ESPN.com - Golf Online - British Open 2000 - Notebook: Clarke stands alone

Associated Press
Saturday, July 22

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Where are the Brits at the British Open? Everywhere but on the leaderboard, except for Darren Clarke.


	Order of Merit leader Darren Clarke begins the final round tied for fourth.

Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Nick Faldo all slid meekly out of contention at the Old Course on Saturday.

Defending champion Paul Lawrie of Scotland didn't even make the cut.

Clarke, of Northern Ireland, shot a 68 to go 9-under and trail Tiger Woods by seven strokes going into the final round Sunday. David Toms and Loren Roberts also were 9-under for the tournament.

"Do you count this as being in contention?" Clarke said after a six-birdie, two-bogey round. "The golf course can throw up some surprises so you never know what's going to happen. It depends how he plays."

Clarke said Mother Nature could help.

"I would like the wind to blow a little bit more. I enjoy the challenge when the wind is blowing," he said.

Despite the sunny, near windless conditions at St. Andrews, Montgomerie, Westwood and Faldo failed to match the consistency of Woods and the other leading contenders.

Montgomerie, who had his best two-round start to an Open, failed to improve on his 3-under and shot an even-par 72 for a total of 213 -- 13 off the lead.

"I don't know what it is," he said. "I just have to work it out because it's not good enough, I'm afraid. If you don't see a way out you'd give it up, but I am not giving this game up."

Westwood (76) and Faldo (75) ended up at par, 16 behind Woods, who looks set to break Faldo's 1990 Open record of 18-under in relation to par. That, too, was at St. Andrews.

"It all depends on pin positions but he is going to cruise past my 18 under sometime tomorrow afternoon," Faldo said.

"I wanted to keep that. I managed to get a new record with the most rounds under par, and with Jack Nicklaus retiring I've a good chance of some more," the three-time Open and three-time Masters champion said.

"It's nice to keep some of those records but they aren't going to last long with Tiger. He's just going to go and blitz them all."

Hot stuff
The players expecting cold wind and rain off the North Sea didn't need all those sweaters and waterproofs, after all.

Warm, sunny St. Andrews has caught everyone by surprise and helped keep scores low at the British Open. The dry weather and light breezes have reminded players of California and Florida.

It's nothing like last year at dark, windy Carnoustie, where the Open finished in steady rain and not a single player under par.

Any player who shot over an even-par 144 at St. Andrews missed the cut Friday. The cut at Carnoustie was 12-over.

No Hart
Dudley Hart, one of 28 Americans among the 74 players who made the cut, pulled out of the British Open on Saturday because of a back injury.

Hart went into the third round at 1-under but made a bogey at the first hole. After pars on Nos. 2 and 3 he withdrew because of the pain. It was not immediately clear how he hurt himself.

Lionel Alexandre of France declined the use of a marker to act as a playing partner and continued alone.