ESPN.com - Golf Online - British Open 2000 - Notebook: Two arrive on a roll

Associated Press
Tuesday, July 18

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Ernie Els and Loren Roberts, two central figures from the 1994 U.S. Open playoff at Oakmont, have something else in common this week.

They are the only players who come to the British Open having won the previous week.


	Traditional practice partners Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara were together again Tuesday.

Els won at Loch Lomond in Scotland, with a birdie on the 17th and a terrific bunker shot on the 18th to save par and beat Tom Lehman by one stroke.

Roberts had a much easier time, cruising to an eight-stroke victory in Milwaukee and arriving at the Old Course the next day.

"There was no way I was going to miss this week," Roberts said. "My game is pretty good, naturally. There's not too many people who are playing this week who won last week."

Stubborn from the start
Tiger Woods' determination might be traced to the time he played two holes as a 6-year-old with Sam Snead during an exhibition in California.

At that age, Woods said, he was unable to clear a narrow stream that guarded a par-3. He tried to hit his driver onto a cart path and over the water, but he came up short.

Woods did what came naturally. He waded into the rocky water when he saw the ball sitting up and tried to play it out. Snead, he recalled, looked on in disbelief.

"Sam yells out, 'What are you doing? Just pick it up and drop it,' " Woods said Tuesday. "I didn't really like that very much. I remember looking at my ball and I said, 'I've got to hit it. I don't want to drop, it's a penalty.'

"So I hit a 7-iron onto the green, all wet, and two-putted, got my bogey and bogeyed the last," Woods said.

He said Snead made two pars and beat him by two.

Working out
Don't expect Lee Westwood to join the fitness craze.

While Woods has added about 25 pounds of muscle since turning pro, Westwood is content to spend his time away from the course doing things he enjoys. Going to the gym is not one of them.

After winning the European Open two weeks ago, Westwood sipped a pint of beer and declared, "I'm a golfer, not an athlete."

"You have to do what suits you and what makes you play well," Westwood said Tuesday. "And going to the gym is not making me play well. Going on a diet is not making me play well at the moment."

It's safe to say that David Duval, the poster boy for fitness this year, doesn't agree.

"If we play in 100 degree heat, come Sunday afternoon I am not going to be as tired as somebody who is overweight and out of shape," Duval said. "We're not running and jumping hurdles and these types of things, but it can matter in the end."

Swoosh in the sand
When Woods made the switch to the Nike golf ball, he was serious. That was evident Tuesday when former U.S. Open champion Andy North wanted to see Woods get out of the Road Hole bunker.

North, working for ABC Sports this week, mentioned how some bunkers were yielding plugged lies. He threw three balls into the famed bunker on No. 17 at St. Andrews and invited Woods to get them out.

Woods dug in his feet and then paused. He picked up the balls, flipped them up at North and said with a smile, "I can't hit a Titleist."

He then turned to his caddie and asked for his new ball.

With a plugged lie, Woods banged it into the side of the 6-foot wall. With a normal lie, he got all three onto the green.

Lucky number
Among those making debuts in the British Open is Jamie Harris, who had to break an old habit to make it through qualifying.

Harris, who grew up in England, tried to qualify for the 1998 Open but had rounds of 73-73. He tried to qualify again last year, and recorded two more rounds of 73 to miss out.

At Lundin Golf Club on Sunday, he opened with -- what else? -- a 73.

Robin English, the tour representative for Maxfli, caught up with him and told him to get off that number.

"Make it a 63, and you'll get in," English told him.

Midway through his second round, Harris made four straight birdies, and was 7-under over an eight-hole stretch to shoot a 63 and qualify for his first Open.

Harris tried to get a golf scholarship to Jacksonville (Fla.) University, but had to spend one year at Brevard Community College in Melbourne. He ran out of money and returned to England, where he worked in a supermarket at night and honed his game during the day.

It finally paid off.

Hot and dry
The hard, fast conditions on the Old Course remind Nick Price of the first time he played St. Andrews, in 1975, when he was trying to qualify for the British Open across the Firth of Tay at Carnoustie.

"I remember driving over the back of No. 18," Price said. "I thought, 'Who's Jack Nicklaus?' They had such a dry summer that year that the course was baked out."

Price didn't recall any irrigation at St. Andrews. Now there is, with sprinkler heads covered by artificial turf.

Divots

Colin Montgomerie must have felt like Woods late Tuesday afternoon when about 20 kids hounded him for autographs as he left the course. The Scot didn't quite handle it the same way, however, with his eyes bulging as he fought through the mass. "You must give me room to walk!" he said.

The trip overseas was not a total loss for Mike Reid, who failed to make it out of a qualifier. That afternoon, Reid played Kings Barn with his son, and he went to Lundin Golf Club with his son on Tuesday. He said he plans to play every day this week, even if it's not the course he had in mind.

Paul Lawrie isn't getting much respect as the defending champion. A reporter asked Westwood how important it is to have a British winner "given we haven't had one for a long time." To which Westwood replied, "Apart from last year?"