ESPN.com - Golf Online - British Open 2000 - Notebook: Flesch challenges for lead

Associated Press
Thursday, July 20

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- The wrong lefty turned up near the top of the leaderboard at the British Open. Steve Flesch arrived on a day when most people were expecting Phil Mickelson.


	Steve Flesch has nine top-10 finishes this year, but nothing higher than a fifth.

Two years ago, Flesch became the first left-handed PGA rookie of the year. An opening-round 67 on Thursday left him one stroke behind leader Ernie Els, tied with Tiger Woods and five better than the more famous lefty.

"I'm really not surprised I played well today," said the 33-year-old Cincinnati native, who spent seven years trying to get onto the tour. "I got close to winning at Chicago two weeks ago, but I had a poor final round."

Flesch finished the Western Open with a 75 for a share of ninth after being tied for the lead going into the final round. But he played solidly enough his first three rounds there to prompt Ryder Cup captain Curtis Strange to describe Flesch as the best player not to have won a tournament.

"I take that as a compliment," Flesch said. "But I'm really just trying to stay patient. When it's my time to win it will happen. I can't force it. I tried to at Chicago a couple of weeks ago and I kind of got in my own way."

Now, Flesch would like to get in the way of Els, Woods and the pack of players sitting a stroke back at 68. Woods, seeking to complete the career Grand Slam, is the heavy favorite, but Flesch said he has to concentrate on his own game.

"If you're watching what he's doing," Flesch said of Woods, "you're just going to make bogeys and you're not going to be around at the weekend to watch, anyway. You're going to be watching on television.

"If you're around him, you pretty much know you're playing well because he doesn't play poorly very often."

Flesch collected six birdies in the first 11 holes but wobbled on the way home. He sandwiched a birdie at the longest hole on the course, the 581-yard, par-5 14th, between bogeys at Nos. 13 and 16.

The encouraging part is that Flesch only figures to improve here.

"It took me four practice rounds to somehow figure it out," he said. "I might have."

Checking in ... almost
Jean Van de Velde didn't find the water this time. He even missed the hotel on the Road Hole.

Not much went wrong for Van de Velde as he returned to the British Open for the first time since his infamous collapse on the final hole at Carnoustie last year cost him the title.

France's best golfer ended up with a 1-under 71 on Thursday, including three birdies and two bogeys on the Old Course.

Not that disaster didn't lurk, though. On the Road Hole, Van de Velde thought he was going to hit the hotel that straddles the course.

"I was sweating a little bit," he said. "I thought, 'Oh, no, this is going to land in my bedroom.' Luckily it didn't."

The image of Van de Velde wading into the water on the 18th hole last year is etched in the minds of golf fans. He didn't hit the shot, but expressed admiration for Notah Begay III's shot out of a similar burn on No. 17 on Thursday.

"Did he get it out? Good man!" Van de Velde said. "He didn't take his shoes and socks off? Maybe there is something wrong with his feet."

Not to worry
Nick Faldo, who won the 1990 British Open at St. Andrews -- one of his six major titles -- opened Thursday with a 2-under 70 as he tried to keep distractions at bay.

Faldo has been at odds with the '99 Ryder Cup captain Mark James since being dropped from the team last year. The wounds were opened further when James referred to it in his autobiography, "Into the Bear Pit," in which he described how Faldo sent the team a good luck message, which James tossed in the trash.

Faldo says he is willing to meet James after the British Open. In the meantime, Faldo says he has support for having James removed as the 2001 Ryder Cup vice captain.

"The issue is not dead," he said. "It has opened up a can of worms with the tour and it needs to be dealt with."

Irish eyes
Padraig Harrington, who tied for fifth in last month's U.S. Open -- the best finish by an Irish golfer in an American major -- is near the lead again after shooting a 4-under 68 in the first round of the British Open.

Harrington, who began a serious fitness program two years ago, is challenging Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke for dominance in the British Isles.

The 28-year-old Irishman led briefly at 6-under but "made a few mistakes coming home," he said. He bogeyed two of the last six holes.