose their chance to contend. John Daly came to the 18th today 1 ahead of the cut number and proceded to hit his tee shot O.B., then his 4th shot O.B. as well. He made triple bogey 8 to miss the cut by 2 shots.

Should be exciting stuff. After a month of getting up at 6 a.m. for World Cup matches, the early starts this weekend should be no problem. Enjoy.

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